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Spider-Man 3: 2 Disc Special Edition
01/11/2007 . Source: Geoff Willmetts 
region 2 DVD: pub: Sony Pictures CDR 44954. 133 minute movie packed with extras. Price: £ 9.95 (UK) if you know where to look) - stars: Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst, James Franco and Thomas Haden Church. Buy Spider-Man 3 in the USA - or Buy Spider-Man 3 in the UK  check out website: www.sphe.co.uk
'Spider-Man 3' has a lot to live up to after two successful films in the franchise. They no longer have to go through the origin stories of their characters. Saying that, we have three origins here included, the second Goblin (even if he has a lacklustre costume compared to his father), the Sandman and Venom. All of this is blended together, most of the time taking from the comicbooks without dwelling on the connecting Marvel Universe elements they hailed from. In fact, a lot of things are inferred rather than explained. Venom is a Black Spidey symbiote without explaining where it come from other than off a meteorite. If anything, the film has jumped ahead a couple years since the second film but at the same time combining the early, Sandman, with the latter, Venom. Spidey has celebrity status with only J. Jonah Jameson, publisher/editor of the Daily Bugle gunning for him.
The story follows the life of Spider-Man, his failing romance with Mary-Jane and her failure in an off-Broadway musical even if it could be a little more obvious, the introduction of Gwen Stacy, Harry Osborne discovering his father's legacy, Flint Marko becoming the Sandman and Peter Parker becoming dominated by the Venom symbiote. Mixed into this are several battles and closures and cameos from everyone. Even Doc Ock gets a mention on a poster. There's plenty of things to keep the eagle-eyed poring over their screens for months and probably won't stop at a single-viewing. I'm writing this section of the review before going through the audio commentary (be warned, it comes on automatically when you look it up in disk # 1's extras and has to be repeated again to turn it off) and the other extras so not to be initially tainted by what is said.
The blending of all the story elements do give a cohesive whole and make for a roller-coaster film that allows you anything but sleep while watching it. With such a long film, this has to be essential. That doesn't mean I think the film is perfect when I apply my objectivity to it. Mary-Jane is far too miserable compared to the comicbook happy-go-lucky version for instance but is probably used to serve the plot better. It's also a shame that Spidey doesn't wise-crack against his opponents. I can see arguments for that in that he's rarely near enough to any of them that they can hear him but it is a shame something wasn't done with that. Compared to Spider-Man, the Batman in his recent film was a regular chatterbox. The same could also be said for the number of times Peter Parker fights unmasked and how many people know his true identity, including Harry Osborne and all the villains here. Yes, there is an argument to show actor Toby Maguire's face and getting his screen time but equally, people are there to see Spider-Man in costume doing the moves.
CGI has made it possible for super-hero films to become possible and attuned to their 4-colour counterparts with ease. A film such as this couldn't have been possible on this scale a decade ago. Now we take it all in our stride forgetting just how ground-breaking the special effects are. It might be expensive to do and you know it can't be real but when it's done expertly as director Sam Raimi and his big team have here then you look at the cohesive whole far more than the individual bits. When you want to do that, then we turn to the extras.
The second DVD is loaded down with extras. The bloopers show various corpsing. Tobey Maguire is an insistent giggler. It's a shame that more of Kristen Dunst's humour didn't make it into the film cos then she's positively radiant in them. If I have to be picky then it's with the DVD Stills Gallery. It would have been nice to have an automatic control to go through them, not to mention a counter to indicate when you get back to the beginning of the loop. One thing for sure, if you're a sculptor in the film industry you're never going to be out of work.
The featurettes show various aspects of the film's production from stunts to effects to sound editing and music. The strongest element that comes from all of this is just how much of a team effort is involved here. Director Sam Raimi co-ordinating all of this could have had continual headaches but they never appear on the screen. He has an excellent crew here and I hope he considers doing a fourth film is only to show what he would do with the Lizard. If anything, 'Spider-Man 3' shows Spidey coming of age. It would be nice to see his derring-do with this maturity.
Having been through both audio commentaries now it's apparent from what the actors and production side say that these films have ended up being labours of love for them all in ensuring that the best of what they can do was committed to film.
This is a cool film and something you will want to own and watch again and again.
GF Willmetts
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