FHSTheFlash The Flash Volume 47, Issue 8 May 2007 | Page 8

By: Aaron Hamel
Editor-In-Cheif
As I waited inside the packed IMAX Theater at 11:00 at night waiting for the latest Spider-Man adventure to start, I asked myself:
“Is it at all possible that this movie could EVER live up to the hype
surrounding it?”
With a $500 million dollar budget (which some have touted is the
largest in cinema history), a fan-favorite villain, and the entire creative
team behind the first two films returning, I severely doubted it. I could
feel the anticipation building as midnight drew closer. People were getting anxious. The lights soon began to dim, the screen lit up, and everyone cheered. For a moment, it was a beautiful thing. Then the movie
started, and it was all down hill from there.
As Spider-Man 3 opens, Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire) is on top of
the world. He’s going through college, he’s got a great girlfriend, and his
alter ego is the idol of everyone in New York. One night while Parker Photo courtesy of The Daily Bugle
and Mary Jane (Kirsten Dunst) are on a date in the park, a red-hot
meteor lands a few yards away from them, which is either the world biggest and turns to a local church for solace. There, Parker accidentally infects Brock
coincidence, or the world’s lamest plot device. In any event, a symbiote with the alien, turning him into one of Spider-Man’s most feared villains, Venom.
which oozes out of the meteor attaches itself to the back of Peter’s moped. Finally, the film gives us Peter Parker’s one time best friend, Harry Osborn
It doesn’t take long for the alien entity to attach itself to Parker, turning our (James Franco), as the “New Goblin”. Using his father’s equipment and weaphero into a first-rate jerk...with an awful haircut. Perhaps this new element ons, he aims to get revenge on Spider-Man for murdering his father two movies
would give the story more dramatic weight? It’s too bad that before any- ago.
thing can happen, the movie squashes your hopes when our “friendly neigh- Sure, it’s very impressive rogue’s gallery, and it’s even more impressive that in
borhood Spider-Man” starts dancing like a reject from a Caberet revival. just two hours and forty minutes, the movie effectively screws up all of them.
By this point, you’ve got to start to wonder, “where’s the villain.” Well, Even these three villains combined can’t match the awesome presence of Alfred
Molina’s Doc Ock from Spider-Man 2. The Sandman becomes a hulking sad
you’re in luck. This film introduces not just one, but THREE villains.
First up is Flint Marko