Movie reviews: Spiderman 3

Spider-Man 3

Directed by: Sam Raimi

Starring: Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst, Thomas Haden Church, Topher Grace, James Franco

Rated PG-13

Grade: 3.5/5

I will admit: looking at the “Which Spidey suits you” instant win game on my Burger King Frypod was fairly intriguing. Should I pick the red suit? Or the

black one? Good or evil? The pressure was too much for me to take, and I let my boyfriend choose, delighted when he won me a Double Stacker.

Our friendly neighborhood Spider-Man (Tobey Maguire) is faced with a similar dilemma in the latest installment of the highly successful series, which opened on May 4. However, unfortunately for him, the choices he must make in the film are slightly more difficult than those of a casual fry eater.

The film starts happily enough, with Peter devotingly attending all of his

actress-girlfriend’s (Kirsten Dunst) plays, doing well in school, and maintaining a steady photography job with the Daily Bugle. However, Peter/Spider-Man’s paradise is invaded by a strange black goo (also known as a symbiote, to the scientifically superior) that slowly transforms both the human and the superhero into evil caricatures of themselves.

With all the hype surrounding the release of the movie-Will this be Maguire’s last one? Will it set new box office records? Not one, not two, but three villains!-it is easy to be cynical about whether the multi-million dollar franchise will live up to its expectations. Indeed, with all of the promotional mumbo jumbo circulating through the media recently, it almost feels like we’d have more fun playing with the action figures and winning free french fries than going to the movie itself.

Well, fortunately for Sam Raimi and company, that is not the case.

Though the film is at times a bit overcrowded with excessive subplots, characters, and themes, they all contribute to the main storyline: Peter’s struggle to maintain his sanity and persona while battling the black goo that is feeding off his soul. The film is chaotic at times, yes, but the chaos is a perfect parallel to the turmoil felt by Peter throughout the course of the movie. As the symbiote progressively morphs Peter into a more sick and twisted version of himself, the peripheral characters also play more of a role, eventually leading to the extremely exciting (and surprisingly emotional) climax.

The action scenes, as always, are ridiculously well done and border on hypnotic. One particular