? The web-slinger has finally won the hearts of New Yorkers (and the key to the city), yet perhaps he’s gotten too pleased with himself. Just when everything seems swell, he’s got to contend with an ex-friend (James Franco) who blames Spidey for his dad’s death, an escaped convict (Thomas Hayden Church) blamed for killing Spidey’s uncle, and even a rival at the Daily Bugle, where he toils by day as photographer Peter Parker. Meanwhile, his planned proposal to singer-actress Mary Jane (Kirsten Dunst), who’s making her Broadway debut, also doesn’t go as planned.
+ Along with the major cast members, writer-director Sam Raimi has returned and done a good job keeping several storylines tied together and coherent. I liked the villain called Sandman, too. There’s been a good deal of publicity about Spider-Man having a dark alter-ego in the movie, and the sequence in which the hero becomes a swaggering cad is fun without carrying on too long. The action set pieces aren’t spectacular, but they’re good.
- The first half especially is more melodrama than action film and may disappoint people looking for pure escapism. The whole plot in which Mary Jane may or may not have a romantic rival (Bryce Dallas Howard) seems padded out. The evil-meteor-ooze plot is kinda dumb, and not only Spidey but the villains too seem overly Jeckyl and Hyde-ish.
= *** It’s probably not as good as #1 ands #2, and wait for cable if the action scenes are all you’re looking for, but it’s true to the themes and the feel of the earlier films.
[reviewed 5/18/07]
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0413300/
No comments:
Post a Comment