A Web of Intrigue?

I heard the mixed reviews of Spiderman 3 during the course of last week. People loved or hated it. Depending on their moods.

I was worried. I might end up not liking the film.

I got advanced tickets for the webslinging flick. I managed to see the film during the Friday night showing. Not surprisingly, it was crowded.

But I did like the film. A lot.

It paled slightly in comparison with the previous two Spiderman films. But that’s a minor quibble. I’m not going to spend my time nit-picking the details. That’s a chore for critics who have no life.

After leaving Spiderman 3 in the theaters, probably the last time seeing the wall-crawler in action, I felt it reached a satisfactory conclusion that might be otherwise been muddled. It’s always a difficult thing for a movie series to wrap up, like a going-away present. You’re not sure which ribbon to use, what kind of gift wrapping you’ll use. If the inside surprise was going to be worth opening for.

But helming the directorial seat, Sam Raimi did a respectable job.

I walked away knowing there’s a closure to the story. As if the last chapter of the movie was tucked away, laid to rest. There were no longer any loose strings.

The fact that the story came around full circle brought home more impact. The father and son legacy had been managed nicely, finally given a funeral and mournful last few moments in Spiderman 3. The father Norman Osborn, the original Green Goblin, was killed by his own hand in the first film, leaving an embittered son in his tracks. But Spiderman 3 saw the son making amends for his father. The son had been on a self-destructive path before making a right choice.

But it ends in tragedy.

It built the story that housed the film. Even all three Spiderman flicks.

Peter, Mary Jane and Harry. Watch the films again. It's about them.

The transformation scenes of Venom, a shade of blackness taking over the human soul like an ugly plague, were both delightful and funny. Tobey McGuire was given a chance to give a more comedic, while dangerously witty, performance. The scenes with the Jazz Room were hilarious, giving lighter fare to the film that might fall into too deeply into the darker side.

The moments where he was slowly shifting into a darker, menacing shadow of himself were clearly something to behold. You realized even the most gentle citizen like Peter Parker could be a monster.

And the monster lived inside all of us. Perhaps this was what the movie was teaching us.

Were there too many villains in the movie? That might be something problematic in superhero movie series such as this one. But I did not feel overwhelmed by the presence of the so-called bad guys. They helped to give the film some weight exploring the blacker side of humanity. It would have given William Faukner a tingle if he had seen this one.

But I did like the character of Sandman who was given an extra touch of character. He could’ve been just another common criminal. Someone who had a grudge against New York City’s favorite spider. He was given a connection with Ben Parker’s death. It left a confused, regretful man, feeling an emotional pain for accidentally killing a man. He was not a brutal person at heart. But a flawed, hurting man who were troubled by shades of his own guilt. The character was very well-realized. And his story was a nice touch to the movie that needed it.

There might not be anymore Spiderman movies. But it did leave a funeral like ending. A sadness hanging over our heads. Yes, I will miss the characters who formed the entire movie series with their sympathetic portraits. We managed to get see the heart of New York City through the point of view of three young people. We should consider ourselves lucky enough.