I went to see Spider-Man 3 today with the family. It's very enjoyable, but not nearly as good as the second installment.As usual, the action scenes are stunning and the movie looks great. The lighting in these films have always impressed me. They're always very bright films and that makes them more approachable ... not so horridly dark like some superhero movies tend to be. The music struck me as very fitting in this installment. Even though Danny Elfman was absent for Spider-Man 3, his themes are still there and they're still great. Also, whoever does the opening titles for the Spider-Man franchise is a genius. They're great and serve as perfect reminders of the past movies.
Now for the bad. This time, they decided to stick in a whole bunch of under-developed characters. I have a love-hate relationship with Gwen Stacy. I LOVE Bryce Dallas Howard. She's gorgeous and she's a great actress, but her character was way too shallow. Some more development would have been great on her part. The three villains (yes, three) could also have been stretched out into another movie. If the villains had been developed as much as Doc. Ock in Spider-Man 2, I would have been great. Also, Toby Maguire can't really act that well. When the evil symbiote takes over Peter and makes him give in to his fleshly desires (i.e. become emo), Toby Maguire still can't stop looking like a nerd no matter how hard he tries.The moral of this one is superb though. It's refreshing to see truth voiced through a big budget Hollywood film. And the morals and lessons in Spider-Man 3 are undeniable, the main one being that the choices that we make that may seem unimportant are what shape us into the people we become later in life. There's also some really cool Christian imagery which I'm sure will be taken out of proportion by Christian critics and spawn books like The Theology of Spider-Man or Finding God in Spider-Man. We can never leave well enough alone, can't we?
Next big blockbuster on the list: Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End. Looks amazing. I want to go at midnight.
