SPIDER-MAN 3 (Sony)
Starring Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst, James Franco, Thomas Haden Church, Topher Grace, Bryce Dallas Howard, James Cromwell, Rosemary Harris, JK Simmons, Elizabeth Banks, Willem Dafoe, Bruce Campbell,
Directed by Sam Raimi (The Evil Dead, Evil Dead 2, Spider-Man, Spider-Man 2, Darkman, The Quick and the Dead, The Gift, A Simple Plan)
Written by Alvin Sargent (Spider-Man 2, Ordinary People, Hero, What About Bob?), Sam Raimi and Ivan Raimi

Plot Summary: Things are going much better for Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire) these days as his alter-ego Spider-Man is more popular than ever and he's about to ask MJ (Kirsten Dunst) to marry him. That changes when he's forced to face his old friend Harry (James Franco) who has taken on the Goblin mantle of his father, and new villains in Flint Marko AKA The Sandman (Thomas Haden Church) and competing photographer Eddie Brock (Topher Grace).
Of Note: It's the 3-quel to Sam Raimi's blockbuster franchise and the most successful comic based movies ever made.

Mini-Review: People may be arguing for the rest of the summer whether part 3 is better than the previous sequel or the original movie, but you have to give Sam Raimi credit for creating one of the most impressive action and effects movies of the franchise. A lot of the movie's best moments come from the introduction of three villains, Harry Osborn's new Goblin, Flint Marko/Sandman (Thomas Haden Church) and Eddie Brock/Venom (Topher Grace). The new Goblin might be one of the most impressive costume and weapon design combos in years, definitely a pinnacle for movie villains, while the latter two allow Raimi's CG team to flex their muscles as they reinvent the characters for non-comic readers with some of the most jaw-dropping special effects scenes in recent memory. That said, fans of the comic book should be sated with the way aspects of the comic book characters are incorporated into the movie, though few will be nearly as happy by the way the first movie is retconned using the Flint Marko character. The movie's biggest problem is structural, as it introduces too many new characters and storylines at once with the symbiote black suit storyline only being hinted at during the first hour and then becoming the main focus of the movie in the second half. Bryce Dallas Howard's Gwen Stacy is the least necessary part of this story, introduced simply to appease fans and add conflict. Most of the ups and downs in the relationship between Peter and MJ seem very forced, shoehorned into the movie merely to set things up for later scenes. Surprisingly, James Franco steals the movie, first as the new Goblin and then with a hot-cold performance as Harry Osborn that almost surpasses that of Willem Dafoe in the original movie. He's clearly the actor and character who has evolved the most over the previous two movies, creating a satisfying third character arc for the series. Even with the introduction of the more violent black-suited Spidey, the movie isn't all dark and serious, as Peter Parker's symbiote-influenced transformation also allows for a silly but fun musical tribute to "The Nutty Professor." All of the various storylines and characters culminate in an impressive super-villain team-up that exceeds similar attempts in the "Batman" franchise, leading to a satisfying finale. Overall, the movie is an entertaining two and a half hours of action and fun that certainly can afford to be seen more than once to really appreciate how Raimi and his cast have grown since the first movie. Personally, I feel it's the best of the three movies due to the added complexities in its storytelling and the evolution and growth of the characters as a whole since the first movie. Rating 8/10

Analysis: One could say that there never has been a movie or a situation like the one faced by Spider-Man 3 this summer in that it's the third movie in a franchise that has grossed over $770 million in the U.S. alone. It's the fifth comic book movie to attain a third film and only the third one released in the 21st Century following X-Men: The Last Stand and Blade: Trinity, and everyone who made the first two movies so big are back on board for the threequel including director Sam Raimi and the entire cast: Tobey Maguire as Peter Parker/Spider-Man, Kirsten Dunst as MJ, James Franco as Harry Osborn (now the New Goblin), Rosemary Harris as Peter's Aunt May, JK Simmons as J. Jonah Jameson, as well as everyone from the Daily Bugle crew. (The only one who hasn't returned is composer Danny Elfman, though I'm not sure that will be a make or break deal for anyone wondering whether it's worth seeing the third movie.) There's probably very little that can be said about any of them that we didn't already cover when we wrote about Spider-Man 2 in 2004. (You can read that column here.) Sure, Dunst and Maguire have been appearing in other movies like Marie Antoinette and The Good German, although Spider-Man really lives in its own universe.

Instead, we can look at the three new cast additions, whom may not bring much to the box office potential of Spider-Man, although they do bring a couple new comic book characters into the movie that should help generate excitement. First, there's Bryce Dallas Howard, daughter of director Ron and star of M. Night Shyamalan's last two movies (The Village and Lady in the Water), playing Gwen Stacy, Peter Parker's first real love whom offers a bit of competition and complications in the life of MJ. Spider-Man 3's two new villains are the Sandman, played by Thomas Haden Church of NBC's "Wings" and the Oscar nominated star of Alexander Payne's Sideways, and Topher Grace, star of "That ‘70s Show" as Parker's competition Eddie Brock, who eventually becomes the crazed Venom. Actually, the introduction of that character to the film franchise is likely to bring more new people to the movies than the three actors, since he was such a popular character back during the comic book boom of the early ‘90s, in large part due to his depiction by comics creator Todd McFarlane. The character has such a wild look and attitude that many of those who read comics during that period will be very excited about finally getting to see him on screen. The Sandman probably doesn't have nearly as big a fanbase, but he's a classic Spidey villain, and both characters offer the movie a lot of potential in terms of action and effects.

The original Spider-Man was an instant phenomenon when it opened with $114.8 million exactly five years ago on May 4, 2002, and it went onto become the fifth highest grossing movie domestically with $403 million, doubling that amount in the international market. Two years later, Spider-Man 2 opened over 4th of July weekend in 2004 on a Wednesday where it opened with $40 million (a new Wednesday record). After making $153 million in its first five days, it stuck around for the rest of the summer to wind up with $370 million in domestic receipts. It's likely that opening on Wednesday and over the 4th of July weekend kept Spider-Man 2 from setting a new weekend record, since people often go away over that weekend. It's odd that it wound up grossing less than the original movie, since most people seemed to like the sequel better going by IMDb User ratings which has Spider-Man 2 as more popular than the original by 7.8/10 to 7.4/10. (Critics tend agree that the sequel is better.)

While it might be hard to find comparisons for Spider-Man 3, because the first movie was such an anomaly and the second was released in a different part of summer, the closest comparison might be George Lucas' Star Wars prequel trilogy, which had a similar circumstance. Episode 1 grossed $430 million in 1999 followed by a disappointing showing for Episode 2 (with only $310 million…awwwww) then followed three years later with the finale (you guessed it) Episode 3, which ended up in between the two with $380 million. Even though reactions were mixed to the first two movies, the fanbase remained to see what happened next and how things were resolved and that will certainly be the case here. The big difference is that a lot of people liked or even loved Spider-Man 2, maybe even more than the original movie two years earlier. There's also been one extra year to build up anticipation for another sequel, which will drive up the rabid fans waiting to see what happens next. (Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings or The X-Men movies are also fair comparisons, though in the case of the former, there was only a year between movies while each of the latter movies was released in a different weekend-- early July, May kick-off, then Memorial Day.)

The good news is that Spider-Man 3 is returning to the positioning of the first movie, kicking off the summer on the first weekend of May, which means it's opening in a nearly empty playing field, allowing it to snag the maximum number of screens and theatres. (Considering how dead the last two weekends have been, I wouldn't expect many of those movies to be sticking around.) While Spider-Man 2 opened by itself three years ago, Spider-Man 3 opens against Curtis Hanson's Lucky You, which shouldn't offer much competition, but unlike Spider-Man 2, its opening weekend won't be hurt by opening early on Wednesday, improving its chances to break the opening weekend record set by the first Spider-Man movie. One can expect that Spider-Man 3 will make more its opening day than the last two installments, though one disadvantage is that it's opening while school is still in session, so it might have difficulty topping the new opening weekend record set last year by Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, which had the benefits of opening in July with very few big movies opening after it.

So far, reviews of the movie have been mixed with a number of critics complaining about the extra 15 minutes and the number of new characters, but if there's a case for a movie in which reviews won't matter, this is probably it.

Either way, Spider-Man 3 is looking to be in good shape to be one of the biggest movies of the summer and the year, as well as make a play to surpass the $405 million gross of the original movie. Expect it to make somewhere between $45 and 50 million on Friday, bumped up by sell-out midnight screenings on Thursday, with a steady stream of business on Saturday and Sunday, as well. It might drop between 45-50% next weekend and about the same in the following weekend when it faces Shrek the Third, but it should bring in enough repeat business over the rest of the summer to cross the $400 million mark.


CLICK HERE - Trailer of SPIDER-MAN 3