In Defense of Spider-Man 3

Spider-Man 3 is largely considered by many to be an objectively awful movie. It has a lot to laugh and roll your eyes at such as emo Peter Parker, goofy dance sequences, villain overload, and maybe a few other things depending on who you ask. Perhaps the unplanned finale of Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man saga isn’t as awful as everyone thinks it is, perhaps this is a case of growing so attached to what is essentially a meme and turning it into a pre-conceived notion.

Director Sam Raimi delivered an intimate coming of age story and a vision that was made as a piece of art rather than a product created by a studio hivemind with the first movie. He then upped the ante in 2004’s Spider-Man 2 by creating what is arguably one of the greatest superhero films ever put on the silver screen. There were high stakes going into Spider-Man 3 with a question of how he could possibly top these last two films.

Sony locked a release date down for May 4th, 2007 and told Raimi to crank out a script as quickly as possible. Filming began as early as November 2005 and carried into July 2006 with the story still being crafted during the nightmare-ish production. Aspects were constantly shifting, producers demanded Raimi add Venom despite him not wanting to, the ending wasn’t set in stone completely when filming began, and Raimi was tasked with juggling an immensely complex story that has several beefy storylines.

Despite this, I believe Raimi managed to salvage something truly worthwhile. What Raimi gave us was a really great look at what the consequences are of too much power, the importance of forgiveness, and how life isn’t always black and white. Pack a lunch, this is going to be a lengthy piece breaking down the jam-packed two and a half hour culmination of Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy for the film’s 11th anniversary.

In Spider-Man 3, the web-head has finally received the recognition he deserves after being panned by the public for the better half of a decade despite saving their asses twice. With the city inviting him to come accept the “key to the city”, he feels like he has truly peaked. NYC throws a parade in his honor, there’s merchandise of him everywhere, and people are chanting his name with glee.

His ego has grown drastically and it’s the beginning of the darkness that nearly causes his fall from grace. When Peter Parker puts on the mask, he embodies someone else entirely. The shy baby-faced boy is gone, a man with charisma is unleashed and zips through the streets with unlimited freedom. His head metaphorically grows in size and he becomes careless, we see this with how he blatantly betrays his potential fiance by making out with Gwen Stacy in front of the entire city. Moments later in his first encounter with Sandman, fresh off his ego high given at the parade, he makes jokes about how he’s surprised Sandman isn’t aware of who he is.

New York has evolved from somewhere Spider-Man lives into his domain that he reigns over, something that feeds him and makes him feel stronger, making up for his empty social life in high school. It all comes off fairly innocent at first but radically molds into something sinister and almost sinful.

The fact that this theme builds and builds as the film progresses, it’s not very jarring when the black symbiote consumes Peter and takes control of his body and persona. His strength is enhanced, he becomes far more aggressive, and he fully embraces this idea of him being untouchable. This is a complete shell of the character we were introduced to in 2002, hardly resembling the hero we fell in love with.

He becomes a bully, his relationships are in turmoil, he seduces Daily Bugle secretary Betty Brandt and neighbor Ursula Ditkovitch despite never having broken up with Mary Jane, and he becomes disgustingly cocky to the point where it’s cringe-worthy thanks to his overzealous dance moves.

While some will point and laugh at the awkward “cool guy” behavior of the influenced behavior of symbiote controlled Peter Parker, I do think it has a purpose. You can look at in multiple ways: One, Raimi’s Spidey films have always been pretty campy and this is part of that. Two, since the symbiote is alien, it has no idea how humans really behave. It’s doing its best to blend in with society while also giving Peter a unique edge, one that comes off as unnatural. There’s a reason why a lot of people give him weird looks and a side eye, the vast majority of people are frankly repulsed by him and the film is aware of that. It’s intended to be weird, you’re supposed to think it’s strange and silly because it is. It’s not a flaw with the movie or the writing, it’s a flaw of Peter Parker that is intentionally created by Raimi and his writing team.

On the flip side, his actions as a hero are turned into those of an anti-hero with wreckless and violent behavior both in petty crimes and when taking down Sandman which results in the intended murder of Uncle Ben’s alleged killer, Flint Marko. Peter Parker even goes to Aunt May and tells her with a smile that Spider-Man killed Marko, he expects her to reply with joy but she reacts with a look of terror. “Spider-Man doesn’t kill people.” Peter is taken aback. “But didn’t he deserve it?” Then Aunt May gives us her wise old lady quote that can be inserted into the trailer, “I don’t think it’s up to us to say who should live or die. …Vengeance is like a poison that can take you over, and turn you into something ugly.”

As we delve further down this rabbit hole, we as an audience become less eager to see the black-suited Spider-Man. It’s no longer cool or bad-ass, it’s uncomfortable how much this beloved icon has fallen on his downward spiral into borderline tyranny.

Once Peter really crosses the line by assaulting Mary Jane and some bar patrons, he realizes he must part ways with this toxic influence. This isn’t the first time he attempts to keep the suit at bay, he stashes it in a trunk in his apartment but is drawn to its power again later. Its power is rich and addicting but we’ll come back to that later.

Let’s rewind a bit here. Throughout the film, Peter bullies Eddie Brock who is a mirror of the scrawny nerd we once knew. He’s this kid with big ambitions, chasing a girl out of his league, but is ultimately picked on and taken for granted. This was Peter about five years prior, beat for beat. The only difference is when Peter was given these special powers he had a mentor and a set of tragic circumstances that helped form him into something heroic rather than evil.

After Peter goes to a church and frees himself of the suit in a heavy-handed scene where he is “reborn” and cleansed of his sins, Eddie Brock gains control of the symbiote. At his absolute lowest point, Brock is granted the suit after asking Jesus to have Parker killed. He harnesses his rage with the suit and becomes Venom, the most iconic Spider-Man villain to ever exist. While Peter took his powers and used them for good (until he let that go to his head), Brock immediately opted to take the path of evil once he had his mind corrupted by power. He didn’t have a wise Uncle Ben guiding him, he didn’t have a life-defining moment that really cemented who he should be. All he had was hatred for Peter Parker.

In Spider-Man 3’s climax, Venom teams-up with Sandman to kill Spider-Man once and for all. After seeing Mary Jane in distress, Peter suits up in the classic red and blue Spider-Man suit and goes to see his best friend turned sworn enemy, Harry Osborn.

The two have been fighting throughout the whole movie due to the love triangle between them and MJ and the fact that Harry still believes Peter murdered his dad. Their last fight ended up brutally scarring Harry’s face thanks to an exploding bomb so Harry tells Peter to screw off. Once he leaves, Harry’s butler reveals to him that Peter didn’t kill Norman Osborn, it was suicide.

Meanwhile, Spider-Man is taking a massive beating in his fight with Venom and Sandman and right as it looks like this is the end of the wall-crawler, Harry swoops in to team up with Spidey. I personally love this action sequence because it delivers thrills while mending a broken friendship in an emotional moment where the two characters must band together to save the woman they both love, I get genuine goosebumps each time.

After some punching and ass-kicking, Spider-Man is eventually thrown into a one on one with Venom where he is restrained and about to be killed by the demonic anti-Spider-Man. Venom begins to taunt the wall-crawler and refuses to listen to Peter who tells him that the suit is too powerful. “I like being bad, it makes me happy.” Venom says with a smirk. Harry comes in just the nick of time to save the day but ends up sacrificing himself in the process.

Spidey gets the upper hand in and takes down Venom using the sound waves that allowed him to peel the symbiote off himself the first time. He pulls Eddie out of the goo to save him as he throws a bomb inside the make-shift cage for the remaining alien substance. As the bomb is about to detonate, Eddie jumps back in and dies in the process.

While some may see this as him committing suicide, I don’t think he really intended that. Brock was so power hungry, so desperate to have that strength that all he knew is he wanted more of it. He’s an addict, like an alcoholic or drug addict, he wants more and more but the only way to save an addict from something that strong is to pull them away from the toxic substance that keeps them going. Eddie was unable to shake that addiction to power and ended him dying in a very self-destructive way in the end.

With Venom gone, this is where some of the other core themes of Spider-Man 3 becomes clear: forgiveness and the importance of realizing not everything in life is presented in black and white. There are a lot of grudges held in this film, Harry hates Peter, Peter hates Flint Marko, Eddie Brock hates Peter. Everyone becomes blinded by their hatred for each other and their biases/perspective on the respective situation that they resort to aggressive behavior.

Throughout Spider-Man 3, Peter tells Harry he didn’t kill his father and it wasn’t as plain and simple as it seems. In the first scene with Marko in his apartment after escaping prison, his estranged wife says that he killed a man and Marko quickly cuts her off and says “It wasn’t like that.” The second Peter becomes aware that Marko is the one who killed Uncle Ben, he goes on the hunt for him with a fire burning inside of him. He wants to tear him apart limb from limb because he killed his only father figure in life.

At the end of the film, after Marko returns from the “dead” and battles with Spider-Man and Harry we learn the truth. In a brutally raw scene, Marko confesses to killing Uncle Ben but it was an accident. He had stolen some cash to pay for his terminally ill child’s medical care and asked to take Uncle Ben’s car. Ben told him to “put the gun down and go home”, the inexperienced criminal was then startled by his partner in crime (the one who we thought killed Uncle Ben originally) and he pulls the trigger on Uncle Ben.

It’s never explicitly said but there’s a sense of both regret and relief on Peter’s face during this scene, he goes on to say “I’ve done terrible things too.” In my mind, at this moment Peter sees the parallels between his situation with Marko and the situation between him and Harry. He begins to see that he too let his anger and demons take control, choosing violence and revenge over getting the other side of the story, going as far as to basically kill a man as well as all of the other sinful acts he has committed throughout the movie.

As the scene ends, Peter tells the man he’s been dying to lay his hands on that he forgives him. Marko sheds a tear and evaporates into a cloud of sand, blowing through the skyline of New York City as if he’s been set free. We see Peter’s face one more time and this is where Tobey Maguire’s acting really shines, you can tell everything you need to know about what he’s feeling simply by just watching his face. He breaths a very heavy breath of air, his eyes get a bit heavier, he takes a hard swallow like he’s taking a massive pill, he even smiles a bit. You can see the weight and burden of this half a decade-long dilemma finally get lifted off of his shoulders.

Finally, we have one final thing tying everything together. We see Peter attending Harry’s funeral and some narration can be heard from him. “Whatever comes our way, whatever battle we have raging inside us, we always have a choice. […] It’s the choices who make us who we are and we can always choose to do what’s right.” It’s a great message but it’s one that harkens back to the very end of the first movie as well.

“We are who we choose to be, now choose!” Green Goblin says as he throws Mary Jane off a bridge and drops a cable car of children to their doom. This whole series has been about choice, mostly the choice of being a hero and resisting selfish urges. The first movie is Peter learning not to use his powers for financial gain or fame, the second movie is learning that he’s been gifted with powers that he can use to help others and maybe he shouldn’t see it as a burden, and the third is him learning to control his power and ego in a responsible way.

This is why I love Spider-Man 3. It treats the audience as something more than kids who like watching explosions while stuffing popcorn in their face, it has something to say. On top of the great action scenes, that to this day has yet to be topped in a new Spider-Man film, solid performances from almost everyone, and unique sense of flair thanks to Sam Raimi’s directing, it manages to have depth and meaning. That’s something we’re missing in a lot of the formulaic comic-book blockbusters we’re getting on an almost monthly basis at this point.

At the end of the film, we’re given several great messages. We always have a choice and it’s up to us to make the right one and forgiveness is something we need to cherish and use more. The one that is perhaps that is the central theme to this film due to how its demonstrated through the main character and a villain is ultimately the most important one: With great power, comes great responsibility.