Director – Sam Raimi
Writers – Sam Raimi, Ivan Raimi, Alvin Sargent, Steve Ditko and Stan Lee.
Plot
Peter Parker(Tobey Maguire) is leading a pretty happy life. His Girlfriend Mary-Jane Watson(Kirsten Dunst) has just got selected in a lead role in a broadway musical. His job as a crime photographer in the daily bugle is good. And he is soon going to propose to Mary-Jane. But with his alter-ego, Spiderman, can things really be normal ? Harry Osborn(James Franco) is hell bent on avenging his father Norman Osborn’s(Willem Dafoe) death and in the process invents a way of turning himself in to the Green Goblin and kill Spiderman.
Then there is an escaped convict, Flint Marko(Thomas Church) who just happens to be the murderer of Peter’s uncle Ben (Cliff Robertson) and in escaping from Jail, has landed up in a scientific experiment site where he has now turned in to the most dangerous villain that Spiderman will ever face, Sandman. Spiderman also has to fight a third villain, Eddie Brock(Topher Grace) who is a rival photographer in the Daily Bugle. In between all this, an entity from outer space gets attached to Peter Parker and in turn makes him extremely strong, extremely over confident and enables all his bad side to be active. This results in him breaking up with Mary Jane and carrying his love affair with Eddie’s girlfriend, Gwen Stacy(Bryce Howard). In a fight with Eddie, the entity gets attached to Eddie and he becomes Venom. Spiderman, thus has to fight 3 villains, win back his love and also eliminate the entity.
Critics Notes
Another typical comic book movie which is largely aimed at two types of audiences. The Kids and a whole generation of movie audiences who have grown up watching Spiderman Cartoons on TV or have read his comics. While Sam Raimi and the entire cast of Spiderman have lived up to the expectations of the first group of audience, it has failed miserably to live up to the 2nd group and the much larger one at that. While the special effects are brilliant, as usual. The acting is very good. The Cinematography by Raimi favourite, Bill Pope is good and so is the score by Chris Young. But what fails is the unnecessary time wasted on the romantic track and the worst ending in a Spiderman movie. For the generation of movie buffs who have nearly idolized Spiderman Comics and Cartoons, what was expected was a typical Spiderman story of Good Vs Evil. Sometimes even the most clichéd of stories are worth it because that is what an audience expects and most importantly, that is what an audience wants. What the audience wanted to see was that all the 3 villains be portrayed, just like how we have grown to see them, as bad guys and Spiderman beating the living daylights of them. No one bothered if Spiderman was shown to have an evil side (That was a good novelty), but showing sympathy for Sandman and Green Goblin was definitely not something any Spiderman fan would have liked. Although most of the critics have liked the movie, this one has failed miserably with the audiences. I have given it a 3 star for 2 reasons. One, the special effects are stunning and second, Spiderman has always been a big influence when I was a kid and I cant bear to give it a bad rating.
Psst
1) The release date, 4th May 2007, was announced even before Spider Man – 2 was released in 2004.
2) The major change in starcast was the exit of Special Effect Supervisor John Dykstra and Danny Elfman who did the score in the previous 2 parts.
3) Spiderman Creator Stan Lee makes a small cameo in the movie.
4) This is the most expensive Movie Ever made with a budget of $258 Million. Previous record was held by King Kong(2005) with $207 million.
5) Thomas Church worked out rigorously for 16 months to get the physique for Sandman.
6) Kirsten Dunst coloured her naturally blonder hair as red and Bryce Howard coloured her naturally red hair as blonde for their respective roles in the film.
7) In certain scenes for sanman, Corn was used for the special effects.
8) Although word has been out that Sam Raimi may just make a Spiderman – 4, Tobey Maguire has publicly announced that he may not be a part of the franchise.
9) The total production time for the movie was 17 months with the actual filming time being 7 months and the post production taking another 10 months.
Quotes
1) “You know what I want to see? I want to see Spiderman caught with his hand in the cookie Jar. Now what are you waiting for, Chinese New Year ?”
2) “Where do these Guys come from ?”
3) “Everybody Needs help. Even Spiderman.”
Oops
Didn’t notice any goofs really.