‘SPIDER-MAN 3’ **1/2
The following is a recap of Tribune movie critic Michael Phillips’ review of “Spider-Man 3,” which ran in Thursday’s Tempo section. For the complete review, visit chicagotribune.com/movies.
Compared to the memorably tentacled villain and plentiful satisfactions of “Spider-Man 2,” the third installment in the webmaster franchise is more conventional, a notch below the first “Spider-Man,”even. But director Sam Raimi’s sensibility is off-kilter enough to ensure that the blockbuster machinery doesn’t entirely flatten the personalities of the characters.
By now even Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst’s parents probably have had enough of the romantic entanglements involving Peter/Spidey, aspiring actress and singer Mary Jane and trust-fund dreamboat Harry (James Franco), son of the Green Goblin and now a part-time Goblin himself. This time Spidey’s chief adversary is “Sandman” (Thomas Haden Church), a shape-shifting victim of particle physics gone wrong who ends up resembling the offspring of the Hulk and the sandstorm from one of the recent “Mummy” pictures.The auxiliary nemesis is Parker’s rival tabloid photographer Eddie Brock (Topher Grace), who transforms into the snakelike Venom when he runs afoul of the black spidery gunk left behind by a meteor. The same slime afflicts Peter/Spidey, leading him to start thugging around in a Hitler haircut and acting like a punk on a rageaholic bender.
This time the standout bits are the most overtly comic, namely the exquisite turns of J.K. Simmons as J. Jonah Jameson, newspaper editor who has no time for anything or anyone, and Bruce Campbell, longtime Raimi crony from the “Evil Dead” days, serving up unctuous shtick as a punchline to a French waiter joke.
Running time: 2:19.
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mjphillips@tribune.com
MPAA rating: PG-13 (for sequences of intense action violence)
