Why Spider-Man 3 Was The Best Of The Trilogy

1. I haven't seen SM3 in a few years and I'm not going to watch again just for the sake of writing this, so forgive me if I screw up a detail or two.
2. Spider-Man is my hero. He is the only character I have constantly read for the past 25 years and have followed (somewhat) faithful in other forms of media. To go on and on about my love and admiration for his stories, his supporting cast, his continuity, etc. is not what this blog is about, but I do want anyone who reads this to know that any writing from me on the subject comes from a very personal place and should not be dismissed as critique with no knowledge of the source material.

The movie starts in a strange place for Peter Parker: a time when everything is going right for the guy. He feels more in love with Mary Jane than ever before; enough to want to propose to her; he's found a great balance between work, crime-fighting, and college, and the world is no longer looking at him as a menace who needs to hunted and imprisoned. This self-confidence that Peter feels for the first time makes him attractive to some of his fellow students (Gwen Stacy) and fills himself with a bit of cockiness that any young man in his circumstances would understandably start to exhibit. That's why is so potent when Aunt May gives him the speech, after he lets her know that he's about to propose, that he needs to get a better handle on responsibility and being there for someone who needs you. Peter has a rep for cutting out on the ones who need him the most; yes, secretly he's helping others in trouble; but he hasn't learn that with marriage and a commitment, those priorities change to the point where your other must come first.

We are introduced to Flint Marko, the Sandman, who we learn is not a ruthless killer, but instead a father who took the wrong path and is willing to do anything, even the wrong thing, in order to save his daughter (see how that mirrors Peter's conflict?). After a crazy transformation, he becomes the Sandman and begins committing robberies in order to raise capital for his daughter's operation. After a spectacular fight scene with Peter, we find that Mary Jane has been having problems of her own. Reluctant to share these with Peter, she tries to find an equal footing with him; he's Spider-Man, the guy the city is throwing a parade for and is kissing strange girls, and she's plain ole' Mary Jane who's having problems who this little part she has in a play. Peter, completely enthralled in his own success, ignores signs that he should have already seen in his relationship that Mary Jane needs Peter to treat her and her world AS an equal to his. Not doing this leads to some serious problems between them and leave Peter wondering if he'll get another chance to make things right.

Meanwhile, black suit, great strength, should have had the white spider around it, but eh, whatchgoingtodo?

Then, the most important part of the movie comes to light: it is revealed to Peter and his Aunt that the robber that he never stopped DID NOT kill his Uncle Ben, but instead was Flint. In reading of thousands of Spider-Man stories over many years, THIS was the most game-changing, interesting change you could ever do to the mythos. Peter's guilt over what happened to his Uncle is THE most significant source of motivation over all and anything else; Peter can save the world, and at times, the universe, but none of it EVER, EVER matters because nothing he does will ever let him make for that ONE mistake, nothing will ever give him his Uncle back and no matter what, he will never save enough people to ever forgive himself for what he did.

Taking away that guilt, without it being a check on his powers, causes Peter to handle things in the way that a normal person (me, you) would handle things. 1st, he goes out of his way to extract revenge on the Sandman and lets him "die". This may have led to other problems, but he immediately talks with Aunt May, who surprises Peter with her view to never see anyone else hurt, no matter what they may have done to her and her family. May smartly acknowledges that everyone is somebody to someone else, and to put them through what she has gone through is nothing she would wish on them. Then Peter finds out that the alien black suit is causing him to act in a evil-ish type of way, so he VOLUNTARILY puts away the suit.

There is the Harry Osborn plot, which is just a natural continuation from the previous movies and the status quo of the 80's and 90's comics. Long story short, after Peter gets himself together enough to convince Mary Jane to give it another try, Harry blackmails her to dump and crush Peter. Peter of course figures this out, but it doesn't matter. He VOLUNTARILY puts the black suit back on and lays vengeance upon Harry in a very un-Parker-ish way.

This is also one of the most misunderstood points in the movie. Yes, the black suit is making Peter act and fight crime like an asshole...but HE VOLUNTARILY MADE THAT CHOICE. He knew exactly what would happen if he opened that suit up again, but with his heart broken by the love of his life and completely betrayed by his best friend, Peter did what most of us do when in that situation: we do everything we can to shut ourselves off and away from the rest of the world; anything we can do to no longer "feel" any emotions whatsoever and just go numb. This is what Peter has done by taking on the black suit: he has given up taking any responsibility for his actions and no longer wants to feel any guilt for anything. Since he doesn't have to feel guilt about Uncle Ben's murder, what's to stop him from going down this path?

(I have to do a sidebar on what people call the "emo" Peter thing: really? Is that what people really get out of those scenes just because he's wearing his hair in a certain way? Watch those again and pretend that you're never heard of the term "emo" and that you don't have any personal ideas associated with whatever you may think "emo" is: is it really horrible acting? Is there some dancing? Sure. Why not? It's a movie and there has been and was going to be a lot of seriousness happening all over the place; why not have a little fun there in the middle?)

He gets Eddie Brock fired in a very dickish way (and Eddie is portrayed here not as a misguided man who is trying to do good, but as a fucking asshole who will do anything and step over anyone to achieve success and doesn't need that much of a nudge to go straight evil, which is fine), but Peter doesn't really hit rock bottom until he takes the very beautiful Gwen out to a place where he knows he can make His Ex-Girlfriend Who Turned Down His Proposal a bit jealous (if you can't relate to any part of this whatsoever, I don't know what to tell ya) and accidental hits Mary Jane as a consequence of over-reaction on his part. This is "rock bottom" because Peter is forced to FEEL SOMETHING for the 1st time in a while, something he can't run away, shame that he can't hide, and a betrayal that is almost as bad as the ones that were inflicted upon him. Aunt May's words are coming back to him as he finds no matter, you have a responsibility from the ones you care about, no matter how hard you may not want to accept them.

Eddie become Venom, teams up with Sandman, they kidnap Mary Jane, Peter gets Harry, blah blah you get the idea. Then the fight scene at the building: taken as a whole, a fucking AMAZING line of sequences. I'm not quite sure WHAT people are exactly looking for in action and special effects if they cannot enjoy these scenes with a huge Sandman and Spidey fighting Venom in the building and outside, all while trying to save Mary Jane from falling to her death in a cab. Please, take another look at all of this: seeing all this portrayed on the big screen was a roller coaster for me and the people who were in the theatre with me at the times I saw it; you have a lot of thrill and excitement in all this and to discredit and dismiss these scenes are affront to the creators who obviously worked hard and put their heart and souls into this. If you are a comic book fan and you always wanted the page to translate to the screen, THIS is exactly what it was always meant to look like. Amazingly, the thing that always took my breath away was a very quick, but very cool and smart scene of Peter defeating Venom in a one-camera shot, following him as he circles Venom with steel bars and hitting them to the correct vibration to interrupt his symbiote hold.

And after everyone is defeated and Harry is dying, Flint looks Peter in the eye with the most sincere of regret and says "....I don't expect you to forgive me, but I need you to understand..." and everything comes full circle with Peter responding "I do understand": by forgiving Sandman for killing his Uncle, he is forgiving HIMSELF for the fucked up things that he did; he accepting the mistakes he's made by turning his back on his responsibilities and is forever reminded of what happens whenever he stops caring about his actions. This is the most moving and significant change in the character of Peter Parker, in the movies and comic book (well, it didn't happen in the comic, but ya know what I mean) and gives Peter the courage, in the final scene of the movie, to go back to the bar, to the place of his greatest shame, and dance with Mary Jane (no Tom Petty pun intended); Mary Jane could never have the chance to forgive Peter UNTIL HE FORGAVE HIMSELF first. Whether she does or not is left up to the viewer to decide and the movie ends with the audience not knowing what will happen to the couple or what their future is or is not together....which is kinda of liked, not having all the answers and having to think about some things for myself.

At this point, this team that had done what many had said was impossible for years; to a make a great Spider-Man movie; had done THREE and perhaps it was time to close this chapter of theirs on Spider-Man. Like all iconic characters, he and his world are bigger than any individual creators or particular media and will always be left to be reinterpreted by others. Which is FINE; that's the way it's supposed to be.

I doubt Sam has much else to say; Toby's getting a bit old and if you read any of Kristen's interviews during the time of this movie, where she thought "it would have been a great idea to kill Mary Jane off", then you knew that there was no amount of money that would have got her back to this franchise (would you want to still be doing movies a decade later with an old "mistake" you made a long time ago? Yeah, me neither). As I read article about SM4 and SM5, my eyes rolled at the thought, but hey, it's not like I wouldn't have gone and seen those movies, either. I applaud the decision to re-boot and let someone else take a crack at all this, to find a new angle that hasn't been explored yet. To the disbelievers, all I gotta say is: look at Batman.