Spider-Man - The High Definition Trilogy (2004)

 3rd Spider Man Follows Path of Evil Dead Trilogy To Lesser Results
Many would believe that it would either be a trivialization or too obvious to compare the series' of "Spider Man" and "The Evil Dead" together. The two series, both directed by Sam Raimi, do share some of the characteristics in style and design, while other points are a flip 180 degrees from Raimi's days as a blood-and-guts Grindhouse film maverick. This comparison is needed to understand, if not accept, what Raimi may have intended with this third Spidey entry, a film that is buoyed only by the character interaction of its central characters, all of which, have appeared in the last entries. The problem is, "Spiderman 3" does not seem to have anything more to say, and sadly backtracks its seriousness to corny, schlock humor and comic-book gimmicks that do not work on the big screen. This characterization dumb-down seems much more akin to the third Evil Dead movie, Army of Darkness-- yet, it is sadly more insulting than Evil Dead's descent into Three Stooges humor, as the first Spider Man film set up the series so it could emotionally develop and mature, unlike the intentional B-movie element of those splatter films.

Perhaps the blockbuster success of the first two "Spider Man" films went to the filmmaker's head, like Tobey Maguire as the characters of Spiderman and Peter Parker in this film. As in Spiderman 3, Peter Parker's alternate ego of Spiderman is still shrouded in mystery from everyone but his best friend and girlfriend, but Spider Man is a hero to the people of the New York City. Then, one day, Peter wakes up in a black suit that makes him stronger, but it also makes him slowly succumb to his flaws, whether it be his tragic past, or his dark side. Parker's girlfriend, Mary Jane ( Kristin Dunst) gets very upset with him, as he seems to put his alternate identity above her. When Peter gets more aggressive and cocky, both in and out of his suit, he begins to lose the grasp on who he really is, while he still must save the city from a villain known as The Sandman, and another entity who posses many of Spiderman's own powers.

See, back in the 1980's Raimi was a prodigy to horror film fans. Much like punk rock and its do-it-yourself ethos, Raimi and his friends made some of the funnest underground work of the era, and ushered in a wave of similar artists that wanted to follow suit. Flash forward to the Spiderman series and you have a similar craze of films that match the comic book craze, but unlike Evil Dead, this time they have a much bigger budget due to studio backing, and its cult is bigger due to using the actual Spider Man name, a staple of many comic-book reading youth for generations. This might be the problem with Spider Man 3-- despite ever-growing gallant spectacle, it's the only film in this series that seems its solely for the comic book fans, because its generic, lacking depth, and feels too much like the bad cliché of comic books in which they are thought to be only one-dimensional and emotionally shoddy.

As "Spiderman 3" is a film that mostly only works as a summer blockbuster, and any other way is only because the latter two of the film were quite good, and set up the reoccurring characters that have carried over into this film. There is no new dimension added to this film, even for the new characters that sadly are only ciphers. Raimi may try to add "some" depth to the Sandman, and the one emotional scene involving him and his daughter does work well, yet it only leaves the viewer wanting more. While Topher Grace's antagonistic character has a pretty bland personality and no real depth, and the cheesy jokes in the entire movie are rather irritating and dumbs the material down--as, do we really need the cheesy dancing and fight scene in a nightclub, or a quick shot of Parker dancing on the street after getting a new style of clothes--real laughs, however, come from the irresistible cameo of "Evil Dead's," Bruce Campbell, as a hilarious ill-timed garcon.

One of the final blasphemies in the film is the way that the best parts of the Spider Man series was not the fights, but the emotion at its core involving its coming-of-age characters. With much dismay, in "Spider Man 3," the tensions are more akin to soap-opera melodrama-- with themes that may match its good-vs.-evil struggle in the soul of mankind, but do not get into a proper examination, and does not let the characters properly develop. Instead the film makes half-baked statements that seem like a slogan for an after school special than a theme.


Though I doubt this will be the last of the series, as "Spider Man 3" does not feel like a good caper to two surprisingly solid comic book adaptations and certainly missed out on the possibility of expanding on past entries. It did, however, seem to run on the fumes of those two films, making it more of a time killer, as it will probably never prove to be a grower.


*** (Out of 5) May 11, 2008

 Spidey Sense a Miss
The first two Spidey films rank among comic book films' best efforts. Unfortunately, the third film suffers the same fate as every other "third" super hero movie (and for that matter almost every trilogy - third film therein - ever made) - poor story, writing, direction and sub-poar performances.

The hd quality of this disk is magnificant and is great to watch on a big tv with surround sound.

Let's hope they make a fourth (with a new creative team) and we see Spidey actually capture Sandman (like in separate story at the beginning - think James Bond type of films), fight Kraven on his honeymoon in the jungle (think Al Swarengen/Ian McShane as Kraven - how great would that be?) and maybe the Lizard as well.

Now that would be a cool fourth film. Time to leave NY and set the adventure elsewhere with new writers, directors, and the like. May 9, 2008

 AWRIGHT!!
Now THIS is the way a superhero movie is supposed to be done! First of all, I was fairly impressed by the way "Sandman" was done, though they portrayed him a little too sympathetically, as opposed to the way he was played in the magazine originally. In the original story introducing the character, he was given the standard, smarmy villain's personality....snarling, sassing Spidey whenever he could, threatening ....but in the movie, he's almost always silent as he fights Spiderman...and what FIGHTS!! Boy...Petey didn't like him much, did he?

Anyway, as far as I'm concerned, THIS is the Spidey flick Roger Ebert should have saved his "best superhero flick" praise for, (though I don't precisely agree with him, it IS the best of the Spiderman movies.) Jolly Jonah is the best he's ever been portrayed, live action, Topher Grace was a convincing proto-yuppie as Eddie Brock and all the drama and comedy relief was well done. And is it just me, or was Mary Jane's singing pretty much prefect in that dress rehearsal? Those producers had tin ears!

There's a nod to "Daredevil" in the middle of the film, where Brock actually prays to the Almighty in a church, (while Spidey is there with his "Venom" coating,) to "kill Peter Parker" after Parker reveals him as a fraud in the Daily Bugle newsroom. Brock also eventually finds out Peter is Spiderman, so things get hairy from then on. A pattern is made rather obvious as Mary Jane is again used as a pawn in a game of death near the climax of the film. However, this is still handled well, and is a little tenser than the school bus scene in the first Spidey film.

All in all, if you thought something was missing from the first "Spiderman" film, as I did, THIS one makes up for it! Rent it, or buy it, and enjoy! May 7, 2008

 Be aware of quality
I don't know if the one disk version has the same quality as two disk version. From my eye the one disk version has low image quality. The first disk I received stopped at chapter 23. I found a black ink on the disk, and it's not removable. The second disk I received had a black dot on the disk also! I had to use my lens brush to clean it up. April 18, 2008

 This is a review of the blu-ray set and not the movies...
...since the movies in the trilogy deserve their own reviews and have been done to death already. The low cost (even lower by $10 since I bought it) is what motivated me to buy this blu-ray disc set. I already have the special editions of all three Spiderman movies on DVD, so I wanted to see what blu-ray would bring to the home theater table, having recently bought a PS3. True, the picture quality is awesome and the audio certainly will blow you away. However, there are hardly any special features - only the third disc has any to speak of. This is an underwhelming effort, considering the massive amount of space availalble on blu-ray discs. Compare, for example, the featurettes and even mini-movies on "I Am Legend".

One thing I discovered about audio selection: if you choose PCM and your receiver is not capable of processing uncompressed signals (my Onkyo only does HDMI pass-through), all you'll get is simulated surround (e.g. Dolby ProLogic). So I ended up with 5.1 and although it may not be true HD, it's good enough for my 7.1 setup. But if you're an audiophile you would have known about this already.

My summary - HD picture quality: a strong 4 stars, audio quality and options: 4 stars, special features: a dismal 1 star - hence the overall 3 star rating. I guess for the price, this set is not too bad, but considering the wealth of possibilities for the Spiderman franchise, it fell short of my expectations. April 18, 2008

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