Anyone else get a chance to see it yet?

It's not often that I go into a movie expecting a lot, and coming out totally satisfied, but Spidey pulled it off perfectly.
There's a couple of cheesy moments, and a surprising lack of one-liners for anything with Spider-man in it, but the action was awesome, the baddies totally kick-ass and the story heartfelt. I loved every second of it.

That thing with the American flag in the background made me want to vomit though.

I'll have my impressions up after Friday night, but I sure wish I could've gone to the NYC premiere here in Astoria Queens yesterday.  Both Maguire and Franco were looking smashing-cute in the newspaper photos, but I'd heard that Dunst was a standoff-ish jerk throughout the whole thing. *_*

I used to tell people, "I haven't seen a movie in theaters since Spider-man 2." Soon, I'll be able to change that last part to "Spider-Man 3." Surprisingly, I don't mind some of the canonical changes -- Eddie Brock as a darker version of Peter is an inspired idea -- but I am concerned that the CG will be just as bad as in the previous movies. Oh well, at least Venom looks decent from what I've seen.

There was an interview recently where she said that the Spider-man movies would be nothing without Tobey, Raimi, and herself.... She must have breathed in some of that goblin gas if she actually thinks people are watching because of her brave portrayal of Mary Jane.

I'll probably regret this, but: Why?

Definitely a great movie, btw.

Zebraman > spiderman

Come on, it's a bit "USA!!!USA!!!" isn't it?
If I want to see that I'll go watch Captain America or something, that kind of thing has no place in a Spidey movie.
Doesn't make any sense either way cos all the bad guys are American as well, so why make Spidey look like some All-American Hero or something?

Um......No.

Zebraman might have been funnier for the first half hour or so, but it also got boring rather fast and I fell asleep near the end.

But hasn't the rampant American patriotism been in every one of the Spider-Man movies?

Has it?
You might be right, but I don't remember...

Just back from watching the movie. That particular scene pulled me out of the movie's atmosphere and had me think of politics for a second. I had to grin thinking of this thread, but if I weren't prepared the scene probably would have made me cringe first and think of politics for the rest of the playing time. I find it a highly bad choice for otherwise carefree entertainment to pull real life politics into a fantasy movie by unnecessarily showing a flag (which I see mostly in bad news otherwise) fullscreen.

Can't be as cringeworthy as the Macy Gray introduction in the first one. That was tragic.

You're right.  Nobody should be subjected to Macy Gray.

Aside from the action, which is one area which improved from 1 to 2 and continues to do so here, what really impressed me is how each of the numerous characters are driven by forces that are well-grounded, believable, and essential to the story.  It makes for a long movie but the progression from one plot segment to the next is pretty much flawless.  Biggest testament to the story being that as much as I love my comic book movies and can't wait to see new ones come out, 3 completes the series so well that I think they should leave it as it is for a very long while.

If I were to nitpick it would be that the effects are occasionally a bit cartoony, Sandman's powers are maybe overblown, and the "I'm so cool" segment two-thirds of the way through is too excessive to properly serve as comic relief or exposition.

Now to wait and see if Iron Man can carry the torch!  (I dare not place such expectations upon the Fantastic Four sequel.)

As for the very brief flag scene, I'm a little surprised by the extent of you guys' reactions.  I can see how it might bug people from other countries and it certainly serves no function to the plot proper, but I don't see how an American flag qualifies as "political" to an American audience.  It is certainly not the first time the flag has shown itself prominently in the Spiderman series, with the producers seeming compelled to do some patriotic service ever since the original movie's teaser trailer with its link to the World Trade Center and thus 9/11.  In any case politics as well were far from my mind when the closing credits rolled.

Agreed on all counts, although I totally dug the "Emo Parker" portion of the film.  Just seeing Pete struttin' his stuff and him 'sticking it to the man' on so many counts had the audience cheering with approval each time. 

I liked the way they handled Harry's story arc, but while Venom looked awesome, his character did feel to be the most underdeveloped by the end.  The supporting cast is still one of the best things about the Spidey flicks; Harris' Aunt May is as wonderful as ever, Simmons' J.J. is yet again comedy gold, Campbell's latest cameo as the maître d' was a delight, and Tovah's Ursula (Russian waif girl!) is always adorable. ;)

My friends thought I was crazy for thinking the exact same thing. Glad that I am not the only one who is committal-level insane.

Spidey (in terms of the movies) have always had the best villians. Willem Dafoe was utterly brilliant as the Green Goblin, and Alfred Molina was similarly awesome as Doc Ock. I also thought that Thomas Haden Church's portrayal of Sandman was great. Venom was a disappointment, though. At least my friends and I thought that.

The movie had some absolutely ridiculous parts, though. Parker's transformation into "Emo" Parker was totally hilarious (my friends and I debated for a good hour over the need to have authentic "emo" hair on Parker), and that dance scene in the club with Gwen and Parker trying to one-up Mary Jane was so dynamic, even if Parker was such an ass in doing what he did.

And how can you not love Bruce f---ing Campbell as the maitre d? So damn funny!

And the flag scene! Oh, god! What the hell, man!? My friends and I laughed so damn hard . . .

Overall, compared to the previous two movies, I felt this one to be a disappointment. On it's own, it succeeds (maybe for reasons the creators never intended), but I felt the campy parts cited above outweighed the quality offered by the other aspects of this movie. Still, a good time!

"How's the pie?"

"It's sooooo good."

For about the first half of the movie, I found it hard to believe that Sam Raimi even directed it. Probably the hardest of the 3 movies to initially get into, but it's still an enjoyable film overall.

What a waste of time.

Being a person who doesn't like comic books or super heroes pretty much at all, I have seen all three Spider-Man movies over the course of the last four weeks.  Batman used to be the only superhero I could tolerate because he didn't have any super powers, but now I think I like Spider-Man more, mostly because Peter Parker is a great character.

I think each Spidey movie has been better than the last.  SM2 was better than SM1 due to the more satisfying love story and SM3 is the best of the trilogy (IMO) because the villians in this movie were far superior to the completely two-dimensional and utterly pointless cinematic versions of the Green Goblin and Doc Ock in the first two movies.

I think I agree with most of the points Angela brought up: I like Urusula, I loved the contrast that Emo Peter Parker provided (such delicious humor), Bruce Campbell was great, and the action was turned up quite a bit.

My major problem with the movie comes from a specific scene (hightlight to show spoilers):

It was completely unbelievable that MJ would break up with PP just because Harry threatened to hurt him.  Makes no freaking sense since she knows he's Spider-Man.  Even if he she thought Harry had any ability to hurt PP, it's not like Harry would have known exactly what MJ said to PP on the bridge since he was so far away.  She could have just told him to make motions looking like he got dumped.  Anyway, I know this fed the story and setup Emo PP, but the scene made no sense in the context of the film's world.

That aside, I definitely enjoyed the movie.  Now I understand why these movies continue to shatter box office records.

For you Ursula fans, this one's for you.  It's an article featured in today's Daily News:

http://img519.imageshack.us/img519/3820/tovahgs6.jpg

Vomit? That's pretty harsh. I mean, I hope you're not an American yourself thinking that's alright thing to say about your own country.

Sadly, a few laughed there and I myself am getting a little exhausted by the band of spoiled Americans who belittle their country, who gives them so much, snickered in an almost trendy mocking tone. Anyway, the movie itself was a bevy of things; a little silly (Peter's little emo solos you couldn't help just laughing at intended or not), flimsily constructed (often flat, uninspired and cliched dialogue and situations) but the fight scenes, while traditonally for the series, widly over the top, where steroidal and very much inspired by an anime-invasion to the caliber of a Dragonball Z fight. I must say, despite that, I enjoyed the fights which kind of made me perspire. I didn't really care for Topher Grace after the transformation but I thought the final battle was a little short of an superb, if somewhat predictable way to end the trilogy.

Even though Bryce Dallas Howard had fake hair for the movie, she was just beautiful. Her eyes and talent have captivated me since I saw her in The Village and The Lady in the Water.

They certainly ramped up the male emotion...

Okay, not vomit, that was an exaggeration, but it did make me laugh quietly, because of its cheesiness.

No, I am not American, but I resent the implication that that should make my opinion any less, or indeed more, valid.
If I had said this as an American, would it have been worse than saying it as a Dutchman?

America undoubtedly has enough to be proud of, but that shouldn't stop you from raising criticism where it is necessary. Or do you blindly accept everything that is American as the best thing there is?

Yes it would have. Some people (not necessarily people who visit this board) would have literally tried to take your head off - verbally - for writing such a thing. I find it odd we like to attack our own before those outside our soil for having a different view or opinion on an issue; that whole "you're either with us or against us" mentality runs pretty deep with some people. Some people take it to the point it's practically like committing treason to questions the motives of certain goverment offiicials. News flash, powerful people do bad things to.

Sometimes I think our leaders want it to be that way... pulling the wool over the eyes of the pubic while playing the whole "patriotism card" as a vice to sway public opinion towards what they believe is "the right way," or the indefinitely flashier phrase "the American way."

I think people here can be more objective than those who post at policial debate sites and the like. I'm not trying to start anything, but as far as the scene in the movie is concerned, I agree with you - it doesn't really need to be there. It not like the US is the only region the movie is playing in, so the overall reference/presence isn't entirely appropriate. I mean, didn't the debut party take place in Japan in the first place?

I dunno... as an American I was a little embarrassed of the whole flag scene.  It just seemed silly and totally out of place.  Then again, I was watching the movie in a theatre in Japan with a group of people of various nationalities other than American.  The thing that *I* am most exhausted of is the absurd notion of national pride.  Try living abroad for a little while, and your whole perspective on the world changes.  People are people.  Period.  It doesn't matter where you randomly happen to get popped out at birth.  If you're going to be proud of anything, be proud of what YOU have done for the WORLD.  One country whose government's actions you are probably not directly involved with in any way isn't something that anyone really deserves to be proud of. 

Uhh yeah... back to Spiderman 3.  As someone who hasn't read the comics, I think I'd rank the film as better than the first but not as good as the second.  The third one is just... messy.  Too much going on, not nearly enough Venom.  I even had the same complaint about some of the action scenes as I did in Batman Begins - too fast, too close, and hard to keep track of what was going on.

Also... I love that he never did anything to stop that crane. 

Ok, I can probably agree the flag scene was cheesy but cheese was no stranger to the movie.

A flag stands for its people and its accomplishments; one that America can be proud of. You can't selfishly view what you've done for the world because others helped you get there. After all, there's a reason why people are migrating to the U.S. in droves; not just for the opportunities but for the top medicines, and aid we give to other countries. If anything, I thought the American flag thing in Spiderman 3 was appropriate; look at the record-breaking box office stats for the last three movies. Spiderman is not only multigenerational but just Americana - more so today than apple pie, baseball or Chevys...

I didn't like the American flag scene.  It was basically patriot porn.  It was just so gratuitous and unnecessary the way the flag filled the whole screen, billowed in the wind, and the camera lingered just a little too long.  I'll take my mindless action movies free of politics, thank you very much.

I also could have done without the echoes of 9/11 in the crane scene.

Finally, someone comes out and says it on this board. I come from an incredibly nationalistic place (being in Canada, many people I talk to, either jokingly or not, say I live in the wrong country when I say I dislike drinking beer and watching hockey, which always insults me), so it's refreshing to hear someone else who thinks that place of origin are among the many things people are too prideful of.

Heehee. Funny, I get the same thing when I tell people I dislike beer and soccer. Not much of a Dutchman am I?
I don't care the least though.

Yep.
Which is exactly why it has absolutely no place in a popcorn movie that is watched all around the world, by a lot of people who do not wish to have American patriottism shoved down their throat when they're trying to have fun.

Do you realize...Without mindless US Patriotism, Hacksaw Jim Duggan's wrestling career wouldn't have lasted into the 90's? And Hulk Hogan wouldn't have been the immensely bloated superhero he was portrayed as.

"USA! USA! USA!"

It doesn't really bother me...It's the people who buy into it that bother me (and scare me, more than a little). I hear it's the same in Japan though, so I guess we're not alone. I like my country, but we definitely aren't perfect...

*Shrug* Dunno, reading this made me think about how well Capcom, a Japanese developer, got the portrayals of Guile and Captain America down in their respective games.

As for Spiderman 3, I've been on the painful receiving end of a few superhero movies (cough...X-Men...), but I really liked the first Spiderman movies for being a pretty graceful jump from comics-to-film (I knew the general history of Spiderman and a couple of the villains portrayed), so I might take it in between finals.

I just have to laugh. "Patriot porn", lol, that's great

Actually, these people somewhat scare/bother me as well. Pride can be a dangerous thing - pride always comes before the fall - or more specifically, before the bombs start falling.

I finally went and saw it today, and it's satisfying enough as normal hollywood fare.

Any complaints of mine would have to be aimed at the "always-circling virtual-cameras" during free-fall and fight scenes, ala Advent Children style.   (the final team-up also reminded me of the "Cloud Boosting" scene of AC)

CG fight scenes are fine but they don't need all that "let's just keep whipping the camera around a bunch of times, so the characters can float around punching and recovering while going nowhere".   While it's function is meant to overstimulate so that you purposely can't keep track of everything, it also majorly lessens / cheapens the impact.  The trade-off just isn't worth it for this trend in CG battles to keep going.

Well look at it this way: Stan Lee is an American and he created Spiderman because he's American. I think the flag deserves its right in the movie. Perhaps just an observation but anti-Americanism seems to run around these forums.

Maybe it's the people who are sacrificing themselves for an all-volunteer army are the ones who have the real pride. Oh yeah, that's so scary. Just remember you've got those rights because people fought for you have them.

I wouldn't say it's anti-Americanism for us to talk disparingly about the flag scene. It certainly doesn't detract from the film (in my opinion, Topher Grace's Venom did enough of that), but it certainly felt gratuitous. Especially with Spidey posing heroically in front of it. He didn't just step out of the ring with Ivan Drago or some shit, so why . . . ?

It's a flag. A piece of finely crafted material. That's all.

But it stands for a country, right? So what's that? A patch of land? If you want to worship geography, be my guest. But you have just illustrated the problem right here - the worship of a piece of material is enough justification for you to get into fighting talk right off. Into armies. So what are your soldiers fighting for? Your patch of land? Your "freedom"?

Well, certainly not the latter as that piece of material has been used far more recently to remove your freedom.

Nationalism doesn't mean a thing. How about worrying about the actual people who live in your country? Or other countries for that matter? Ultimately that might do more good than saluting a piece of material and throwing soldiers out to die for who knows what.

As pointed out earlier in this thread, the reason it doesn't have all that much relevance in Spiderman is that the villains have all been American. So, in effect, it's American vs American. If you were going to bring patriotism into that, it would seem to be more of a civil war scenario. It's not 'my patch of land' vs 'your patch of land'.

I wasn't referring to our people in uniform. I was referring to these religious wing nuts who would never dirty their own hands but believe we are doing "God's Work" over in the Middle East. Yeah, just because we're supposedly doing it in "Gods name” makes everything right as rain... that’s a copout if anything.

Also, you can pay respects to sacrifices soldiers make even if you don't agree with what their brain-dead superiors tell them to do. At the end of the day, it may a have been a person's choice to fight for their country but doesn't necessarily mean they get to choose what they're fighting for.

And just because one questions the overall reason why they are there in the first place doesn't mean they are attacking these brave men and women - this is exactly how people and certain government officials use patriotism as an attack mechanism and but words in other peoples mouths. Isn't questioning our leaders part of the freedom they fight to preserve?

I watched it twice and missed the American Flag scene....when does it occur?

Heh, it's not really a scene, as much as it is just him rushing to (I think) the final battle sequence, or some such action scene (perhaps the crane?).  It's really not a big deal either way.  I mean, yes, it was obvious (to me, since I was looking for it), but quite fleeting.