Is Spider-Man 3 the most disappointing superhero film ever made?

[Solid]

I'd say that no film was as bad compared to the previous two. Raimi could have ended the trilogy as one of the best ever but with the third one, it's just "great".

There are worthy contenders that were a drop in quality like Age of Ultron, Batman Forever or Men: Apocalypse for example but nobody hyped them as much as Spider-Man 3 was in my opinion.

Discuss.

 

[MasterBoss]

I feel like in recent years Spider-Man 3 has been getting a positive reprisal, though I think a lot of that comes from the memes.

 

[Chip Chipperson]

The answer to this question is, and will always be Batman vs Superman. I’d type out the rest of the title, but I physically can’t, that’s how disappointing it was.

 

[Pennywise]

Nope.

 

[Frodo]

No.

 

[Drizzle]

No. I wouldn't have even called it the most disappointing superhero film ever made back when it was released since it came out a year after X-Men: The Last Stand, which was much more of a ****show. Spider-Man 3 isn't a bad movie, it just doesn't look as good when compared to the first two.

 

[InCali]

I wouldn't even call it the most disappointing SM movie. That crown goes to TASM2. The first one wasn't great, but the second one......

 

[The Batman]

I mean...X-Men: The Last Stand exists.

For me, what made it worse was that due to AICN leaking plot details, we knew for a months in advance that it would be a disappointing follow up to X2. Then, Simon Kinberg and Zak Penn were on a random X-men fan forum doing damage control.

They were straight up telling people that, for example, Cyclops fans would be happy with how he's portrayed in the film.

Of course, the movie comes out, and it's as bad as AICN suggested it'd be.

 

[Shinobi Shaw]

Not at all.

Disappointment is watching the X-Men movies for years and having fantasies that characters not named Wolverine, Xavier or Magneto would have more than 3 lines.

The only thing that disappointed me really about SM3 was the Venom parts and that he didn’t refer to his Symbiote as “we”.

 

[Milk Tray Guy]

No, that honour goes to Batman & Robin.

 

[Bayne]

I never liked 1 and 2, so 3 didn't have much chance to disappoint me. In fact, I like 3 better than the first two simply because the Sandman is way more believable and interesting than any of the other villains.

And really, even if I did like 1 and 2, we still live in a world where stuff like Wolverine Origins, Catwoman, Batman and Robin, Fantastic Four and Amazing Spider-man 2 all exist -not to mention Steel, Spawn, Meteor Man, Supergirl, Superman IV, that crazy right wing Captain America and I could really go on forever here come to think of it - so there is a hell of a lot of heavy competition for the spot.

 

[Spider-Aziz]

I did find it disappointing initially, loved it later.

Most disappointing CBMs for me are:

• The crown jewel goes to Dawn of Justice (here @Chip Chipperson, I finished it for ya) which disappointed more than two decades of fantasy for me
• Dark Phoenix (at least I hoped to enjoy something, didn't happen)
• The Dark Knight trilogy (because I need to bash a previous Batman movie for reasons, not that it will make the Batman movie look good or anything without relying on its own power of quality)

 

[Deck Rickard]

The answer to this question is, and will always be Batman vs Superman. I’d type out the rest of the title, but I physically can’t, that’s how disappointing it was.

This. A thousand times this.

 

[mclay18]

No, not by a long shot.

X-Men: The Last Stand, X-Men Origins Wolverine (which I found MORE disappointing than X3), BvS, GL, et al come to mind.

SM-3 suffered from similar problems that BvS did: too many characters, too many subplots, too ambitious. The scripts needed serious pruning before filming, but SM-3 had more heart and emotion than BvS.

BvS should've been a taut 115-120 minute film like Godzilla vs. Kong. Whatever you thought of either, GvK had MUCH better pacing than BvS and didn't wear out its welcome.

 

[Drizzle]

The only thing that disappointed me really about SM3 was the Venom parts and that he didn’t refer to his Symbiote as “we”.

This was the most disappointing thing for me too. Topher Grace was an odd choice for Eddie but it's not like his performance took me out of the movie. I was more bothered by the Venom voice just being Topher's regular speaking voice but digitally altered to sound lower. I get that Raimi wasn't a fan of the character and the symbiote stuff was more or less forced upon him but aside from Venom being smaller than we're used to seeing him in the comics and his entire storyline being a rush job, he more or less did the best he could with the character given the circumstances. Venom isn't a problem as much as the movie having too many storylines and not enough time to properly let them breathe like Spider-Man 2 did.

The complaints about Spider-Man 3 that I don't find as valid are the ones about the cheesier aspects of it, as if the first two movies never had any moments like that. While they're mostly forgiving of it now thanks to the memes, people gave so much crap to Emo Peter strutting down the street to James Brown while conveniently forgetting that the previous movie had the cheesy montage set to "Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head".

 

[The Batman]

The answer to this question is, and will always be Batman vs Superman. I’d type out the rest of the title, but I physically can’t, that’s how disappointing it was.

I'd say anyone who found MOS less than good realized that BvS was likely to be underwhelming.

 

[The Lazarus Pit]

The answer to this question is, and will always be Batman vs Superman. I’d type out the rest of the title, but I physically can’t, that’s how disappointing it was.

Came here to say this. The TC is complete ****. I learned to love BVS after seeing the UE though

 

[Gothamsknight]

Not even remotely close. S-M3 is a good film, just not as good as the first 2. still better than all the others that came after it in my mind.

 

[Chip Chipperson]

I'd say anyone who found MOS less than good realized that BvS was likely to be underwhelming.

I’m one of those people, but I still cautiously bought into the hype because of the implications involved. It was supposed to be too big to fail. And of course, we all know what happened.

 

[The Lazarus Pit]

I’m one of those people, but I still cautiously bought into the hype because of the implications involved. It was supposed to be too big to fail. And of course, we all know what happened.

Plus a new writer was on board. Things were looking good… ugh

 

[Erzengel]

Spider-Man and X-Men were riding highs for me from their sequels so those 2 are up there in terms of their 3rd movies, but I echo what some of the people said about Batman v. Superman which is why it's ranked not just low on my DCEU lists but on CBM in general.

 

[Detective Conan]

Spider-Man 3 has some really dynamic action sequences and I think the lesson of forgiveness and not giving into to personal demons of revenge is pretty well done. Revenge is a natural human emotion to have, it’s an understandable thing to have but in the end it’s a intrinsically negative and toxic force that can be self-destructive, and in some ways self-defeating morally. It never brings the catharsis we seek. The Symbiote in the movie is used as a metaphor for the enormous power such dark emotions such as revenge wield on the human soul, and the decision to tell that symbiote story fits in with the entire dna of the Spider-Man origin story - which was always a cautionary tale of using power only for oneself, and not for the sake of others.

Having Sandman be the killer of Peter’s uncle and having a story be about Peter going after him helps expand that original cautionary told in Amazing Fantasy #15 and provides a springboard to tell a story that is a cautionary tale of revenge - which in on itself is a selfish motivation. Unpopular opinion coming, but I think making Sandman Ben’s killer was a good idea as it provides Peter dramatic personal relation to the character and fits in with the themes of the movie. Having him just be a random thug unrelated to Peter like in the comics wouldn’t have worked that well and would be dramatically uninteresting.

Notice how both Peter & Brock first got the Symbiote when they’re hungry for revenge. Peter first gets the suit when he’s looking to get revenge on Ben’s Killer and Brock gets it when he’s looking for revenge on Peter for getting him fired. The symbiote works as a sinister seductive agent - it’s basically the devil and you’re making a deal with it. Peter wears the suit a second time - willingly, to get revenge on Harry for sabotaging his relationship with MJ. Despite knowing of the suit’s negative effects, Peter gives in to the temptation of the suit because of the alluring power. Which is very much analogous to how darkly tantalizing revenge can be and how easy it is to surrender to it. I admire SM3, flaws and all, and I can definitely see why some like it.

 

[MasterBoss]

I mean...X-Men: The Last Stand exists.

For me, what made it worse was that due to AICN leaking plot details, we knew for a months in advance that it would be a disappointing follow up to X2. Then, Simon Kinberg and Zak Penn were on a random X-men fan forum doing damage control.

They were straight up telling people that, for example, Cyclops fans would be happy with how he's portrayed in the film.

Of course, the movie comes out, and it's as bad as AICN suggested it'd be.

And yet, the Last Stand is still much better than Dark Phoenix.

 

[Drizzle]

And yet, the Last Stand is still much better than Dark Phoenix.

Which is kind of incredible, isn't it? Their intention was to do a better adaptation of the Dark Phoenix saga than The Last Stand and yet it turned out to be the worst X-Men movie.

 

[Mandon Knight]

No, not at all, there are far worse out there.