Joker said:
- Other annoying things during some of the action scenes like Peter putting more effort into trying to save a ring instead of stopping a villain, or Captain Stacy's nonchalant reaction to his daughter dangling a hundred storeys off a building, or the annoying extras in the final fight etc.
Pete saving the wedding ring during the fight, c'mon, that was a nice touch, it was not as if the villan was threatening the public, he was just after Pete, it would have been different if he was doing something along the lines of the Goblin at the parade.
and you're exagerating the focus put on it, he tried webbing the ring while going through a window, not exactly changing his direction there at all, and only the once after did he specifically web swing in the direction of the ring.
Of course I agree with the Captain Stacey scene, that is the worst moment of directing in the entire film.
Joker said:
- The ugly, ugly, UGLY relationship between Peter and MJ (Whining about her career, kissing Harry, not telling Peter she got fired then *****ing at him for not understanding how she feels etc). If ever there was two people who should not be together it's these two.
- Harry's lame plan of just breaking Peter and MJ up as revenge. Even worse was MJ just giving into Harry's weak threat. He never threatened her or Aunt May or anyone else. He just said "If you want Peter to live then you'll do something for me". Why didn't MJ just tell Peter what Harry was doing instead of breaking his heart? She of all people knows he has beaten greater odds and more powerful foes than Harry. She saw it first hand.
- MJ was supposed to be acting badly sometimes, same as her counterparts Pete and Harry. The movie was about everyone's dark sides.
- on Mj and her reaction to Harry's blackmail. Ok, you have a good argument there, but you could also say that she had never been wrapped up in this superhero business before, she didn't want to risk Pete or Harry killing the other in combat, so she played along with Harry's plan for the time being, not knowing what else to do, biding her time until she could think of a way to approach Pete about the situation, without him rushing off to take on Harry, after all the Burglar and GG1 both were inadvertantly killed during battles with Pete, and MJ at least knew about the burglar's death, as she said.
Whole different ball game it being one of their friends as the villan.
It is wonky though, for other reasons, she was acting like it was a genuine break up at the jazz club, whereas it was done under duress.
- Not one of the three villains had a quarter of the villainous presence Goblin or Doc Ock had.
- The Butler deux ex machina plot device telling Harry the truth about his father
- I thought Harry carried weight as a villan, we watched his build up over the two previous movies, knowing, as far as he was concerned, he had good reason to get Pete/SM, so when he finally confronts Pete it is in one of the most satisfactory action face offs in sh movies, second only to the train fight in SM2.
We also got to see him struggle over the friendship and his misguided duty to his father, the butler scene was not even needed in that regard, it can be ignored.
that is the thing about the butler scene, it *can* be ignored and the movie can logically progress without it, Harry just realising that aye, maybe he should take his friend's word over his deranged visions of his dead father. The fact of his friends being in mortal danger making him face up to that all too possible reality.
Also, he was good cause he knew how to push Pete's buttons.
Venom was better here than in the books, a weak, spineless fantasist guy getting access to that kind of power, scarier than the bodybuilder of the books, who was used to having power over his fellow man, and had a code of honour.
- New York being in love with Spider-Man. At best New York's attitude to Spider-Man should be mixed. We should not be seeing Spider-Man festivals. When have we ever seen NY love Spidey that much? Worst of all, we never even got to see Jonah's reaction to any of that. He should have been reaching for his heart pills.
The 'NY loves Spider-man' plot was necessary to explore the nature of pride before a fall, that was a theme of the film.
Having it at all in that way, acknowledges the fact that previous to this he was regarded with a mixed reaction.
I agree Jonah was wasted in the film in that regard though, good point.
Joker said:
- Sandman being made the killer of Uncle Ben. This is self explanatory.
Agreed. If you wanted dark Spidey to have a reason to kill, have Sandman put Aunt May into a coma during his rampage.
Raimi obviously wanted to explore the themes of pride, fall, and redemption through forgiveness, and have Pete confront Ben's killer and forgive him, to give the trilogy some kind of closure to that pivotal moment in his genesis.
But, not at the expense of screwing up one of the greatest sh origins in comics and film, great because it is so simple, but effective, any kid can understand that origin, now, it is clumsy and complicated.
Something else I was thinking about the last time I watched the film, I've always thought the 'Saturday Night Parker' sequence was pretty funny, but the thing is, the Jazz club scene takes place right after it, that is overkill with the musical numbers.
What they should have done was just make the jazz club scene straight drama, because everything else in the scene in fine as played, we get some good dramatic scenes with Pete acting crazy and violent.
