It’s been 15 whole years since Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 3 was released, and yet we’re absolutely nowhere near reaching a consensus as to whether or not the conclusion to Tobey Maguire’s trilogy is an affront to the good name of superhero cinema, or a misunderstood masterpiece afflicted by issues outside of its control.
In all honesty, the truth is somewhere in the middle, but don’t try and tell the internet that. Sure, Venom may have been forced into the story against Raimi’s wishes, but that doesn’t excuse the bloated nature of the narrative, the saccharine character developments, and an increasing sense of scale that threatens to buckle Spider-Man 3 under the weight of its own ambition with or without the presence of the shoehorned symbiotic subplot.
Either way, the web-slinging threequel has been trending hard all night, and based on the myriad of wildly polarizing reactions emanating from supporters and detractors alike, it’s become abundantly clear that everyone’s going to have to agree to disagree – well, as much as you can when it comes to social media.
Spider-Man: No Way Home and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness brought Maguire and Raimi back to Marvel, and they exercised more than a few demons in doing so. The rumors of the pair reuniting for the abandoned Spider-Man 4 appear to have been substantially wide of the mark, though, given that the scuttlebutt evaporated shortly after the multiversal epic’s release.
Regardless of what you think about Spider-Man 3, you’ve got to commend a film that half of the population seems to actively despise remaining so culturally relevant so long after the fact.
Published: Oct 24, 2022 03:28 am