Spiderman 3

So, back when I was still at school, a couple of friends and I went to see Spiderman. I really meant to post about it, but somehow, life was crazy enough that I just never got around to it. So, although it has been a while, and my thoughts are not as together as they were, I shall try to say what I thought of the movie.

First off, I enjoyed it immensely. I do not claim to be a good media critic. I could see that there were some flaws in the movie, but viewing it for the sake of the story told, I enjoyed it, and thought it did well.

I thought it was interesting how the movie made a point of jerking the viewer around emotionally. That is something that not a lot of movies made nowadays do, at least that I have noticed. It was skillfully done, and heart wrenching.

The story, however, and the characters themselves, are what made me think the most. Peter Parker was a good boy, or at least, he had good intentions, but he bungled so badly, especially with Mary Jane. I have heard it said that she was simply a spoiled brat who needed to grow up and let Peter be Spiderman. While perhaps she was weak, I do not think that this allows Peter off the hook. To be blunt, if Peter was not prepared to protect her, to be there for her and to listen, to put her needs above his own, he had no right messing with her heart. She knew what she was doing when she chose him despite his being Spiderman. She chose to give up a whole lot because she loved him. What, however, was Peter willing to give up for her? In the first half of the movie, he does not even seem willing to give her the few minutes she needs to talk to him about her job. She needed him, and he was too busy being caught up in his own coolness to hear her out. Yes, maybe she should of spoken up, but if he had been actually paying attention, her face screamed that she was broken, bruised, and battered, that she needed him to listen, to just be there.

The culmination of Peter's bumbling idiocy was his letting Gwen Stacy kiss him upside-down. True, he didn't know how special his upside-down kiss with MJ was to her, but is that any excuse? He should have known. That he did not was a sign that he did not really even know her. Why not? How long had he known her? How long had he thought that he loved her? Can you really love someone you do not even know?

Oddly enough, for me I think the hero of the movie is Harry, not so much Spiderman. True, as the Green Goblin, he was a beast, but as himself, he conquered the monster inside himself and helped save his friends. He knew what it was to be popular, but it did not consume him. He was there for MJ, and honestly, before he remembered what he had become, he was more worthy of her love than Peter. His love demonstrated that it ran deeper, beyond mere words and into actions.

Spiderman's battle against the darkness within himself was very interesting. I like how the movie portrayed revenge...a desire that poisons you until you become the very thing you desire to destroy. It destroys you from the inside out. Regardless of what needs to be done to the person who has wronged you, revenge should not be an option. Justice, yes, but only for the sake of justice itself, not for one's own self-gratification. What good is it to destroy the one who harmed you, if you are eaten alive by your bloodlust?

I also thought that the dichotomy between Peter and Eddie Brock was interesting. Both of them start out the same, excepting Peter's being Spiderman. While Peter has prided himself on his virtue, Eddie shows himself to be not above ditching virtue to get what he wants. When the symbiote tries to take over Peter by playing on his desire for revenge, it cannot drown out the fact that Peter is a boy who wants to do the right thing. He may bungle, but he really does want to do the right thing. However, when the symbiote tries to take over Eddie Brock, Brock has no such defenses against it, and instead embraces his doom, even to the point of self-immolation.

So...thoughts? I think there was more I wanted to say, but it seems to have gotten lost....