Spiderman 3 - Extreme Entertainment

I saw Spiderman 3, and believe you me, be prepared to be assaulted. I mean, be prepared for your musical senses, your aesthetic (and artful) senses, your cherished literary senses, et cetera to be assaulted. And, if you suffer from even mild vertigo, as I do, please, please don’t see the movie. You will be doubly shaken. No, not gently teased, because this is extreme entertainment, the sort that sells.

What is this world coming to? Ask that to Sam Rimi director of the film who deals with enough thrills, chills, and frills that the friendly neighborhood spiderman is turned into something of a hostile creature of the night, something you see lurking in the shadows of skyscrapers in downtown Manhattan.

Or, was it me? I had found a break from my extreme job, taken an extreme ride on a bus that was driven at a speed of 100 kilometers per hour by a speed crazed madman, and had shown up thoroughly shaken at the theatre for something more edifying. There was a shock waiting for me inside.

Extreme entertainment. With speakers dinning at us from every side with monstrous noises (Was there a music score, asking, as I don’t know?), the sweet little thing in the adjacent seat had her head buried in her boyfriend’s ample chest throughout the movie. And I was literally trying not have a heart attack, saying something like, “Johnny boy, you have seen worse, the driver who drove you here was worse, remember the ride? At least you are sitting comfortably in airconditioning.” Remember, I was prepared for something godawfully extreme, which goes with the extremities I am dealing with at the job and in my life.

There’s too much of stunts like a beam of steel ripping through an entire floor of a skyscraper, and then another ripping through the entire floor below, and the tables on the floor above sliding, along with the pretty young thing for a cliffhanger scene. Of course, Spidey (Tobey Maguire) comes in time to save the PYT mentioned above.

There are too many stories and sub-plots involved. There are two villains to battle at the same time, the sandman and the evil spiderman. By some miracle one villain is turned into a friend (though one side of his face has been bashed up by Spidey) with a lot of imploring and cajoling. There are huge holes in the plot, which the director tries to plug with loud music and death-defying stunts.

Too much stunts and not much story, seems to have done in this film that had a huge budget of $ 500 million. Okay, so you earned $ 148 million of it in a week, and will go on to break box-office records. But one poor blogger, unflattered by the big budget, unimpressed by all the assault on the sense, unbribed by free shows in preview theatres where reviewers are served fee eats and drinks, remains sorely disillusion by this movie.

Tobey Maguire seems to sleepwalk through the parts, though he is a competent actor. Kirstin Dunst is good and the only believable parts belong to her, and as for Sandman (Thomas Haden Church), and the others, our own Bollywood actors could have done better at being wooden.

What became of storylines, pacing, soothing music of old? Whatever happened to entertainment? Do we need to pay for getting our senses assaulted, so?

Don’t see this movie for God’s and you own sake.

Spiderman3 | Tobey Maguire | Kirstin Dunst | Thomas Haden Church