Before I watched Spiderman 3, I already told my friends that I will be biased when writing this review. And true to my words, I liked it already when the movie started with the roll call credits. I liked the way the movie presented refresher scenes during the roll call scenes to jolt the viewer’s memory of the first and second installment of the trilogy. However, there’s some slight deviation from the real story presented in the comic books. Gwen Stacy, who was supposed to be the first true love of Spiderman in the comics and later died tragically, has become “just a girl in his class” in the movies. However, the directors showed a glimpse of Captain George Stacy (Gwen’s father, who, in the comics, is supposed to be heroically killed by falling debris while saving a baby during a battle between Dr Octopus and Spiderman), so I suppose they are going to stir in more complicated plots for Spiderman 4.Besides that, this movie is really intense. It discusses a lot of issues.
1) Every villain is not totally bad. Inside every bad person, there’s some element of good in him. (like sandman, hob-goblin or the new goblin)
2) Every hero is not totally good. Inside every good man, there’s a bad person/child, waiting to be released. (like spidey himself under the influence of venom)
3) Not everyone is born a villain or wants to be a villian. Circumstances will decide the path of a person. However, a person must choose wisely which path to take because once chosen, there could be no turning back. (i.e. sandman, venom)
5) Young adults intoxicated by love will think of marriage and children but forgot the many issues that come with the territory, i.e. protecting the spouse, putting your spouse before you, sharing both the ups and the downs, listening to each other, etc.
6) Friendship founded on the grounds of love, honesty, sincerity will stand the test of time.
7) How old folks deal with old age and lost of a loved one without going senile. (Aunt May hold out hope for Parker while leading a lonely life. You can see her loneliness through her eyes but she’s not giving up on life yet for the sake of Parker.)
8) How to deal with retrenchment while your spouse is riding high on his career. (Mary Jane Watson on a downhill slide after losing her job, and her boyfriend but still managed to move on without losing herself).9) How to deal with hate and revenge before it consumes us and push us away from real life and our loved ones. (Peter Parker on his quest to avenge his Uncle Ben’s injustice death)
10) How to deal with office rivalry and the perils of using dirty tricks instead of hardwork. (Eddie Brock and Parker’s tussle over the permanent position in the Daily Bugle)
Now I remember why I endorse this comic book for adolescence. It discusses a wide spectrum of issues that a young adult will face and how to be responsible and how to handle them. I recall learning a lot from this comic book when I read it during my teenage years. It gives an insight to young adults to all the problems one might face at every stage of growing up and how to handle them if they happens to you, like a sudden lost of a loved one, revenge, friendship, love rivalry, world injustice, and how to handle great power and great responsibilities when they are handed to you without proper preparation.
No one warned me about Director and Scriptwriters Sam Raimi and Ivan Raimi excerpting 
these qualities from the comic book into this installment of Spiderman. I thought it would be one of those insane power thumping, glass shattering, violent blood shedding action-packed animated movies which are so popular nowadays. Well, it’s all that, plus some really good real life issues as mentioned above. That’s why I wouldn’t recommend kids below the age of 13 to watch it without parent guidance as they might just be too mesmerized and mimic the violent parts and forget the moral to the story.
And also bring tissues. Spidey is famous for his humour as he takes on his rivals, so I thought it’ll be a fun and exciting movie. And thus, I was caught without tissues. Yes, it has a very touching storyline but it’s not a soppy love story. It’s full of action right from the beginning. A great movie that stirs your emotions, cracks your head, test your neurons, and fills your heart. Casting is good as they used the original casts to avoid confusion and in my opinion, all the casts, Kirsten Dunst, James Franco and Tobey Maguire (Mary Jane Watson, Harry Osborn/New Goblin and Peter Parker respectively) has grown together with their characters, especially Tobey Maguire, which displays such an apt transition from the silly teen that he was when he first discover his superpowers to the more responsible and matured Peter Parker. Rosemary Harris plays Aunt May well with passion coming out through her eyes and clear voice.
The CGI for the villains, Sandman and Venom, was seamless and blends nicely to the movie. This is a must watch considering it’s one of the most expensive movie ever made with a budget of USD$250 million (surpassing King Kong’s USD $207 million). Catch it in the theaters if you can find yourself a babysitter. I see people bringing their children in their prams, which I really find inappropriate. The scary scenes and loud noises may make or break a child at such a tender age. Leave the kids at home so that you can fully enjoy the movie.
Oh, a little trivia which I found out on the E! channel on Astro. According to gossips, James Franco (the cute Harry Osborne) is actually gay and there was a scene which was censored from the film. The censored scene shows Peter parker was giving him (as the new goblin) mouth to mouth resuscitation after Harry fell hard after a battle with Parker/Spiderman. He was blushing when he claims that there's no real lip touching, but the real answer.... you figure it out.. :)
(All photos are courtesy of imdb.com)
