Hot take, but Spider-Man 3 still sucks
I saw it upon release, and was very disappointed. But I thought after many years, I’d come back to it feeling different.
I didn’t.
As of this writing, Spider-Man 3 is the worst of the ten Spidey movies. Beware incoming TLDR rant.
Peter isn’t likeable, like at all, and that’s even before he gets “infected” by the symbiote.
I will never understand why Sam Raimi didn’t want to use Venom as the film’s main villain, and the studio had to force him to use said villain.
What’s worse, he goes with Sandman as the primary villain? A Spidey rogue half the world didn’t even know existed. Oh, and if that wasn’t bad enough, they had to go and retcon Uncle Ben’s murder.
It was firmly established that one guy, Dennis Carradine, killed Ben, and that Peter was to blame. But it turns out, oh, there was actually a second guy, Flint Marko, behind the killing all along. More infuriating is how the movie still tries to justify it being Peter’s fault.
If Peter had stopped Carradine, Carradine never would’ve startled Flint, and Flint never would’ve accidentally shot Ben. So stupid.
And ironically, I actually thought Flint Marko and his character arc was the best part of the movie. Even so, he never should’ve been in it.
What really hurts the movie is how much better the later Insomniac games handled characters like Venom, MJ and Harry.
For one, MJ actually helps Peter with his Spidey job in the game. Couldn’t she have done that here? She could’ve quit acting and pursued helping him, but when he says no ‘cause he wants to protect her, that would’ve caused drama between them. Better than her hating him ‘cause she lost her job and he’s crushing on Gwen Stacy (who came completely out of nowhere, btw).
And Harry? Giving him amnesia because the writers didn’t know what else to do with him? See, I thought No Way Home’s spell scene was bad writing. But nope, Harry’s convenient amnesia was so much worse.
Why not just have Harry forgive Peter, and all seems well, but Harry’s actually lying? What if over the course of the movie, he slowly ruins Peter’s life (his job, his relationship with MJ and Aunt May, his reputation, maybe even exposes his secret identity), culminating in an epic final confrontation between the two?
And again, circling back to the Insomniac games, but why not have Harry discover the Venom symbiote and get infected, instead of the stupid meteor just crashing into Central Park where Peter was nearby? Again, probably means we don’t get Eddie Brock, but whatever.
Final thoughts. Make Venom look and sound like he does in the Tom Hardy movies. And for f**k’s sake, get rid of the emo Peter scenes.