Saw Spiderman 3 last night. Not a good movie. Inexplicably, Raimi apparently thought the Evil Dead formula/ratio would be a good port to the Spiderman franchise. The Raimi ratio looks like this. Make the first movie one part genre conventions done seriously and well with one part goofy, but winsome humor that everyone can enjoy. Expressed as a fraction this would be 1/1 where the numerator is genre and the denominator is humor. In the sequel multiply the numerator by 2 and the denominator by 4. Creating a ratio of 2/4 or simplified to 1/2. Overall, the sequel is not as serious as the first, but funnier. In the conclusion of the trilogy make the laughs run free without any respect to an even ratio. In the conclusion cut the numerator back to one, and the denominator up to about 10. At 1/10 the genre of the film pretty much disintegrates, and the spectacle takes over.
While this was the formula for Evil Dead. Spiderman did not quite go the same route. The first two films pretty much held the line at the 1/1 ratio. Arguably, Raimi took the genre side of the craft even more seriously in 2. But, as if that effort was just too much. Raimi delivered a film to us that could easily be retitled Spiderman: Army of Darkness 2.
This movie is essentially a series of spectacles that feel more and more contrived as the parade across the screen. I can't say it was the most disappointing moment I've ever had in a cinema, but it's probably close.
Posted by matt at May 4, 2007 12:23 PM | TrackBackIn the part where Kirsten Dunst is caught in the black web, frantically trying to avoid slowly dropping vehicles, I turned to my sister and said, "Wow, a direct allusion to Jurassic Park...which, by the way, was a MUCH better movie." I still can't believe I sat through the whole thing. The most telling moment: at the closeup of Peter Parker choking up at the end, the audience just laughed. What is Raimi thinking, I thought. Thanks for the explanation, it all makes a little more sense now.
Posted by: laura at May 4, 2007 10:37 PMyou lost me a little bit in all that formula but I heartily agree with you that it's "entially a series of spectacles that feel more and more contrived as the parade across the screen." The movie dissapointed me so very much .... way too much action without enough engaging, story, or development. or something like that.
the maryjane/harry kitchen dance scene was pretty brilliant though. i must say.
Posted by: sienna at July 27, 2007 10:22 AM