“It’s the Choices that Make Us What We Are”: Revisiting Spider-Man 3 (Part 3 of 3)
Sam Raimi's trilogy capper is an overstuffed, messy conclusion I can't hate
Spider-Man 2, the second film in Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy, is the pinnacle of the superhero genre. The 2004 film deploys wonderfully human storytelling to embody an aspirational message of the power of doing the right thing. It also made over $780 million at the box office, so naturally it got a sequel. The film, which was rereleased in theaters last month, is Spider-Man 3, directed by Raimi and starring Tobey Maguire. Despite irrefutably compelling elements, Raimi’s final Spider-Man film is ultimately too complicated for its own good; while its predecessors are masterclasses in simple, focused storytelling, Spider-Man 3 convolutes and muddies itself to its own detriment.
The film was greenlit before its predecessor was even released. Raimi worked with his brother, Ivan, on a story about Peter Parker learning forgiveness and redemption. (Raimi’s Spidey movies were always a family affair; his brother, Ted, features as Hoffman, J. Jonah Jameson’s least favorite Daily Bugle employee.) The intended villains, Harry Osborn (James Franco) and Flint Marko (Thomas Haden Church), reflect those themes with personal connections to Peter: Harry, now knowing his best friend slings webs, follows his father’s footsteps to become the New Goblin, seeking vengeance for Norman’s death; Marko, an escaped convict trying to provide for his wife and sick daughter, accidentally becomes a man made of sand named Sandman (ha ha), and is revealed to be Uncle Ben’s killer.
While the film was conceived on Peter, Mary Jane Watson (Kirsten Dunst), Harry, and Marko, Sony pushed for Venom and Gwen Stacy to feature. Raimi resisted but eventually relented, wanting to please producers and fans. Now further congested, Alvin Sargent, returning from the first two movies, considered bifurcating the film, abandoning the idea when a satisfying ending to the first part could not be found. (Sargent shared screenplay credit with the brothers Raimi.)
Perhaps because he’s the main character, Peter’s arc is the strongest of Spider-Man 3. New York has finally accepted their wall-crawling savior as he prepares to propose to Mary Jane – for once, everything is going right for Peter Parker. Maguire plays Peter as slightly smug, so high on his horse he cannot see anything below him. Given how he spent most of the previous films saddled in a sad sack, it’s quite entertaining to witness Peter high on his own supply.
In time, his cockiness figuratively crashes down in the form a meteor literally crashing down near him. The meteor carries an alien goo that bonds with Peter, giving him a new black suit (first revealed in an iconic poster) that heightens his strength. The goo is a symbiote, a drug-like parasite feeding on Peter’s innate anger and aggression. Though added into the film only to set up Venom, the symbiote arc demonstrates Raimi’s desired lessons, as Peter is, to put it politely, very rude to everyone around him.
When fully in thrall to the symbiote, Peter, looking hilariously emo and dancing like a mondo dork (it’s funny!), punishes his loved ones. He beats the crap out of Harry, turns Sandman into mud (he’s made of sand so it’s kinda murder?), humiliates his duplicitous coworker Eddie Brock (Topher Grace), and embarrasses MJ, accidentally hitting her in a rage. At times, Peter is downright unlikable, but what better way to teach your protagonist forgiveness and redemption than by having him commit many acts from which he can only hope to be redeemed?
Unfortunately, the rest of Spider-Man 3 is riddled with issues. Retconning Uncle Ben’s death to incorporate Sandman simply does not work. The premise is sound enough – challenge Peter by confronting someone whose actions led to his original sin. Adding Sandman into the mix feels incredibly forced: not only does it overcomplicate a story that’s resonance is in its straightforwardness, it also definitionally cannot absolve Peter’s ultimate culpability. Instead of doing so in cold blood, Marko accidentally kills Uncle Ben, which feels like a point reverse engineered from wanting a redeemable antagonist. It also invites comparisons to Spider-Man 2’s Doc Ock redemption, superior to Sandman’s in every way. Church does all he can as Marko, effectively portraying him as sympathetic and almost singlehandedly providing the catharsis his arc needs. Regrettably, Church’s performance cannot overcome lacking storytelling.
Harry’s story is similarly complex, as he suffers amnesia during an early battle with Peter. For a time, Peter is relieved his old friend is back, but the reconnected duo has have little interaction outside two relatively brief scenes. Harry’s amnesia feels like pushing one villain to the background to make room for others. Given how interwoven its predecessors were, it’s especially odd Harry shares no real connection to Sandman or Venom until the film’s climax; where Spider-Man 2 is a symphony of interpersonal drama, Spider-Man 3 features unrelated things randomly happening until they crash together.
The film’s third and final villain, Venom, is its biggest problem. Even if the symbiote itself fits the movie’s themes, the movie just does not need Venom to tell its story, and you can almost feel it wincing whenever he’s onscreen. Once Peter removes it, the symbiote attaches to Grace’s Brock, who is a suitable foil to Maguire’s Peter; both are opposite sides of dweeby, with Peter more nebbish and sensitive and Brock an entitled proto-incel. That, however, makes for an awkward, lackluster Venom, who should be a brutal inversion of Spider-Man but is instead a whiny, pathetic schmuck. Not helping matters is that Topher Grace is as threatening as a damp paper towel.
The most disappointing part of Spider-Man 3, though, may be Mary Jane, facing an existential crisis after bad reviews get her fired from a Broadway performance. MJ finds no relief in Peter, sidestepping her problems in his arrogance. Peter as a deadbeat boyfriend is smart, inverting his and Mary Jane’s dynamic in Spider-Man 2 where he’s the broody mess and she can’t quite quit him, especially given their turbulent relationship history in the comics. Unfortunately, Dunst, previously so winsome and apt to melodrama, is given little to do other than sulk, and she is lost in the chaos. Sure, she resents Gwen Stacy and is drawn to Harry, rekindling their romance if for nothing other than her loneliness and the attention he gives her, but she eventually becomes Harry’s puppet and a casualty of Peter’s symbiote-bolstered fury in their tit-for-tat vengeance spiral.
While individual moments of her story are affecting, it’s frustrating to see MJ, an insecure victim of domestic abuse slowly rebuilding herself previously rendered so thoughtfully, be reduced to a pawn of the men around her. It also sucks that Mary Jane is kidnaped by the bad guys yet again, even if production rewrites amended the original plan of abducting Gwen Stacy. (It’s 17 years old, but do movies always have to kidnap girlfriends?) A less unfocused film with Raimi in control might have done MJ more justice, but that is not the film we have.
Adding to Spider-Man 3’s wonkiness is its score. Danny Elfman, composer of the first two films, fell out with Raimi while scoring Spider-Man 2, refusing to work with him again. (They later made up.) Raimi hired Christopher Young, who wrote additional music for Spider-Man 2 and composed horror/thrillers like Hellraiser. Young’s contributions are clever and creative. His black suit theme is instantly memorable with its big, brassy punches and dark strings immediately suggesting Spidey’s new suit means trouble. Likewise, Young’s Sandman theme sounds exactly how the music for a man who can become a giant sand monster should.
Yet, Young’s music does not fit with Elfman’s. Their styles are too disparate, their approaches too dissimilar. Young’s statements of Elfman’s themes feel lifeless and uninspired, best evidenced by their respective takes on Spider-Man’s theme in the main title. Consider Elfman’s from Spider-Man 2, a percussive, orchestral interplay presenting a forceful, lively Spidey theme buoyed by racing strings. Contrast it to Young quoting that same music, flatly restating the previous titles without its instrumental dynamism. Young’s score struggles to include Elfman’s themes, but, when it does, the entire score screeches to a halt. Producers replaced several of Young’s new themes with Elfman’s late in postproduction, further offsetting the film.
Visually, there is also something just off about its look. Bill Pope, frequent Raimi cinematographer who shot Spider-Man 2, returns for Spider-Man 3. While its predecessor was gorgeous and warm, gently bringing audiences into a lush landscape beautifully depicting New York, Spider-Man 3’s aesthetic is cold and distant. Maybe it’s digital sheen or to make the black suit pop, but the film’s visual palette sorely lacks the franchise’s previously inviting photography.
To his credit, Raimi is aware of the film’s tonal issues, telling Rolling Stone in 2022, “I have a sense of the absurd that maybe people don’t want to see applied to their most-beloved superheroes.” Elements of Spider-Man 3 are unquestionably absurd, but absurdity is not new to Raimi’s Spidey films. (Willem Dafoe’s Green Goblin is so hammy it could be a sandwich.) The issue is absurdity without anchor. Both Spider-Man and Spider-Man 2 have clear emotional centers: Peter’s identity and his relationship with MJ. Spider-Man 3, however, overflows with plot threads and characters it introduces as if it just remembered them.
Now, all this might sound like I hate the movie. I don’t. Spider-Man 3 is still a Sam Raimi Spider-Man movie, meaning it bursts with personality, wit, and well-staged action. The performances are good, and the parts Raimi clearly cares about are more effective than it may seem. Sandman’s story, if forced, is made effective by Church and Raimi’s human touch; Sandman’s creation sequence is a particular standout. Even if overly convoluted, the melodrama at the heart of these films is still compelling – Peter, MJ, and Harry remain remarkably human, learning from believable mistakes. I’m always moved by the movie, though I spend many of its 139 minutes (Raimi’s longest film) frustrated.
Despite its imperfect path there, Spider-Man 3’s resolution is powerful. Harry comes to his friends’ rescue to help defeat Venom (Brock dies attempting to re-bond with the symbiote). Sandman confesses to killing Uncle Ben, and Peter, now the perpetrator of hurt, forgives him as Sandman returns to his family. Harry, mortally wounded protecting Peter, dies in Peter’s and MJ’s arms as they reaffirm their friendship. Over Harry’s funeral, Peter narrates the film’s lesson: “It’s the choices that make us who we are, and we can always choose to do what’s right.”
The movie’s final scene is between Peter and MJ as she sings the jazz standard “I’m Through with Love” at the club she waitresses. Peter enters in a suit when the two lock eyes. He reaches out his hand, she steps offstage, and Peter and MJ dance, holding each other with quiet tears as the film slowly fades to black. Their intent is unclear – are they reuniting, breaking up, mourning their friend, or some combination of the above? – but I adore its understated ambiguity, standing in stark contrast to its predecessors with Spidey triumphantly swinging through the New York skyline.
Raimi openly admits the film’s failings, saying in 2009 he “didn’t really have creative control” and he “messed up plenty” in 2022, describing it as “awful” in a 2014 podcast. Nonetheless, Spider-Man 3 grossed nearly $896 million worldwide, the highest of the trilogy. Though reception was mixed upon release, the film has experienced some favorable reappraisal, in some part due to the trilogy’s memes. While Raimi trilogy memes are popular, Spider-Man 3 memes almost rule the internet. Bully Maguire, Peter’s emo look, has a life all its own. Even the score is memed, as the black suit theme is viral on TikTok. The memes are so ubiquitous they found their way to the bully himself, with Maguire considering it “a funny discovery.”
Helping matters is an alternate version dubbed the Editor’s Cut released on the trilogy’s Blu-Ray debut designed, per editor Bob Muraski, to more empower the film’s characters. Two minutes shorter, the Editor’s Cut does not remove any of Spider-Man 3’s core issues. It does, though, restore Young’s original score and include several more emotionally charged scenes, changing the context of Harry’s redemption and adding more material with Sandman’s family. While there is no way to substantively fix Spider-Man 3 beyond utilizing the DeLorean/TARDIS/your preferred time machine, the Editor’s Cut is a better and purer, if marginally so, presentation of the film.
In a 2022 Rolling Stone interview, Raimi says “[Spider-Man 3] was a very painful experience for me. I wanted to make a Spider-Man movie to redeem myself for that.” Said movie would have been Spider-Man 4, which Raimi planned “to end on a very high note, to be the best Spider-Man of them all.” Dated for May 6, 2011, John Malkovich and Anne Hathaway were cast as villains (Vulture and Black Cat, respectively). However, Spider-Man 4 was cancelled in what Raimi stated was “the most amicable and understanding of breakups,” as the film would not be ready for its intended release. Instead, Sony infamously rebooted the character. (Will I go long on the Andrew Garfield movies? Probably not. They’re not good.)
Both Raimi and Maguire have returned to Marvel superherodom: Raimi directed Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and Maguire reprised his role in the third Spidey film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man: No Way Home. (Spidey and messy threequels, name a more iconic duo.) Nevertheless, there are, per Raimi, no current Spider-Man 4 plans, though he, Maguire, and Dunst are vaguely open to it. Personally, I’m satisfied letting this be. The deep, almost pathological love I have for the Raimi trilogy notwithstanding (thought I could cover all three movies in one post LOL), I don’t yearn for a story starring a 50-year-old Spidey.
At the end of three parts and nearly six thousand words (I am so sorry), revisiting the Raimi trilogy in theaters has only affirmed I still, and will forever, worship at its webbed altar. Rather than something best left in childhood or adolescence, I’ll carry them with me forever. My relationship with each changed as I aged – Spider-Man became more a sentimental melodrama, Spider-Man 2 an inspirational tome on identity and selflessness, and Spider-Man 3 a mature if messy treatise on reconciliation. I’ll always choose to watch Spider-Man learn to choose what’s right. After all, it’s the choice that make us who we are.