The Marvel Cinematic Universe

[OchrisO]

So, I just got back from watching Spiderman 3. I had heard varying bad reports ranging from "I was disappointed" to "Don't waste your money." However, I actually greatly enjoyed the movie. Being the huge comic nerd that I am, I generally pick apart movies in typical fanboy fashion, and there were issues that i had with this one. I'll put the rest in spoiler tags for thos who haven't seen it yet.

Spoiler:

I was a bit disappointed that they brough Gwen Stacy into the story because in the comics, Peter dates her, and she dies before he even meets Mary Jane. I was also a bit annoyed that they didn't kill her. In the whole scene where Spiderman was saving her, I was waiting for him to grab her with the webbing and it break her neck. However, Bryce Dallas Howard is beautiful, so I was ok with her being in the movie.

Spoiler:

I thought they did a really good job with Sandman. Flint Marko/William Baker was always the reluctant criminal, and they portrayed that well. I also really liked Thomas hayden Church's potrayal of him.

Spoiler:

One thing that was somewhat corney was the portrayal of Peter when under the influence of the symbiote. However, i think the corney stuff, like him walking down the street pointing at all the girls and such was justified. In the comics, the suit makes Peter really cocky, and alternately a dark, brooding asshole. When he is being cocky, we have to remember that he is still peter Parker, which means that he is still a huge fucking dork. His idea of cool and confident would be quite different that the normal idea of it.
He does seem a bit "emo" at times, but he was very much like that in the comics, and that was stuff written before the modern concept of "emo" even existed, so i am ok with it.

Spoiler:

Some people that I have talked to were annoyed that Harry ended up helping Peter, but as I recall, though my memory is a bit fuzzy, there was a point in the comics where Harry, being a very mentally unstable person, goes good for a while, and is friends with Peter again, only to completely snap again later, being worse than he was before. My only issue with the movie was that they killed him before he could snap again bringing the character full circle. Also, it seems that Venom/ Eddie Brock went out entirely too easy, but I don't think that he is really dead. Topher Grace did a good job playing him, though he looked more like Ultimate Venom than the regular continuity Venom, but then again, they didn't do the whole Secret Wars story line either, so, they sort of mixed the two continuities anyway. I just wish he would have had more screen time than he did.

Overall, there were things that bothered me, but almost all comic movies have stuff that bother me, because I pick them apart with fanboy zeal. The only comic movies that I haven't had a huge list of issues with were Sin City and 300, because they both used the Frank Miller comics for story and in some cases actual storyboards. So, I have become used to seeing everything changed around, and putting that stuff aside, I thought that it was quite a good movie.