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SYNOPSIS:
In Spider-Man 3, Peter Parker has finally managed to strike
a balance between his devotion to M.J. and his duties as a
superhero. But there is a storm brewing on the horizon. When
his Spider-Man suit suddenly changes, turning jet-black and
enhancing his powers, it transforms Peter as well. Under the
influence of the suit, Peter becomes prideful and overconfident
and he begins to neglect the ones he cares about most. As
two of the most-feared villians yet, Sandman and Venom, gather
unparalleled power of thirst for retribution, Peter's greatest
battle is the one within himself. Spider-Man will need to
rediscover the compassion that makes him who he is: a hero.
MOVIE
REVIEW
Since
the success of the first Spider-Man, Sam Raimi and his faithful
cast and crew has been slogging to up the stakes with each
sequel. That perhaps led to the inclusion one of the fan’s
favourite villain, Venom. Originally, the final draft of the
script has Sandman and Vulture battling Spidey, well for commercial
reason or as Sony puts it, fans pressure, Venom was conceived
into the script at the very last stage of production.
Spider-Man
3 apparently has too much to offer; surprisingly Raimi has
enough on his sleeves to accommodate the numerous characters
old and new within the short time frame (duration is 139 minutes,
pretty long in fact) with the exception of Venom.
While
I care and feel towards Harry Osborn and Peter Parker and
even Thomas Haden Church’s Sandman, I couldn’t
really feel connected to Venom’s alter ego, Eddie Brock.
The origins of the goo-like substance and Eddie Brock weren’t
really fleshed out. Loyal comic fans might bear a grudge to
that though. We can see for sure Sam Raimi is pretty “old-school”
with his penchant for classic characters such as Green Goblin,
Doc Octopus and Sandman.
But for
a summer blockbuster, Spider-Man 3 is one hell of a joyride!
The aerial battle between Peter Parker and the new goblin
will leave you breathless within minutes of the opening. There’s
even a car chase involving Sandman and Spidey. Wait! And there’s
the finale that will knock your senses out. One major setup
after another and you realize how important the Spider-Man
franchise is to the whole economy (I’m kidding).
If
you are an avid follower of the Spider-Man movies, this one
serves as a nice full-stop to the whole series. Perhaps Sam
Raimi has more web-crawler stories to tell but give the man
his well-deserved break before his batteries went flat.
SPECIAL FEATURES :
This 2-Disc edition of Spider-man 3 is bursting with
extras. Almost every aspect of the film-making process is
covered and amazingly recorded for our home entertainment.
Without further ado, let’s get on with it shall we?
Disc one boasts the original theatrical version
of Spider-Man 3 and two Commentary tracks, the first
with Director & Cast and the second, the Filmmakers. The
first has the director, producer, effects personnel and cast
members such as Tobey Maguire, James Franco, Kirsten Dunst,
Thomas Haden Church, Topher Grace and Bryce Dallas Howard.
The group seems to have fun taking jibes at each other and
genuinely looking forward to a fourth sequel if there’s
one. Franco for the record loves to be in it (if you haven’t
caught the movie then you won’t get what the last sentence
meant).
The
second features Producers Avi Arad, Laura Ziskin, Grant Curtis
(who also cameo as a security guard in the movie), Editor
Bob Murawski and visual effects supervisor Scott Stokdyk.
Some of the points highlighted here were either mentioned
earlier or in the making of features. Nevertheless, there
are still some precious insights into the movie provided by
them which you might find interesting.
A
host of Trailers including Surf Up, Across
the Universe, Superbad, Vantage Point, Ghost Rider and a Blu
Ray promo reel round up Disc one.
Disc
Two begins with 6 minutes of bloopers
reel showing the goofy side of the cast, Maguire especially
is a blast.
You
want to see how CG sand is created? Then look no further,
see it here in Grains of Sand – Building Sandman
featurette. See how the CG artistes use Arizona sand
as a guide to create the nasty Sandman. A perfect blend of
science and computer technology.
In
Re-Imagining the Goblin Featurette, the props master
explains how the slider is created and listens to the costume
designer says why a mixture of SWAT and Black Knight inspires
the new Goblin’s costume.
Venom,
the much anticipated villain in the Spider-Man’s universe
is dissected in Covered in Black –Creating Venom
featurette. This 15 minutes segment shows you how
the “goo” liked substance is applied on actor
Topher Grace during filming.
The
key word here is money and it goes to show why it costs millions
of greenback to create Spider-Man movies. A special hydraulic
mechanism (sort of those used in theme parks) is specially
built to create Gwen Stacy’s fall sequence. And you
get to see how those brilliant engineers did that in Hanging
on…Gwen Stacy & the Collapsing Floor featurette.
This
is my favourite feature of all. Fighting, Flying &
Driving – The Stunts featurette delves on the
how the battles of the various characters are coordinated.
Producer Laura Ziskin says in her interview that the actions
of Spider-man 3 need to top the previous instalment. Seeing
the final product onscreen and how parts of the aerial battles,
fights are rigged and not entirely CG, you got to agree with
her.
Tangled
Web: The Love Triangles of Spider-Man 3 is a 9 minutes
segment that touches on the love-hate relationship between
Peter, M.J., Gwen and Harry Osborn. Interviews..interviews..
This
must be one of those movies that boast several major action
sets within minutes after the next. In Wall of Water
– The Big Dump featurette, we get to see how
Thomas Haden Church’s Sandman gets all washed up. Visually,
it’s a cool setup. Logistically it’s a nightmare.
Inside
the Editing Web featurette, film editor Bob Murawski
introduces us to the world of editing Spider-man 3. From animatics
to storyboards to the various footages provided by the different
units, Bob’s role is to cut them together. We guess
we still prefer to see the end product.
Digital
surround sound, effects, score…no movies can survive
without these. In From Foley to Scoring – The
Science of Sound featurette, Composer Christopher
Young introduces us to the music behind Spider-Man 3 and sound
mixing designers/engineers and foley artistes demonstrate
how actual sound effects are created.
The
Spider-man comics are set in one of the world’s famous
cities, New York. It will be a sin not to shoot the franchises
there. On Location New York – From Rooftops
to Backstreets featurette takes an interesting look
behind the scenes of crew capturing the lovely city’s
backdrop using a Spydercam for shooting plates (for insertion
of CG elements) and the difficulties of shooting scenes there.
Because
of traffic concerns, the chase of Sandman on the bank armour
truck sequence was filmed in Cleveland, Ohio instead. On
Location Cleveland – The Chase on Euclid Avenue
is a great 6 minutes showcase of how the stunt team filmed
the exhilarating chase down the street.
Several
TV Spots Around the World including those
from Japan, Spain, UK are in the DVD as well. Try to pick
up a few foreign lines if possible. This is follow by the
original teaser which was revealed to the world back in 2006
and the final 3 theatrical trailers.
Rounding
up this DVD is the music video for Snow Patrol: “Signal
Fire” MTV and photo galleries if you still
can’t enough of Toby Maguire’s charm or Bruce
Dallas Howard’s beauty.
AUDIO/VISUAL:
I always find myself caught in a dilemma. How do you grade
an excellent DVD transfer which possessed a high quality of
visual aspects but simultaneously betraying the unrealistic
CG effects at times? In retrospect, the rich colours and specks
free DVD visual has overcome my fussiness. You just can’t
get the best of both worlds yet.
The
5.1 audio is excellent with left, right and rear speakers
booming actively during the battle sequences (which Spider-Man
3 fortunately has many). Dialogue is not an issue and you
can hear venom’s hissing loud and clear.
Parting Thoughts: This is definitely a DVD that’s
worth the price tag. The visual and audio transfer is top-notch
and the extras are superb. All in all, hesitation is a sin
when it comes to “Spider-Man 3” 2 disc-special
edition DVD. Get it!
MOVIE RATING:
DVD
RATING :
Review
by Linus Tee
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