Plot Clog

I thought Spider-Man 3 started out promisingly, but soon got bogged down under too much plot. Not enough plot is always a problem, but the opposite can be just as bad.

MAJOR SPOILAGE AHEAD

I really can't show how there's too much plot without going into some detail. So here is a basic summary of Spidey 3's story:

Peter Parker, aka Spider-Man, is finally achieving acceptance in New York City as a superhero. He stills lives in a cheap apartment, still works as a photographer for the Daily Bugle, still fights crime on a regular basis, and still is in love with Mary Jane Watson. She's on the verge of stardom, appearing in a Broadway show.

Meanwhile, Harry Osborn, friend of Mary Jane, is a sworn enemy of Spidey, since he (falsely) believes Spider-Man killed his father (who had turned into a supervillain). Harry is as rich and powerful as his dad, and seeks to avenge him.

Harry, as a new Goblin supervillain, attacks Spidey. Harry is seriously injured, and when he recovers consciousness, has forgotten many things, including his hatred of Spider-Man. He and Peter start being pals again. However, Harry starts recovering his memory, uses Mary Jane to get back at Peter, and sets up a huge fight with Spidey.

This is actually enough for an entire movie, but Spidey 3 is just getting started.

You see, there's another girl--and I don't mean Betty Brant, secretary at the Bugle, who likes Peter a lot, but rather Gwen Stacy, a hot blonde (played by redhead Bryce Dallas Howard, because blonde Kirsten Dunst is already playing the redhead). Mary Jane, who has been fired from the Broadway show after bad reviews (she really needs a better agent), is jealous of Gwen, who gets to kiss an upside down Spider-Man during a city salute she's speaking at. She happens to be a major model, who was in danger during a shoot, and was saved by Spider-Man. By chance, she's also Peter Parker's lab partner in his advanced physics class. And did I mention her dad is an important police captain?

On top of which, she's dating Eddie Brock--at least he thinks she is. Brock is a hotshot photogapher who wants to replace Peter Parker at the Bugle. If this isn't bad enough, publisher J. Jonah Jameson tells Brock and Parker he'll give the job to whichever one can make Spider-Man look bad.

Meanwhile, cheap thug Flint Marko has escaped from jail. It turns out, as opposed to what we were shown in the first movie, that Flint is the one who murdered Peter's Uncle Ben--the primal moment that turned Peter into a crime fighter.

But actually Flint wasn't a heartless killer, he just needed money to save his baby girl, and things got out of hand. While on the run, he stumbles onto a major government experiment on sand, and is turned into supervillain Sandman.

Meanwhile, Captain Stacy finds out about Marko's murder, and tells Peter, along with his Aunt May. Peter goes nuts and swears vengeance. Usually he wouldn't go nuts, except....

While Peter and Mary Jane are on a date, a shooting star hits the earth and this black ooze comes out and takes a hike on Peter's motorbike. It lays in wait and eventually takes over Peter, turning him into black-suited Spider-Man. This makes Peter, as Spidey and himself, much more aggressive and hateful, and he kills (or so he thinks) Sandman--even though Aunt May warns him against revenge, and Dr. Curt Connors, his physics prof and a rare scientist friend of Peter who doesn't turn into a supervillain, tells him of the danger of the black ooze.

After doing a lot of damage, Peter finally confronts the darksuited Spider-Man, and though he pulls off the ooze, he throws it onto nearby Eddie Brock, who by chance has just sworn to kill Peter Parker, since Parker (when he was under the influence of the ooze) informed on Brock, letting the world know his anti-Spidey photo was fake, getting him fired. Brock turns into supervillain Venom.

It actually goes on from there, but I think you get the picture: two cases of avenging a murdered father or father-figure, three damsels in distress, two people who don't think straight after losing their jobs, three to five (depending on how you count the black ooze) supervillains, etc.

Diagnosis: plot overload.