Oh, what a tangled web

Went to see what all the fuss with the final instalment of the Marvel comics Spiderman franchise is all about. Actually, went to see the flick because *David Stratton loved it and *Margaret Pomerance hated it. Personally, I can’t see all that David saw, and as for hating the extreme excesses of CGI, which was Margaret’s beef, all I can say is if you’re going to make a successful film about a Marvel super hero, then CGI is obligatory. Suck it up, Margaret!

As for the movie itself, yes, it’s about forty minutes too long, the story does tend to lose it’s way and - seriously - do we really need to have three nasties, a romance triangle AND the fight between good and evil all in the one flick?

Look, don’t get me wrong. This is a fun movie just brimming with terrific special effects, but two hours thirty minutes of CGI and seemingly randomised plot lines tends to leave one a little tired, confused and just a tad jaundiced. It could have been done better, cleaner and far more succinctly, for my money. Tobey Maguire still isn’t the Spiderman from my youth and Kirsten Dunst is missing more than a reasonable cleavage as Mary Jane Watson.

I think the bell tolled for Spidey in my mind when during a particularly dramatic entry by the web-head, he just happened to land in that posed Spiderman crouch smack-bang in front of a gracefully waving Old Glory. Up to that point, I could have forgiven the movie it’s length and it’s irrelevance in storylines, but when what’s meant to be an (almost)anonymously fun experience suddenly becomes a political statement - however tongue in cheek it may have been intended - I tend to switch off completely.

My rating for the third, last and sadly worst of the franchise is a flat five out of ten points, and that only for the essence of escapism it still retained and the magic of Computer Generated Imagery.

* Often maligned but always pertinent Australian movie reviewers who appear weekly on Australian television.