Spider-Man 3 - Attack Of The Nerds

I went to the midnight showing of Spider-Man 3 last night. Before I chime in with my two cents let me point out a few other reviews. I didn't read any of them in their entirety before watching the movie, but scanned them to get a general consensus. That consensus? Blind, seething nerd rage.
There is no better example of this than the guy who stood up in our theater, just as the final credits began to roll, to vent his frustration with one of the villain's use of pronouns.

"Venom says 'we', not 'I'!"

He raised his hands to incite the glorious nerd revolution that surely would come, but was met with blank stares and sarcastic jeers (I have to admit I took part in the latter).
Oh, did I mention he was wearing a Venom shirt? Did I also mention that when someone else walked into the theater in a Venom shirt prior to the movie, he bragged to his friends that his was more authentic?

This is the environment in which I watched this movie. And I thoroughly enjoyed the hell out of it. Spider-Man 3 is at least as good as its predecessors. Anyone who says otherwise is suffering from a severe case of Star Wars Syndrome, a brain fluctuation that raises the quality of previous films to such legendary heights that any sequel (or prequel) is doomed to be a let down. My comparison ends there, however, because the Spider-Man movies are far superior to anything in the Star Wars prequels. My point is that many of the fans are walking into this movie with the misconception that the first two were perfect gems. Let's not forget that they were riddled with groan-inducing dialog and (dare I say it?) obvious CGI animation. That didn't stop them from being highly entertaining and engrossing. Because despite their flaws both movies felt like real portrayals of Spider-Man.
Spider-Man 3, to me, is no different. The action is amped up, as is the tension between Peter, MJ, and Harry.

Parts of this movie were astounding to me (mild, obvious spoilers): Harry's betrayal of Peter, Peter's subsequent betrayal of MJ, Peter's dark side, everything with Topher Grace and Venom. There are other, smaller details and scenes that are also very excellent.

Parts of this movie were cheesy and heavy handed: Peter's strutting sequence (which is funny but would have serviced the movie better if it had been cut in half), Harry's fatherly butler providing some much needed exposition that leaves you wondering why the hell he didn't speak up sooner, some mild contrivances. Although, if you can't handle a few contrivances in a movie about a man with spider powers and a giant made out of sand...well, I don't know what to tell you. It also seems that Sam Raimi wants to turn MJ into the next Minmei. And if you don't know what I'm talking about than you are out of your league, young nerdling.

All I can say is, if you liked the first two movies then you'll like this one. Provided you don't go into it with your nerdometer turned up to eleven.

Final comments: Um...nerd.

Slinging Webs...In My Pants

So here's the sparkly new trailer for Spider-Man 3:

I'm looking forward to this movie quite a lot. I loved the first two (the second being my favorite) and had only minor complaints about them. I love Sam Raimi, and have a lot of confidence in him as far as the third movie goes. But. I am a bit concerned about how much CGI character work is done in this one. A lot of people complained about the stuff in the first movies, that whenever a character was suddenly replaced by a computer double it was painfully obvious. I agree that it was obvious, but felt that it didn't detract from the movie too much. But practically every shot of Spider-Man in this trailer is CGI. And maybe it's just me, but it almost looks like a step back from the previous movies. The CGI somehow looks faker to me. Or maybe I've just seen some spectacular shit since Spider-Man 2 and this new stuff hasn't kept up. I've got no problem with the Sandman character. That has to be done with computers, there's just no other way. And the crawly, inky black suit is fine, too. I don't know. Even non-character objects like some of the debris Spider-Man is dodging looks super fake.
It's possible that whoever edited the preview just picked a bunch of CGI-heavy shots to give it that extra kick. But it's also possible that most of the movie is like this. Despite these misgivings I'm very, very excited. If the story is good enough, and the movie is fun enough I will overlook these things. Like I said, I have faith in Sam Raimi and I haven't been truly disappointed yet. I love the casting, and I can't wait to see where Raimi takes the story next (although anyone with even a slight knowledge of Spider-Man probably knows the key events that are in this movie).
I remain cautiously giddy.