My review of Spiderman 3

"I'm sorry."

These are words that should come out of Peter Parker's mouth frequently during his life as it is depicted in Spider-Man 3.

Also, these are words that are coming out of my mouth far too frequently these days.

Peter begins this movie full of happiness and satisfaction. He has reached (so he thinks) a balance in his life that is markedly different than what we saw during Spider-Man 2, where he struggled to maintain his superhero life, his education, his relationship with Mary Jane.

Seemingly all of that is cleared up in this movie installment. He's got the girl, the city he protects loves him, his grades are up. Everything is fine.

But, the measure of a person is to see them when they are down, to see how they handle adversity and setbacks.

The setbacks do come and Peter responds to them badly. He has let the city's love of Spider-Man go to his head and can't see that Mary Jane is struggling with her own problems. He won't let her talk to him about her fears. She can't compete with the demands of Spider-Man and she can't outlove an entire city, so she (unwisely) shuts down. But, even when she tries to open up to Peter, he isn't really listening.

Then, Peter is beset on all sides with villains aplenty, one of which turns out the be the real crook that caused the death of his Uncle Ben back in movie 1. Peter's renewed guilt and rage over his uncle's death, combines with his conceited state and he becomes a magnet for an alien creature that fuels the aggression and anxiety that is at the heart of a lot of overlooked, overanxious nerdy people. Peter lets this alien force push him down dark paths and helps him justify choices that are hurtful to himself and others. Peter must struggle to find out who he really wants to be. Once again, with great power comes great responsibility.

*******

I really enjoyed the movie. I didn't LOVE it unconditionally like I did Spider-Man 2, but I found it highly entertaining, funny when it was trying to be. I also recognized when it resembled a series of video game stunts and felt that some other moments could have been cut or the pacing improved in the slow sections to make it a tighter film that didn't seem to be running 100 miles-an-hour at one point and 25 miles-per-hour at another. This sort of felt like two movies pushed into one-and-a-half movies. But, I enjoyed it all the same.

******

"I'm sorry," says Peter and as I said, it seems that I'm doing that all the time too.

I say it to my neighbors at work for when I am not providing a good atmosphere for their work. I say it to my managers and coworkers when I am not meeting deadlines. I say it to Lynda when I am grumpy and overstressed and can't leave my work mess at work. I say it to myself when I can't allow myself to be human, can't allow myself to make mistakes and struggle through them, coming out the other side imperfectly but out. I can't allow myself to recognize that the mess I'm in isn't ENTIRELY of my own making and I can't recognize the fact that even if I had done EVERYTHING better than I did and am currently doing, it might still be a big mess.

I am NOT doing any work tonight, and for that I guess I'll say again, "I'm sorry."