D00d, it's a joke. Unclench.
Posted on 05/02/2007 9:44:55 AM PDT by SirLinksalot
Spider-Man 3" begins with Spider-Man, a.k.a. Peter Parker, surveying the crime-free paradise he has created in the big city. Not only do criminals fear him, but the public finally sees him as the hero he wants to be. To top it all off, Peter is about to propose to the girl of his dreams, Mary Jane Watson, aka M.J.
There's trouble in paradise, however. Peter is getting a big head from all the public adulation, and he is not able to properly comfort M.J. when she gets a bad review after her opening night on Broadway. Meanwhile, a new, cocky photographer, Eddie Brock, challenges Peter for a full-time job with the Daily Bugle. The cost of getting the job is to give crusty editor J. Jonah Jameson a negative photo of Spider-Man doing something bad!
Then, when Peter's relationship with M.J. starts to turn more and more sour, a new villain shows up, an escaped criminal named Flint Marko who gets caught in a particle physics experiment gone wrong to become the Sandman. The Sandman is a really cool-looking character who can change his shape into a battering ram or shifting sand particles, or float away as a sand storm.
As if Peter Parker and Spider-Man didn't have enough problems, Peter's old friend Harry takes up the Green Goblin mantle to get revenge for the death of his father, the first Green Goblin, who was killed during a fight with Spider-Man. And a meteor from outer space unleashes an intelligent alien monster of malevolent, black sticky goo that attaches itself to one of Peter's Spider-Man outfits. When Peter learns that the Sandman, Flint Marko, is really the one who killed Peter's beloved Uncle Ben in the first movie, the new black suit unleashes all of Peter's anger and hate. Thus, the greatest villain of all turns out to be Peter's, and our, own dark, sinful hearts.
The story builds from here into a thrilling finale where Peter learns the true meaning of love and the power of forgiveness. In the end, he finds a way to make things right again, but with a newfound level of maturity.
It's hard to juggle more than one major villain in a story, and this may be where "Spider-Man 3" suffers most. It gives the movie one or two too many sub-plots to handle. That said, of all the action movies with more than one major villain (see "Batman 2" and "3," for example), "Spider-Man 3" does the best, because it knows where it's headed and what it wants to say.
Thus, the final third of "Spider-Man 3" contains overt Christian references to Jesus Christ on the Cross, a Christian church and answered prayers. These combine to reinforce the movie's Christian themes of love, sacrifice, forgiveness, hope, compassion and faith. Consequently, despite a couple scary villains that are a little too much for younger children, "Spider-Man 3" has a very strong Christian worldview with very strong moral, biblical values. If Christians and families see only one action movie this year, "Spider-Man 3" is the one action movie they and other moviegoers may not want to miss.
Best of all, not only does "Spider-Man 3" extol Christian values like sacrifice, forgiveness and love in a setting that resonates with overt Christian metaphors and symbols, it also is a cinematic embodiment of Jesus Christ's statement in John 15:13, "Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends." This is a lesson that both Peter and M.J. learn in "Spider-Man 3." It is also what Jesus does for us on the Cross, so that His death may wash us free of sin and bring us closer to Him and His precious love and joy in the Kingdom of God and Heaven.
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MOVIEGUIDE® is dedicated to redeeming the values of Hollywood by informing parents about today's movies and entertainment and by showing media executives and artists that family-friendly and even Christian-friendly movies do best at the box office year in and year out.
Ted Baehr and Tom Snyder are founder and editor, respectively, of "MOVIEGUIDE®: The Family Guide to Movies & Entertainment."
Uh, yeah, it’s a comic book character. However, the character of Peter Parker was a lot deeper than you apparently cared to think about.
Its popcorn for the mind, thats all.
So you are the superficial type. Thanks for clarifying. If that’s all you get out of movies, so be it. To each his/her own.
The fact you act as though I somehow insulted a family member of yours is....odd.
Get a grip. Its not ‘real’.
D00d, it's a joke. Unclench.
Actually, the original Green Latern (Silver Age version) was Abn Sur. He was sort of... fuschia.
I only watch Futurama (the greatest animated TV show for adults EVER), but I do think they do a great job with the cards at the ad breaks. They’ve got a great marketing sense...except for that whole Boston situation. :-)
Yep, I’ve been corrected multiple times over this thread.
Fuchsia. Heh, reminds me of a cartoon I saw. It was an alien invasion and a guy commented to his wife that this type of incident would be a fuchsia on the Homeland Security color grid.
He he. Clearly.
Why, because of sand? I think you're reading WAAAAAYYY too much into that.
Maybe because it wasn't really Gospel???? A lot of counterfiet stuff was being circulated, that Pauls warns about explicitly.
LOL Not very meaningful coming from someone as superficial as you.
The fact you act as though I somehow insulted a family member of yours is....odd.
LOL Not very meaningful coming from someone as superficial as you.
Superficial is taking a comic book character in a hollywood movie seriously.
We’re done.
LOL This from the person whose 'understanding' of the character of Peter Parker in the movie Spiderman was that the guy struggled to decide whether to date the hot chick or not.
This isn’t as important to me as it is too you. Let it go.
Well, now I know why Laura Ingraham was reporting that movie reviewers were savaging SPider-Man 3.
The same way that movie reviewers were savaging The Passion.
LOL Then why do you keep responding?
Because I’m polite, and you keep pinging me. If the software here had a filter capability, I wouldn’t.
The filter I use is my own eyes reading the screen name of the person who has posted to me. Works every time.
It doesn't make sense, his uncle saying that to him. We know it makes sense, but his uncle doesn't know he's a superhero. Would Perry White ever say that to a young Clark Kent?
It makes sense with the rest of the conversation (in the original book and various ret-cons and reboots). The power Uncle Ben thought he was talking about were the normal powers of a person, the power of thought and knowledge (remember Peter was already a nerd with a potentially bright future), the power of love and caring, the power to influence and assist. It was really a “you can do anything you want, don’t want to be a screw up” conversation that just had much larger overtones.
Perry White might say that to Clark Kent in the post Alan Moore era, prior to the 80s the DC universe was primarily populated with “flawless” heroes, the most notable Superman with the perfect chin, perfect hair, and perfect belief system. Stan Lee took Marvel’s heroes in a different direction pretty much from the start, Marvel’s heroes have frequently been confused and conflicted, they have real world problems like having to pay bills and not always getting along with their relatives. In the pre-foible era of DC Clark Kent would never need a pep-talk about anything, he would never get in a situation where the stresses of work, family and tights are impeding each other. Peter Parker was already in a situation where the stresses of school, family and just plain adolescence were causing him problems, then he gets super powers and his life really becomes a mess.
You do realize that the director, sam raimi, is a republican who has donated to bush?
1. I was wrong, David Letterman is not in it.
2. I still believe that the Sandman is a symbol for the Arabs and that Spider-man is one of America's revenge for 9/11 - notice how many shots involving the destruction of tall buildings. However, the movie is saying that the Arabs (or perhaps good Muslims) are not to blame for that injustice. The real murderer hijacked the car — and religion — and got his punishment.
3. The reporter who became evil and addicted to power, and who sided with the Sandman, is like the Democrats who tie down America when facing a foreign treat (he had Spidey netted to a beam as the Sandman pummeled him). The same reporter also faked the article on Spider Man which is an allusion to Dan Rather. As well, the newspapers boss wants to believe that Spider-Man is bad so there is an agenda to only show bad news — which the MSM does in regards to America’s efforts in the war in Iraq.
4. The movie shows the positive side of religion and conveys the message that people are responsible for their actions — unlike the liberal message of everybody is a victim.
5. The bells sounds that weaken the goo is symbolic of Christianity’s ability to combat hatred. The reporter who became evil never believed in the positive power of Christianity. As well, previous enemies like the young Goblin can join in the effort on the side of good -- perhaps an appeal to moderate Democrats.
The only thing that irked me a bit is that the mother of Spider-Man almost seemed too accepting and didn’t feel the need for retribution or revenge (at least a tiny bit) or, on a more positive note, a harsher form of justice than turn the other cheek.
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