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Spider-Man Trilogy [2002] | ![Spider-Man Trilogy [2002]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61-M3IszSoL._SL160_.jpg)
 enlarge | Artist: Spider-man
Director: Sam Raimi
Actors: Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst
Studio: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
Category: DVD
List Price: £29.99
Buy New: £9.45
You Save: £20.54 (68%)
New (13) Used (6) from £8.00
Rating:  182 reviews
Format: Box Set, Pal
Rating: Suitable for 12 years and over
Region: 2
Number Of Discs: 6
Running Time: 371 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.9
Dimensions (in): 7.6 x 5.4 x 1.9
EAN: 5035822692916
ASIN: B000TYV3BC
Theatrical Release Date: 2002
Release Date: October 15, 2007
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
Condition: Factory sealed, genuine UK region 2 release
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.co.uk
The first Spider-man introduces us to Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire), and covers the genesis of the infamous superhero. Set against Willem Dafoe's Green Goblin, it's a deft, impressive and entertaining blockbuster, albeit one that takes a little longer than you'd like to get motoring. Spider-man 2 is the business, though. This is the one with Alfred Molina's stunning Doctor Octopus, although he has to share the screen with the title character contending with his dual life, and the effect on his relationship with Mary-Jane (Kirsten Dunst). It could have gone wrong, but it's so tightly put together that it's one of the very best blockbusters of recent times. Spider-man 3, inevitably, can't quite match the standard set, but you can't fault it for ambitious. Mixing in Topher Grace as Venom, Thomas Haden Church as Sandman and James Franco as the new Green Goblin, it's a lot to fit into one film, and that's what bogs things down. However, when it does hit its stride, Spider-man 3 is a rip-roaring ride in its own right. --Jon Foster
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| Customer Reviews:
 If only.... August 1, 2007
Ruggy (London)
30 out of 36 found this review helpful
This film really could've been special. But, as so many other reviewers have pointed out, its a real let-down. Why do directors always assume that more is better? The first spidey flick had its faults but it was still pretty amazing stuff and we were just glad to have a spidey flick after all the years of false starts and court battles. And the ending did just enough to whet our appetite for the next instalment.
The second one built on the success of the first and took it to the next level. Supreme casting of Alfred Molina as Doc Ock meant we had a villain that was both straight out of the comics yet believeable and another ending that left us salivating for more, turning this into a franchise that you could see would just grow and grow.
And then the inevitable. Too much, too soon. Batman Forever made the same mistake, cramming in too many characters and villains which spelt disaster and the beginning of the end for that franchise. This film could have easily survived on just Sandman and Harry as the villains and the alien symbiote could have made a brief appearance at the end, allowing for a very tempting Spidey 4, focusing on the black suit and Venom.
Ideally Raimi would pull together a director's cut collating all 3 movies and removing all the fluff and nonsense that just aren't necessary - the musical interlude and the landlord's daughter offering chocolate cake and milk (!?) in S2 and far too many instances in S3 to mention.
The franchise is by no means dead becasue of this movie but it does leave you wondering where they're going to take it next. Overall, its still a good film and the amazing effects and dedication of cast & crew just about take it across the finish line but there's no denying, every fan out there of both the films and the comics, if being totally honest, will be thinking, if only....
 A disappointing mess August 27, 2007
M. JONES (uk)
30 out of 41 found this review helpful
Torn between 2 and 3 stars for this third installment, I decided that 2 would suit my title better. I was very underwhelmed.
It seems to me that filmmakers didn't expect to do a fourth film and tried cramming everything into this one and was should have been the climax of a great trilogy became a bit of a mess. First off, the film falls into the classic trap of having too many supervillains. Much like X-Men and Batman, the film struggles to reign them in. There's Sandman, who is one of the greatest CGI creations in cinema (his "birth" is a standout scene), however the rest of the effects fail to reach that standard. Second is Harry Osborn, who has discovered his deceased Dad's arsenal and intends to finally nail Spiderman. Third is Venom, who appears very late in the film (as a result of a fourth "villain" in Peter Parker's dark side) and is a huge letdown.
Because of the "too many cooks" (or crooks) scenario, we get some pretty bad plot devices and coincidences to get them all together. At one point, in order to keep one in a holding pattern, the writer even resorts to the chiched amnesia device (!) while another pair join forces completely at random. Worse still, the films' own history is rewritten to give Sandman more relevance.
Another huge issue is the main storyline which promises a darker Parker, thanks to a handily placed meteor (when I say handily I mean lazily written) which oozes alien gunge that turns Spidey's suit black. However, Parker's decent into the depths of his soul becomes nothing more than having him steal a few cookies and push a few bouncers around, whilst strutting around like a goth version of John Travolta. Combined with the tired on-off romance with MJ and the disorientating action sequences, Spiderman 3 is pretty hard-going.
I kinda hope that they do make a fourth and this time keep it focused on a more coherant and satisfying storyline.
Very confused and conflicted July 31, 2007
Sam Anders (Scotland)
20 out of 28 found this review helpful
Spider-Man was an incredibly successful film and started the current trend in comic-book movies, it was fantastical but it was engaging, it was fun without being childish, funny without being idiotic, it was just a hands-down great movie that pretty much everybody loved, making sequels inevitable. Spider-Man 2 was a great follow-up movie and arguably better, it kept all the good stuff about the original but was enough of its own film to not be samey, again it was loved and made a huge amount of money securing a third installment would be on it's way. As a big fan of both previous films I was very excited about this one, a great trailer later and I was guaranteed to go see it. But sadly where the first two films exceeded all expectations the third aims high but ends up as a massive disappointment.
One of the best things about 1&2 was that they introduced the villain at the beginning and gradually built him up into not only a very threatening antagonist but also a sympathetic character. Here is where 3 hits it's first big snag, having two initial villains and then turning spider-man evil via a third villain (the black suit) and then throwing villain number four in there at the end with no development at all. Director Raimi clearly wants to make the main villain Sandman, a character with an appalling back-story but lots of potential for being this films Goblin/Doc Oc as he goes on a crime spree to try and help his sick daughter. Sadly Sandman gets nowhere near enough time to become an interesting character and ends up just being flat. Harry Osbourne on his high-tech quest for revenge also shows potential to become the big villain this film but he also suffers from a lack of screen time and has clearly had big chunks of his storyline cut out as it contains some massive plot holes which leave it almost comical. Venom (the late entry to the villain competition) is basically pointless, given a complete lack of sympathy and suit which is very unimpressive (originally a body-builder physique with a tentacled black suit sporting a huge white spider on the front he is now a slightly taller black version of spider-man with some pointy teeth).
Spider-man himself becomes a villain for the middle act of the film. This is clearly shown by his hair getting a bit emo (sigh) and him getting cocky when peter parker and becoming violent and vindictive as spider-man. The idea is interesting and could have really worked except that it just becomes ridiculous, with his new symbiotic black suit making peter spontaneously launch into a jazz dance number or walk down the street doing a Saturday Night Fever impression (no, seriously he does, it's embarrassing).
Another big selling point of 1&2 was that we cared what happened, when our hero was in danger or Mary-Jane got kidnapped AGAIN it seemed genuinely dangerous. Here, where we get situations similar to previous films it lacks the previous character build up and thus feels empty and unengaging.
The film also has no idea where to end, with a good final scene followed by a fade to black followed by fading in to another ending scene followed by fade to black followed by a fade in of a rubbish ending scene followed by the end credits - which you wait for just to be sure it is actually over. This clunky and confused ending dispels any good feelings you were harboring after the film so far, so that you end the film on a distinctly downbeat note.
Credit where credit is due though; the visuals in this film (particularly for Sandman) are incredible, the action is well done and would be great if we'd cared what was happening, and all the cast are trying their best to make this the great end to the great trilogy that it should have been. That everyone making the film is clearly trying so hard makes it worse that the movie ends up just falling flat.
If you're considering buying this film I would strongly recommend renting it first to make sure because this is nowhere near the quality of it's predecessors and feels much closer to mediocre super-hero flicks like daredevil than the original movie that blew us all away.
One of the most disappointing trilogy closers you'll ever see.
 Spiderman trilogy - I will be buying it October 22, 2007
M. Rayner (Kent, UK)
16 out of 18 found this review helpful
This is definitely a trilogy I'll be wanting in my collection. I wasn't too sure on the spiderman movie idea when it first came out, but after watching it, I was hooked. I loved Spiderman 2 and when 3 came out, I was so ecstatic after seeing it at the cinema, I wanted to turn around and go right back in again. Absolutely brilliant movie; all 3 combined = absolute heaven.
DISAPPOINTING END October 2, 2007
stuart (MIDDLESBROUGH, ENGLAND)
11 out of 17 found this review helpful
My feelings after watching the third film are somewhere in the neighborhood of satisfied, but that feeling is fairly disappointing. Satisfied more or less means adequate and to follow a sequel that I consider excellent with a film that's only adequate is a certainly a step down. Positively, Spider-Man 3 does reasonably well at maintaining a feeling similar to that of the first two films. I never felt like I wasn't seeing the same world or characters and that's important to me. Continuity in tone really helps hold a series together. The Matrix Reloaded never felt to me like I was witnessing the continuation of the story and world presented in the first installment. The scenery and characters felt like weak and dull recreations and that really bugged me. The New-York of Spider-Man 3 is about the same as before, as is Peter's apartment, The Daily Bugle offices, etc. Peter, Harry, Mary Jane, Aunt May, etc. also carry over well and it's easy to jump back into their lives. Where it doesn't feel like its predecessors is in its pacing and scope. The film tries to tell a lot of story for one film, much more than either the previous installments. This makes it messy. If you took Spider-Man 1 and 2's stories, wove them together and compressed them into one 2 hour film, you'd have a mess pretty similar to Spider-Man 3. A lot of this has to do with poor exposition and the decision to include three villains. In good exposition, events lead to other events and it all seems to flow naturally. Some films end up feeling like a story wasn't really even written, but instead a series of well-crafted scenes that don't necessarily fit well together. A bunch of smaller scenes are then written to connect those scenes. These scenes can feel very forced because they often rely heavily on coincidence. The Matrix Reloaded is full of these contrived scenes and so is Spider-Man 3. They're frustrating because they act like speed bumps where the plot suddenly feels awkward and my enjoyment of the film drops. One scene sticks out particularly in Spider-Man 3 as too awkward. Venom, one of the super-villains, is swinging through alleyways when he is ambushed by the Sandman, another villain. Venom proposes they team to get Spider-Man together, Sandman agrees, end scene. This scene is needed to set up the final, huge battle of the film but just seems poorly worked in. For one it's very short, and two the characters don't know each other and have completely different motives for being villains. That the two would decide that quickly to become partners after coincidentally running into each other is just sloppy to watch.
Despite how it seems, I didn't hate the film. I was just disappointed in its flow as a narrative and thought it aimed much higher than it should have in terms of what to include plot wise. Regardless though, many scenes were very enjoyable to watch and I don't just mean action scenes. The Daily Bugle scenes, as always, were great and funny. The addition of Topher Grace as Peter's photographer rival, Eddie Brock, was great casting. His line delivery works perfectly with his character's sleazy personality and his scenes with Peter are some of the best. The character Harry Osborne returns and becomes one of the film's three villains: a new Green Goblin that takes over where the Goblin of the first film left off. Harry and Peter's relationship is probably the most interesting part of the story. Their struggle between being friends and enemies makes for some tense moments. One of my favorite scenes in the film is a verbal confrontation in a diner between Peter and Harry. Playing off Peter's presumption that he and Harry are back on good terms, Harry orchestrates a bit of nasty drama that sticks a knife in Pete's love life. He has Peter meet him in a diner just to drive the knife in a little further. As Pete storms out, Harry is awash in sadistic joy with himself before making a fast and creepy exit. Harry is really the best handled villain of the film. Not only as the Green Goblin Jr. fighting Spider-Man in the sky much the way his father did, but as Harry, Peter's estranged friend, using their friendship as a pretty sharp weapon against him. The villain I could have done without was the Sandman. His character was interesting but his place in the film as a main character seemed unnecessary and forced. He's an escaped convict running from the police who accidentally falls into a big science experiment and becomes the Sandman. He is also apparently the actual killer of Peter's uncle Ben thus giving Peter motivation to go after him. This reworking of the first film's story seems very far fetched and unnecessary. The computer effects used to create Sandman are terrific as is the performance by Thomas Hayden-Church, but I think the film would have improved without him. More time could then have been given to the conflicts with Harry and Eddie and likewise Goblin and Venom. Venom is particularly nice because he's the only villain not the product of some crazy experiment gone wrong. His creation is almost entirely Peter's fault. Venom acts as a slimy toothy grinning anti-Spider-Man, who hates Spider-Man on a personal level after Eddie Brock loses his job and girlfriend and holds Peter responsible. Two villains definitely would've been enough for one film, especially two villains that feel wronged by Peter personally, not just Peter as Spider-Man. I don't really want them to continue this series, but since it seems like they may anyway, I hope some lesson is learned with number three that less really can be more. If the time that was spent awkwardly packing too many stories into one film was instead spent working on one good story so that it flowed naturally, Spider-Man 3 could have excelled the way number two did.
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