Scott Springmann - Spider-man 3

****Spoiler Warning****
This blog describe much of the plot in detail, so unless you have seen the movie or don't mind it being spoiled, don't read it yet!







I saw a midnight showing of Spider-man 3 last night, and actually found that there was a lot of religious symbolism. Much of the story revolves around fighting the “darkness within” which can be thought of as the sins that people commit within the movie. As the movie continues it emphasizes forgiveness and putting things right.
We start by seeing Peter Parker’s popularity as Spider-man at an all-time high. This goes to Peter’s head, as we see him constantly talking about himself whenever he is with his girlfriend, Mary Jane. He is so obsessed with his own popularity that he is neglecting the needs and feelings of Mary Jane.

Peter Parker’s best friend Harry Osborne is consumed by rage towards Peter because Harry believes that he killed his father. He has made it his goal to take revenge on Peter no matter what.

Eddie Brock is a new photographer in town who becomes Peter’s rival at the Daily Bugle and is determined to do whatever is necessary to muscle out Parker. His girlfriend is Peter’s lab partner, Gwen Stacey.

Flint Marko is an escaped convict who turned to crime to get money so that he can help his sick daughter get well. He is also haunted by the memory of the man he killed in a crime gone bad a few years earlier, Peter’s uncle Ben.

Through out this movie these characters all do terrible things to each other, and each one has a decision to make about how they will react.

Toward the beginning of the movie Harry attacks Peter, and a battle above the streets ensues, ending with Harry seriously injured and going to the hospital. After he recovers, Harry has temporary memory loss and doesn’t even remember how his father died. Peter uses this as an opportunity to rebuild his friendship with Harry.

Soon after Peter takes Mary Jane out to dinner with the intention of asking her to marry him, but messes it up by not talking to her about the things in her life. Tensions rise even further when Peter’s lab partner Gwen shows up at the restaurant and says hi to Peter.

Sin in this movie is personified in the symbiote, an amorphous creature that crashes to earth in a meteorite and eventually bonds itself to Peter. The symbiote suit amplifies Peter’s powers, but also increases aggression and hostility, feeding off of these emotions. Peter puts on the suit after hearing that Flint Marko, his uncle’s true killer has escaped from prison. Peter then confronts Flint, who has acquire the power to turn into sand, and throws him into a water pipe believing that he killed him.

Mary Jane feels abandoned by Peter since he is so consumed with being Spider-man and she decides to spend more time with Harry instead. Mary Jane ends up kissing Harry, a mistake she regrets almost immediately. Harry then recovers his memory, and in an attempt to get back at Peter, he forces Mary Jane to break up with him, saying that there is someone else.

Peter is enraged at Mary Jane and Harry, and since he is wearing the symbiote suit his anger and aggression are elevated. He confronts Harry and a fight ensues with Peter seriously injuring and permanently scarring Harry.

Peter’s rivalry with Eddie Brock also heats up as they are both vying for the same position at the Daily Bugle. The position goes to Eddie when he sells Jonah a picture of Spider-man robbing an armored truck. Peter realizes that the pictures are fakes and tells Eddie that he is going to expose him. Despite Eddie’s pleas not to tell his boss, Peter shows him proof that the pictures were fakes, which permanently ruins Eddie’s career.

He then decides to humiliate MJ by taking Gwen Stacey on a date to the jazz club where MJ works. He does a sensual dance number with Gwen right in front of MJ, and when Gwen realizes that he did it to embarrass her; she is ashamed and apologizes to MJ. Peter then tries to talk to Mary Jane, but her boss and some bouncers intervene. A fight ensues which ends with Peter hitting and knocking down MJ. Horrified by what he just did, Peter runs off and resolves to get rid of the suit. He tries to rip the suit off, but it won’t come off that easily. He struggles with getting it of in the belfry of a church when in his struggle, he accidentally hits the bell. The sound resounding from the bell is too much for the suit, and it weakens enough that Peter can easily rip it off. As he does so it falls down into the church and onto Eddie, who was there praying for God to kill Peter. In the next scene we see Peter in the shower, cleansing himself from the sins that had committed.

In the finale we see Eddie, now powered by the symbiote, team up with flint and they kidnap Mary Jane and start terrorizing the city in the hope to lure out spider-man. Peter knows that he can’t beat them alone, so he asks Harry for help. Harry, now with scarring all over his face from his fight with Peter, refuses. His mind is change when his butler reveals to him that his father wasn’t killed by spider-man, but that he had killed himself. Here we see forgiveness as Harry joins Peter in the battle. They manage to save Mary Jane and Peter has to face off with Eddie. He devises a clever plan to get the symbiote suit off of Eddie and he uses one of Harry’s grenades to destroy it, but Eddie, consumed by his anger and vengeance, tries to rejoin with the suit just as the bomb goes off, and he is destroyed.

After this we see that Flint has given up the fight. He talks to Peter about the night that he killed his uncle, saying that he regretted it every day. Peter then forgives him for what he did.

The themes of sin and forgiveness are powerful in this movie and particularly echo many of the teachings of Jesus. The movie shows everyone hurting someone else, and also shows what a good thing forgiveness was, and compares that with what happens when we let anger and greed consume us. I really like the movie, despite that certain parts were over-the-top cheesy, and I think that there some great messages that are taught.