Just saw BettyHill's post on Spider-Man 3, and thought I'd mention that I've seen it too. In fact, our friend Stacy and I went to the midnight showing on Thursday night (May 3). It officially opened here in the US on Friday May 4 (and technically, midnight is Friday). Stacy is a little nuts about this sort of thing, and insisted we go to the midnight showing opening night. Now, if there's one thing that bumps me off the trailer fast, it's waiting in long lines for hours and still getting a really bad seat. But I took a deep breath, figured out how to not care about the crowds or the hassel, and told her yes.

I must say, the Trailer was with us that night-- I had a great time, and it was practically no hassel at all. We met about 9:00 at a little diner just down the block from the 14th Street/Union Square theater, where Spider-Man 3 was about to debut on 7 or 8 screens. So after meeting up with Stacy’s friend Dan and wolfing down some decent diner food, we decided to go ahead in get in line. When we got there, the line was really quite small—but that was because they had already let some people into the theater. Each ticket had a theater number (we were Theater #8), and our number was allowed to go on in a grab a seat.

There was a lot of excitement in the air. Not so much as when various Star Wars movies opened, but we saw at least one really great Spidey costume, and a lot of very excited people. In fact, the theater workers were probably the most excited of all. As we handed our tickets to the lady, she turned to us and said “Is that him? Look, is that Spider-Man?” She was polite enough not to point, but was thrusting her chin madly in the direction of the concession stand on that level. She looked a little like some surreal, lifesize bobblehead doll which was very distracting, but I tore my eyes away and looked in the direction she was bobbling her head at. Standing at the concession stand was a middle-aged man with a flat, whey face that of course looked absolutely nothing like Tobey Maguire. Except for the width and pastiness of his face, and a kind of overall goofiness. We assured her it was not Spider-Man, but I’m not sure she believed us.

It was totally random, but by chance Theater #8 was one of only two theaters in the multiplex that also had a balcony. So we scurried up to the balcony and were able to get prime seats (the lower level had already pretty much filled up!). The balcony is my favorite place to see a movie—you are right at the best eye level with the screen if you get in the second row (the first row has an annoying safety bar that blocks the lower part of the screen). We spent the next hour and a half watching the crowd, playing games on our ipods, and debating the various finer points of the previous Spider-Man movies. We were so lucky! We got prime seats and any waiting we had to do was in our seats, not outside. It was great.

I must say, I had a blast. The movie was a lot of fun, although very different than the previous two. For one thing, Kirsten Dunst sang not once but twice! That along with the Spidey dance moves made the whole thing at times not unlike a Busby Berkeley musical! The fx were just mind-blowing this time, truly amazing fight scenes and one jaw-dropping Sandman. Some critics have noted that this one did not have the emotional resonance the previous two did. For example, at the end, when Spider-Man is having a big poignant emotional scene, Tobey Maguire screws up his face and starts blubbering like only Tobey Maguire can over-emote, and the whole theater burst into laughter. Now, I don’t think that’s what the makers had in mind for that scene! But we had just seen this absolutely spectacular ending fight between the forces of evil and the forces of spider, and who wanted to see an insect cry? In fact, every single guy in the movie let a little tear drop at one time or another. It was the most male sensitivity I’ve ever seen in one movie-- but at the same time it was chock full of some of the best ass-kicking, wall-climbing, web shooting, car smashing fun I’ve ever seen in a movie!

I took a cab home, and even though I was facing the unpleasant thought that I had to be at work in about 5 hours, I was so happy, a warm glow that lasted pretty much for days. There’s nothing like trailerific spidery goodness to get a good start on the weekend!