Spiderman 3

Most superhero-based films are light on thought and big on biff. If there is a consistent moral to be teased out, it’s that, as Paul puts it, “Everyone who wants to live a godly life … will suffer” (2 Timothy 3:12, NIV). But the ‘godly’ comic heroes’ attempts rarely have service to God as their object, and the emphasis on combat usually results in two hours of easily absorbed action sequences. Spiderman 3, however, significantly varies the recipe, serving its audience just as much soul food as eye-candy to digest.

At the core of this new installment in arguably the most successful super-hero franchise of all time (Spiderman and Spiderman 2 have already grossed $1.6 billion US at world box offices) is a quest to understand the origins of evil. A sentient black substance crashes to earth in a meteorite and attaches itself to Peter Parker’s (Toby Maguire) scooter. Before long it has infected his Spiderman suit, quickly turning it a cool, ruthless black. Just as startling is the transformation of Parker’s character: the self-effacing, shy student / photographer rapidly becomes arrogant, aggressive and judgmental. Evil, a force that Hollywood regularly portrays as external to the vast majority of humanity, has arrived an infected our hero – or so it seems…

However several scenes later and we discover probably the most interesting aspect of the plot. One of Peter’s lecturers discovers that the substance is symbiotic in nature, and merely amplifies what it finds in its host. If evil is emerging from Peter Parker’s character, then it had to be there from the beginning. There are a number of new villains in Spiderman 3, but the most serious challenge is clearly from our hero’s own character. It’s no wonder the sub-title of the film is, ‘The greatest battle lies within.’

Spiderman 3 represents a particularly good choice for parents and leaders of youth groups wondering whether anything redeeming can come from a trip to the cinemas. Spiderman confronts a new villain, the Sandman (Thomas Haden Church) who is wreaking havoc after inadvertently wandering into a molecular fusion experiment that gives him the ability to harness sand at will. “I didn’t choose to be this!” says the Sandman, who is ostensibly only trying to help his sick daughter. Spiderman stops short of the usual cloying sympathy we might expect and responds, “We always have a choice and it is our choices that define who we are.” Likewise, Spiderman’s new arch nemesis, Venom (Topher Grace) is cast as a man with much in common with Peter Parker who chooses to embrace evil as a solution rather than cling to what is good. In affirming the role our choices take in forming us, director Sam Raimi inadvertedly underlines the connection Jesus draws between the actions and the heart: ““Make a tree good and its fruit will be good, or make a tree bad and its fruit will be bad, for a tree is recognized by its fruit.” (Matthew 12:33, NIV)

Aunt May (Rosemary Harris) acts as the film’s conscience and the depository of all wisdom, moral and practical. In between dispensing marital advice for Peter’s upcoming proposal to Mary Jane (It was well worth hearing a Hollywood character affirm a very Christian line in regard to a husband’s responsibilities), she cautions her nephew on giving in to making room for evil in his heart. “Revenge is a poison. Before you know it, it can take you over and turn you into something ugly.” It made me wonder whether script writers Ivan Raimi and Alvin Sargent, beyond the personal, were gently musing over the national effect America’s ‘war on terror’ has had on that country’s soul.

In Spiderman 3 the devil is clearly within. If there is a weakness in the film, though, it is that the saviour is inside of us as well. Sam Raime explains, “We placed [Spiderman] in situation s where he’d be forced to confront his absences of character … In this way, he would either be defeated or grow into the heroic person who might be capable of overcoming these obstacles. As the depth of our characters grow, they become richer human beings and can achieve more than in the previous films.” And with Spiderman’s eventual defeat of the evil substance – I’m not giving anything away here, am I? – we see Raime’s humanistic solution played out.

It is the sad truth about so many secular artistic and philosophical creations that the World has a great ability to diagnose its problems, but a sad inability to prescribe effective remedies. It’s true, evil is at the heart of who we are. But Spiderman’s mastery of the force that seeks to devour him is no real solution. He has, at best, suppressed it for a time and he can do little to heal the damage he did when he gave it full reign. Human solutions to darkness we find in our own hearts amount to temporary, leaky truces. It will take more than super-human efforts to provide a permanent solution to the personal problem of evil.

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