'Spider-Man 3'' swings with heart
by KEN BARTOLOTTA Reporter

Over the past 40 years, the character of Spider-Man has become an icon to anyone associated with comics, and since his inception, has become the most popular and well-known superhero to ever don a pair of tights in the name of justice.

And since writer Stan Lee and artist Steve Ditko created the web-slinger more than four decades ago, his face has become synonymous with the supersuccessful Marvel Comics.

So is it any wonder that the recent "Spider-Man" movies have also swung their way to the forefront of the latest Hollywood trend that has brought our favorite masked avengers from the page to the big screen?

The most recent installment in this series is the highly advertised "Spider-Man 3," the latest chapter in the life of Peter Parker and his blue and red alter ego.

In the newest film, we see our hero once again longing over girl-next-door Mary Jane Watson, dealing with his best friend Harry Osborn's thirst for revenge and warding off a slew of bad guys all looking to make his life more complicated than it already is.

What has always separated Spider-Man from other superheroes, however, is the same concept that puts these movies head and shoulders above so many other comic-book adaptations.

It's the idea of superpowers as a curse, with that age-old adage of power, its ongoing relationship with responsibility and the fine line that one must tow between the two.

Sure, the film brings with it the requisite special effects that have become inseparable from comic book films, but it's the reality of these characters and the delicate lives they lead that prevails through all the other bells and whistles that will initially fill theaters throughout the country.

When director Sam Raimi first came on board to create these movies, he was adamant in telling the story of Peter Parker and not Spider-Man, because ultimately that's what these stories have always been about.

And at the heart of that story is Parker (Tobey Maguire) and Mary Jane (Kirsten Dunst), and the pair's battle to stay together despite the massive shadow that Spider-Man and his many enemies always seem to cast.

So here we are, watching these two grow up, watching these new villains kick dirt in our hero's eye, watching the tragedy and the triumph that has always marked the comic books.

The new villains are the Sandman, who suffers from a radioactive accident, giving him the shifting and the shaping powers of the element of sand, played by Thomas Haden Church, and Venom, a sort of Spider-Man Doppelganger, played by Topher Gr ace.

It's always been McGuire who makes these movies work. His every-man mentality and underdog demeanor in the face of the most unsurmountable odds have always served as the driving force behind these movies.

There's a very vintage and classic feel to the relationship between Maguire and Dunst, and as the two struggle through the trials and tribulations of their roller-coaster like courtship, you almost forget at times that you're in the middle of a big-budget bloc kbuster.

But then Spidey dons his mask and prepares to take on the baddies, and in usual Spider-Man fashion these villains have a good time beating up on our hero, pushing him to the brink of extinction before he bounces back to ultimately save the day.

In the end, one might suspect that "Spider-Man 3" was made for the kids, but through all the special effects and built-in mythology of the movie you're spider sense might just pick a very real and earnest heart in the midst of it all.