Spiderman 3
Synopsis: Peter Parker, the friendly neighborhood Spiderman, finds himself once again in a series of good against evil. Peter’s best, Harry Osborn, seeks vengeance for his father’s death in which he believes Peter caused it. Peter’s revenge of his own lies on his Uncle’s murderer. However, this time a dark alien symbiote enhances Peter’s powers. With the influence of the symbiote, Peter becomes corrupt, brutal, irrational, and arrogant. Peter and his colleague, Eddie Brock, find each other on dangerous terms. To set it off, Peter publically humiliates Eddie in which it resulted in Eddie being fired. In return, Eddie asks God to kill Peter.
The layers of context/setting:
§ Spiderman is good and innocent but gets easily corrupted by power, revenge, and the symbiote.
o Darkness and evil can corrupt all people, even the super heroes.
§ The setting of the Church (from my youtube clip) is juxtaposition in which Eddie Brock asks God to kill Peter Parker.
§ The symbiote itself is black and creepy looking for it portrays evil and corruption.
§ When Spiderman is taken over by the symbiote, his suit changes from red and blue to black. Spiderman’s change in suit shows his change in personality.
§ The vengeance in all the characters offers evil and dark morals throughout the plot.
o Ex/Harry Osborn claims that Peter killed his father; therefore, he went out for revenge starting by forcing Mary Jane to break Peter’s heart.
§ Spiderman realizes that the symbiote is corrupting him. He uses all his strength to over come the symbiote’s bond to his body. With the help of the Church bell’s vibrations, Spiderman is successful to be released from the symbiote’s grasp.
o Good always conquers evil. We can over come corruption and evil if we believe that there is goodness in us.
§ Super heroes never kill people, they only stop villains from doing bad and send them to prison.
o Spiderman tries to kill the Sandman, this shows a contradiction to a super heroes’ ethics.
§ In the end, Harry finds forgiveness for his father’s death. And so he helps Peter fight Venom and Sandman.
§ Peter also finds forgiveness for his Uncle’s death, as the Sandman apologizes and explains that it was an accident.
o To forgive is to end hatred; it is the hopeful solution to end all evil.
The Filmmaker conveys evil/darkness:
- The symbiote: gives the temptation of endless power and corrupts even the heroes.
- Plots of revenge:
- Harry wants to destroy Peter Parker by breaking his heart first and then kill him brutally.
- Peter harms his best friend, Harry, for being Mary Jane’s “lover”.
- Peter also tries to kill the Sandman for he killed Peter’s Uncle.
- Sandman revives and seeks a deadly revenge on Peter.
- Eddie Brock wants to kill Peter for humiliating him.
What impacted me the most:
- Peter’s morality changed when he first sought revenge. The man who killed Peter’s Uncle was viciously killed by Spiderman.
- Seeking the worst of all people Peter finds himself against the world, and winning.
- Peter’s enhanced powers from the symbiote make him feel unstoppable.
Character represents darkness:
- Peter was a good person; however, he felt weak and helpless as everything wasn’t going Peter’s way.
- Instead of forgiving, Peter blames others of his misfortune and tragedies.
- He used the symbiote to gain power and revenge.
- With this, he became merciless and heartless.
- Peter pushes Mary Jane away, not knowing that this causes Mary Jane to question their relationship.
- Spiderman utilizes his powers in brutal violence to solve his problems. Unfortunately, this just results in more savage.
T-T: In the Old Testament and Quran, Eve was tempted by the sly serpent to eat from the tree of knowledge. The serpent told Eve that it would make her more like God and that it would not kill her. Both Adam and Eve eat the fruit of the tree. Unfortunately, they find themselves banished for the Garden of Eden for disobeying God. The temptation of the fruit and being godly from the serpent is similar to the enhancement of power from the symbiote. In both cases, temptations lead to consequences.
T-S: In this movie, one of the main morals taught is that vengeance is an act of evil and that revenge only leads to consequences that one cannot ignore. So the message that we must apply is to forgive. To me, forgiving is much harder than taking revenge for vengeance is a temporary satisfaction.
T-W: In the world, everyone feels weak without n object of power (money, violence, strength) and so individuals do things contradicting to their morals in order to be more powerful. For example, on the everyday streets, gang wars overwhelm people and suck in innocent individuals into violence. Each gang will use violence to gain reputation and power. Spiderman was beguiled into the symbiote’s corruption potential powers.
EQ: Are we implicated in injustice and what can we do about it?
- In life individuals blame each other for their loss and tragedies.
- This results in an endless cycle of revenge and how one seeks justice by taking injustice actions.
- Everyone believes that they are just and fair; hence, they perceive others as unjust and immoral.
- Some, like Eddie Brock, will take injustice in their own hands and deal with it themselves. This causes even more damage than initially done.
- Others, like Harry and Peter in the end, will forgive unjust people and let higher authorities deal with injustices. Forgiving is the moral way in society, for it offers serenity and no remorse over all.
Connection to another movie: The Lord of the Rings
An evil subject can corrupt the goodness out of all people. For example, in the Lord of the Rings, the ring corrupted the characters that were initially good in the story. Smeagol was originally a Stoor Hobbit of the River-folk who found a defensive attraction to the evil ring. Smeagol killed his own brother in order to possess the ring and attempted to kill Frodo as the Hobbit was going to destroy it in the volcano. Similar to this, the symbiote offered Spiderman more power. This gave Spiderman a desire to continue to benefit from the symbiote. However in return, it corrupted Spiderman’s well-being.
