It has been a while since I last wrote on my blog. Much as I would want to dig deep into myself to find the inspiration to come up with a topic worthy of my blathering, I found it immensely difficult to do so.

Then came May 1. Spider-Man 3 had just hit the Philippine shores. A few weeks back I was deep in thought trying to make a decision if I would go through my tradition of watching movies based on my favorite comic books on its first day of showing. I knew that the media hype that was creating the PR storm for the movie would immediately draw what could be the biggest crowd that would pack into Philippine cinemas. All-time biggest. What with the P120 ticket price for guaranteed seats and P140 tag for the reserved seats (plus the fact that dinner before the movie is a given), Emi and I would have to shell out almost P1K for the movie night on May 1.

I stuck my head out for the risk and purchased the tickets on D-Day itself. Much to my delight, the reserved seating tickets still had available vacancies. Good seats at that. We were seated at the balcony area, second row from the front, right in the middle of the center column of seats. Seats that you could kill for. Hahahaha. For this, I thank Arlett and Lyndah of SM City Cebu Cinemas for.

I asked Dindin to get a lot of nap time in the afternoon to make sure that he doesn't doze off in the middle of the movie like the way he did when we watched Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (I know, it has been a loooong time since we watched movies in cinemas). He promised me that he was sure he wouldn't sleep. He was waiting for the appearance of Venom (I don't know if its alarming or not, but his pick on favorite characters in comic book movies seems to fall always on the bad guys) and how his fight scenes with Spidey would fare. He didn't doze off and even wanted to watch it again!

After we watched the movie, I immediately came to a resolute decision. I have to buy the DVD(original ha) as soon as it comes out. A repeat viewing of the movie wouldn't hurt either, hehehe. I've said this before and I'm going to say it again, this is the best movie out of the trilogy of Spider-Man movies. Aside from the fact that it featured three of the webcrawling wonder's most dangerous enemies, Harry Osborn-Green Goblin / The Sandman and Venom, it wove a story that most of us could relate to. Sam Raimi truly depicted that even heroes could be human themselves. Heroes also have the possibility of falling into the quagmire of having their decisions clouded by the affairs of emotion. Heroes are also capable of making mistakes. And yes, heroes also break down into tears when they lose someone that they love and care for (who did Spider-Man lose? P120 would tell you that. Hehehehe).

The movie was also filled with humorous scenes that were well-interpreted by the actors involved. I have to give kudos to the actor (forgot his name) who filled the part of James Jonah Jameson. He emulated what JJJ was like in the comic book with his incredible portrayal of JJJ's legendary temper with those wide eyes and cigar chomping to boot. I'm sure a lot of Spider-Man comic book enthusiasts would agree with me on this point. There was also the French maitre'd who, if movie-goers remember, was the usher who turned Peter away during MJ's theater run in Spider-Man 2. This guy once played Brisco County, Jr. in an extinct cowboy-comedy TV show and I'm betting he's making a comeback via the bigscreen and what better way than to do it in the Spider-Man movie franchise? He certainly did his part justice during that sequence in the restaurant. Then came Tobey Maguire's romp into the Saturday Night Fever dance sequence in the middle of the movie. Who would've thunk that a geek and nerd like Parker had those moves in him?! Hahaha! If you ask me, in more ways than one, the symbiote also benefited Spidey in some aspects of his life. Hehehehe.

As in tradition, Stan Lee made a cameo appearance once again. This time on a larger scale, he actually had more lines! Maybe one man COULD make a difference....and he ended it with his all-time trademark line...'NUFF SAID! Whooo! Brings back the memories! I'm not sure if a lot of viewers saw that line as significant, but to true comic book and Spider-Man enthusiasts, it was a stroll down memory lane. You see, before(I'm not sure if he's still doing it now), in a lot Marvel comic books, particularly Spider-Man, Stan Lee always had a literary column inserted into the final pages of the publication, a sort of editorial kumbaga, and on these pages he would express his thoughts, the upcoming developments on the comic book, his answers to fan mail etc etc. Always, at the end of these writings of his, prior to signing in his name, he'd end it with 'Nuff said!

Apparently, a few years ago, Marvel was on the brink of bankruptcy. The comic book industry was not as alive as it was in the 80's and 90's. As far as my personal opinion would matter, the prices of comic books have rose to alarming levels that their primary market, the kids, are having a hard time buying these already! When I was a kid, we could buy comic books for P30 a piece. All five of us brothers were so up to date in our respective collections and these were considered cherished possessions. We knew that one day, our comic books would become collector's items! What about now? You couldn't even buy a hot off the press comic book for P100 unless they were on sale or a few months old na. Going back to the main point, Marvel was losing money. Then the comic book-movie phenomenon happened. Movie production companies began snatching up scripts based on well-loved comic books and these made Stan Lee and his partners richer by the year. X-Men, Blade, Fantastic Four, Spider-Man etc. etc. Get this, on the first day of showing of Spider-Man 3 in the Philippines alone, the wisecracking wallcrawler immediately raked in a whopping P58.6 million. ONE DAY. Biggest ever 1^st day opening gross in the history of Philippine cinemas. BIGGEST ALL-TIME. Since the opening of the first Spider-Man movie in 2002, the franchise has amassed a total of $1.6 billion of sales worldwide, one of the most successful, if not the most successful movie franchise ALL TIME.

I have worshiped Spider-Man since the first day I got hold of my older brothers' comic books and somehow, call it ignorance and childhood awe, it seems I even “liked” that cheesy live-action Spider-Man TV show that aired in the 80's(remember those eye-holes in his mask peppered with so many tiny peepholes? yeetch). I even have a scar on my forehead that came as a result to my Spider-Man imitation when I was a five-year old kid. I was climbing the window grills that we had kai Spider-Man lagi ko, lost hold of my balance, slipped and hit my noggin' on the corner of our sala centerpiece. It was a hell of a painful experience, requiring stitches but it never shook my devotion to the web-slinger. At least once in my life I became Spider-Man(boy) hehehehe.

All in all, Spider-Man 3 is a movie I would highly recommend for your entire family to watch. It is a fictional movie based on a downtown geek who is bombarded by the basic daily problems we all face, gets blessed or cursed(depending on your point of view) with abilities that allows him to do what a six-foot tall human spider is capable of, sees him get drawn into a false sense of illusions of grandeur, lose those who he cherishes the most, realizes his mistakes and saves the day before everything is lost forever. The movie also give insights to those who are in a relationship and are looking forward to taking it to the next level and how important a decision they have to make could change the rest of their lives. How a man should always put his self interest at the backseat for the greater good of all. Making choices is a standard staple in our lives, whether it is a good or bad decision, what matters is whether it is the righteous path to take. It also allows friends or barkadas to see the value of friendship and how we should cherish this. Friendship is never a question of who you are loyal to, it is whether you know how to accept the decisions your friends make; if it is the right choice, you support them; if it is the wrong choice, you have the guts to tell them their mistake and whether you can learn to receive them with no reservations once they realize that they were wrong.

Unless Sam Raimi, Avi Arad and Stan Lee could draw up another blockbuster story that would be a sensational follow-up to the 3^rd installation of the Spider-Man franchise AND the actors involved would allow themselves to be included in the next sequel, something that would do justice to the success of Three, I'd like to rule out a fourth. I wouldn't want this franchise to go the route the same way the first Superman trilogy went when it launched Superman IV. Spider-Man has already endeared himself to the billions of movie-goers. It would be nice to keep it at that. Fantastic Four:Rise of the Silver Surfer and Iron Man(Can't wait to see these!)are coming up, maybe the Marvel mogul would seriously consider the Avengers as his next project, till then...'NUFF SAID!