So we rented Spiderman 3 on Saturday night. We were (to put it in the mildest possible terms) disappointed. Lileks explains why, so I don't have to.

I can't believe that it's impossible to tell a good story, even a superhero story, while torturing basic physics and physiology, but apparently the Hollywood types do. Of course, as he notes, that wasn't the only problem.

Superhero movies tend to overdo the number of villians as they go along. They seem to think they've got little left to say about the hero and fill the void with another villian. Sandman, Hobgoblin, Venum, it's too much.

the latest Batman was better done IMHO though than any previous. Xcept the original one with Michael Keaton maybe.
And Sin City was good as well. So they CAN pull off good comic flicks if they want to.

Every time you drag real physics into a discussion about a fantasy story, God kills a catgirl. Please think of the catgirls.

At least you didn't also have to listen to another chorus of, "Why can't you just enjoy the movie like normal people? You don't have to pick everything apart, you know."

When sandman was big, his density was low. Hence why his fist was more of a big sandblast thant a chunk of concrete.

Even I knew this from the comics.

My beef with the franchise is they kill off every villan except Sandman who may or may not now be a villian.

Yeah, I can understand Osborne self-impaling in the 1st one but everything else that followed was gratutious IMO.

If you think they tortued physics in Spidey3 wait for Ironman to come out. You'll be mortified.

Yep, Iron Mans boot rockets must have a hella high ISP and thrurt/weight ratio for him to outrun F-22's.

Does he carry all his fuel in a Vodka bottle?

My disappointment with the film had nothing to do with its treatment of the laws of physics. It was too damn depressing. There is no feeling of victory at the end of the film; Peter loses another friend, fails to save that guy from the exploding Venom symbiote, and watches a tortured Sandman wander off into the bleak sunset. Yuck.

The part that gets to me is the way it treats normal humans as either:
1) worthless victims
2) love interests
3) jealous ******** and potential supervillians

I mean, the sandman could be rendered helpless by WATER. So, when spiderman needed to help, he could have called, say, the fire department, instead of the angsty ex-villain friend.