We all know there are lots of reasons to criticise Spider-Man 3: too many villains, too many logic flaws, Sandman retconning Uncle Ben’s death, Harry’s conveniently omniscient butler… and yet all of these have been overshadowed by the literal meme that is Emo Parker gyrating and finger-gunning in the street. It’s so bad, it’s hilarious. And yet, if it’s intentionally bad, doesn’t that make it… just hilarious?
Over time, this scene of a moody-fringed, pelvic-thrusting Parker has become shorthand for the film’s many other missteps. But it’s actually a self-aware sequence of unadulterated dorkiness that is perfectly in keeping with a franchise that also brought us 'Peter struggles with the mops in a janitor’s closet’ and ‘Peter gets repeatedly hit in the face with school bags as he picks up his books from the floor’.
In our rush to remember Spider-Man 3 as ‘the worst one’ of the Raimi/Maguire movies, we forget to give it credit for being in on the joke in this scene. And, I put it to you, there’s clear evidence that this is the case. If you think Peter Parker Saturday Night Fever-ing down the street is cringey, I have some good news for you: the film agrees! Because every passer-by in that scene is literally cringing at him as they cross paths.
Now, of course, Marvel increasingly embraces its silly side. Think ‘He’s a friend from work!’, or even Ant-Man getting stuck at the size of a toddler. These moments get a pass because we are secure with the idea that Marvel is just having fun with the universe it created. It seems a tad unfair that when Parker struts his stuff, he’s widely ridiculed – but when Baby Groot does the same, he’s celebrated.
So isn’t it time we reappraise this Spider-Man 3 scene and finally give it props for simply being what it was always meant to be: a tongue-in-cheek gag in which Tobey Maguire really, really went for it? It’s bad, it’s hilarious, it’s deliberately both, and deserves to be held up as one of the most iconic moments in the Raimi trilogy for all the right reasons. Or is it just me?
