The Passion of Spiderman

As Spiderman 3's posters and adverts grace every known media source, Sam Raimi is raking in all the moolah for the third instalment of the superhero capers. And boy oh boy is this one marvelous movie from the perspectives of 'value for money' (applicable equally to the viewer as well as the director as this is the most expensive hollywood movie ever made at over $250 million), latest in special effects wizardry, excitement and nail biting confrontations of Spidey with the interspersed villains.

Additional reason to cheer is the spiritual perspective that has been rendered artistically through the protagonist and the supporting actors alike.

In the latest offering, Raimi developes the central character of Peter Parker exposing the web wonder's very human—and very flawed—alter ego.

Raimi's direction and Tobey Maguire's acting have made Spiderman arguably the most popular comic book icon in film history as theatres were booked in advance worldwide further fuelled by rave reviews from the launch in Tokyo, Japan.

Christians have been among those embracing the protagonist, in part because Raimi has been unafraid to clearly include biblical themes and spiritual imagery in the films.

In Spiderman 2 (2004), the hero wrestled with whether or not he wanted to take on the role of the 'savior'. And when he saves the runaway train near the movie's end—in a crucifixion pose, with a wound in his side and holes in his wrists, no less—and then goes through a symbolic death, burial and resurrection; one has to agree that it's quite a spiritual moment.

Raimi doesn't hold back from the spiritual imagery in Spider–Man 3 either, as the superhero wrestles with a dark side he never knew he had. The movie's tagline is "The Battle Within," and the story is reminiscent of Paul's struggle with his sinful nature in Romans 7: "I do not understand what I do," the apostle writes. "For what I want to do, I do not do, but what I hate, I do."

The film has abundant themes of love, friendship, pride, vengeance, confession, repentance, forgiveness and redemption. And one of the scenes has even been shot in a church.

We even have Raimi hiself expressing his opinion on the movie that "Peter has to put aside his prideful self. He must put aside his desire for vengeance. He has to learn that we are all sinners. He has to learn forgiveness."

Now that's some profound thinking for a Hollywood director in a long long time.

The director goes on to further add about the central plot and the underlying theme for the third instalment with spiritual undercurrents explored in the film, as well as the development of the protagonist's character.

"This story was pretty much set up by the first two pictures," Raimi said. "It was about sorting out how best to conclude these storylines and where our character, Peter Parker, had to grow next to as a human being.

"Peter learns different life lessons in each of these films. We felt that the most important thing that he has to learn now is about this whole concept of him as the avenger. He feels he's the hero who, with each criminal he brings to justice, he's paying down this debt of guilt he feels about the death of Uncle Ben."

Raimi went on to say that Peter needed to be humbled.

"Peter considers himself a sinless person compared to these villains," he said. "We felt it would be great for him to learn a less monotonous view of life—that's he's not above these people, that he's not just the hero, that they're not just the villains, but we're all human beings. He had to learn that he himself might have some sin within him, and that other human beings—the ones he calls the criminals—have humanity within them. And that the best we can do in this world is to not strive for vengeance, but for forgiveness."

He admitted that it wasn't easy for him to film the scenes where Spidey goes "dark". He had a hard time doing that but knowing 'Peter's going to find himself again after he loses himself' he tugged on.

Thomas Haden Church plays one of the villains—Flint Marko, an escaped convict who, through an accident in a particle physics testing facility, becomes Sandman. Much like Doctor Octopus in Spider–Man 2, he's a villain who earns your empathy and sympathy. He's basically a good guy who went "bad" through a series of unfortunate circumstances—in some ways similar to Peter's journey in this film.

"Sandman's character and Marko are intrinsically woven together," Church said. "The character was always about Flint Marko. It was about the man. But like Frankenstein, Sandman is just the darker monstrosity and malevolence that he can't control—not unlike the black suit that Spider–Man can't control."

For anyone who's seen the trailer—or read the comic books—knows what Church hasn't spilled any beans here as one is treated earlier on that when a meteorite crashes to earth, some goop crawls out and pierces straight into Peter's life. When it covers his Spidey suit while Peter is sleeping one night, the new "black suit" not only gives him greater power and agility, but begins to tap the darker side within.

The trailer even shows Peter trying to tear himself free of the black suit at one point, but if he succeeds or not one should explore that in the movie (although it is not a tricky question at all).

Church agreed that his character was a "sympathetic" villain, but went on to say, "That's the thing: There's no bad guys in these movies. They're just people. They come into these stories with their value systems intact, but they're corrupted by ambition or lust—or, in the case of Sandman, by the ferocity of his own intentions."

That's the lesson Peter must learn: That there's "no bad guys"—that we all, as Raimi noted, have sin within ourselves. That, in part, is where the church comes into one of the scenes.

Raimi said that scene was "true to the comic book; it's very similar to how it was depicted with those classic Marvel comic books of the '80s. There are a lot of literary and spiritual concepts in the comic books and he and his writers haven't skipped them"

"For me," he said, "I wasn't thinking about it in terms of spiritual imagery, really, although there is definitely deep remorse on Peter's part. He feels like he's lost his way; he feels really humbled and wants to stop behaving in that way. It's difficult for him; it's emotional. But I think about it from the character's perspective and not really in religious terms; it's more about psychological and emotional terms that I'm thinking."

Indeed, it's a study in psychological and emotional character development too as Tobey Maguire presents his take on it. But the spiritual premises are the bonus package for the Christian viewers as anyone and everyone has something to relate to in this movie outing. The passion of Peter Parker plays on and not many are complaining. Check the movie out and to say in the least – you won't be disappointed at all.