While rendering last night I watched Spiderman 3. It got bad reviews so I wasn't expecting much. I thought it was OK. Some nice relationship moments. A lot of unrealized potential. Some horrible dialogue ("I can change!"). That Topher Grace praying scene really was terrible. Even though it was shot it a church there is nothing redeemable about that sequence. I didn't mind the dancing scene that so many people hated, but I could have done without it. What seemed weird to me was the way that the Symbiont made Pete Parker channel Tony Manero. All in all an odd film. It had a kind of emotional presence that still lingers. Yet it was really uneven. The Mary Jane-shunning Peter stuff barely made sense. The ending scene in the sunset: too much, show a little taste! I didn't care for the monstrous Sand Man. I liked the human-size Sand Man featured in the comics. I have a reprint of the first appearance of the Sand Man (drawn by Steve Ditko). Spiderman saves the day by vacuuming him up!
Speaking of Tony Manero, I remember reading a story about John Travolta filming Saturday Night Fever. There's a scene where he's supposed to crawl out on a beam high above the ground to rescue a friend. But Travolta protested saying his character would never crawl. He wanted to walk on the beam. And Travolta refused to play it any other way.
It made me wonder if part of what constitutes good acting is knowing when to fight battles. It also seems to me that actors have much more clout than the production team because they can't be easily replaced. For example, if I refused to do a scene the way the director wanted it, I could be replaced easily. How would anyone know?
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