“Spider-Man 3”: Bad Spider-Man movie, fantastic Mary Jane Watson movie

Sam Raimis Spider Man 3 is re-released today, April 29th! It's going to make a lot of money, but it's always been a somewhat polarizing film. Some people love it for its seriousness and well-drawn characters, others hate it for its ill-conceived plot and unsatisfactory version of Venom.

But I belong to the former group. The plot makes no sense at all (how the hell does Harry's butler know how Norman Osborn died?!) but I love the characters of Spider Man 3– and I especially adore Mary Jane “MJ” Watson.

Yes, I said what I said. Mary Jane is having a terrible time in the Raimi Spider-Man fandom; There is hardly a gender-based insult that hasn't been inflicted on her. She is a “bitch” or a “bitch” for her actions Spider Man 3, apparently, and I find that extremely unfair. I also think that the MJ haters haven't paid an ounce of attention to the actual film, which presents Mary Jane as sympathetic from the start.

MJ's trauma

Spider Man 3 and his predecessors make one thing very clear about Mary Jane: she was abused by her father and still bears the scars. Her abusive childhood shapes everything she does. In the first scenes of the film, she asks Tobey Maguire's Peter for reassurance that she is a good actress, that people definitely applauded her Broadway debut, that Peter himself Really loves her. Kirsten Dunst plays the character so well that you never forget that underneath the happy smiling woman there is a scared little girl.

Life hasn't been kind to MJ, and when she loses her coveted Broadway role due to bad reviews, it's no wonder she spirals out of control. Since the first one Spider-Man In the film, she struggles to achieve her dream of becoming an actress, and just when she's almost there, everything is ripped away from her. “I look at these words,” she says to Peter, holding a newspaper review, “and it’s like my father wrote them.”

MJ is a Mixed up in most cases Spider Man 3. She's jealous of Peter's success as a superhero – watch the scene where she thinks a New York crowd is clapping for her, only to realize they're clapping for Spidey – and she resents Peter she doesn't support. And these are all legitimate feelings for her! Being the powerless girlfriend of a powerful superhero turns out to be a near-impossible task, and MJ is thrown in at the deep end.

MJ's jealousy also flares up when Peter kisses the beautiful Gwen Stacy (Bryce Dallas Howard) on stage at a big party thrown for him. He kisses her in the same upside-down dangling way he kissed MJ in the alley in the first Spider-Man movie (you know, THAT kiss), and MJ is furious. Peter doesn't seem to understand the problem. You're firing all the time Spider Man 3 Peter needs to manage to pull himself together and become less self-obsessed, but man, it really takes him a long time to get there.

MJ, the men and the narrative

MJ's resentment, loneliness and bitterness eventually lead her back to her ex Harry Osborn (James Franco). She calls him, spends a day of fun with him, and then kisses him in a moment of weakness before realizing what she's done and running away.

That was Don't get me wrong about MJ cheating on Peter – but in MJ's eyes, Peter had already cheated on her first. they both And Peter is to blame for their broken relationship. Peter didn't know how to support MJ, and she wasn't particularly good at communicating with him. In other words, both are fallible human beings. (Oh, and Goblin Harry is also responsible for threatening MJ to break up with Peter.)

But then things get even worse. Peter's personality is completely consumed by the alien symbiote's influence and he suddenly becomes a total jerk to women. He takes Gwen on a date to the jazz club where MJ works and tries to humiliate her. Gwen is having none of it, apologizes to MJ and runs away. Peter continues to harass MJ and a fight breaks out between him and the club's security guards, resulting in Peter accidentally knocking MJ to the ground. Perpetrating violence against a woman, a woman he still loves, is what ultimately motivates Peter to give up the symbiote, regardless of the risks.

The story of Spider Man 3 is always, always on MJ's side. Throughout the film, characters are judged by how they treat them. As I said before, Peter's attack on MJ is the turning point for him. Harry also attacks MJ and betrays him, which is one of the reasons he has to redeem himself with a hero's death. And Eddie kidnaps, assaults and molests her without remorse and meets a self-inflicted, horrific end.

The women are also viewed through the lens of “How do they treat MJ?” Aunt May clearly likes her and cares for her, and she is the best mother we see in the trilogy. (I really wish there were more scenes between her and MJ.) Ursula Ditkovich, who I love the most, has a crush on Peter but still encourages his relationship with MJ. And Gwen refuses to be used as a pawn against MJ and is angry that Peter tried to hurt her.

MJ is the moral center of the film. We shouldn’t think she’s a “slut.” We're supposed to think she's a fighting human being who deserves respect.

MJ's happy ending

MJ ends Spider Man 3 after going through a lot. All of the above terrible things have happened to her in quick succession…but she's still standing. The last time we see her is on stage, right where she always wanted to be, singing “I'm Through With Love.” Maybe she isn't quite But with love she goes through, because when Peter approaches her, she breaks off her song and hugs him in tears as they dance. MJ and Peter's ending is deliberately ambiguous: have they forgiven each other or not? Based on the film's theme of forgiveness, we can probably assume that they did, but I always liked that the film wanted to imply that MJ and Peter were after everything they did to each other. might be better off for a while if they had done things to each other. Sometimes it takes a long time for such wounds to close.

Spider-Man: No Way Home confirmed that Peter and MJ of the Raimiverse got back together and made it work in the end, but honestly I would have been happy even without that confirmation. In my thoughts, Spider Man 3 gave MJ the perfect ending: to stand on her own two feet, use her voice, and slowly heal.

(Featured Image: Sony Pictures Releasing)