I think the reason Spider-Man 3 is so near and dear to my heart, has less to do with the overall movie, and more to do with my real life. A couple of months before Spider-Man 3 hit theaters, my best friend died. I was twenty one at the time. I've posted all about that tragic event, so I'll spare the details. I was in a funk and a few of my friends at the time were going to go to Spider-Man 3's midnight showing, so I of course tagged along (I absolutely loved the first two).
The quality of the movie aside (I DID like it just to be clear), one moment stood out to me especially. It was when Harry Osborn died. Harry was Peter Parker's best friend, sure they had some disagreements (or more accurately, epic fights) but they were best friends. Harry died at the end of the film, sacrificing himself for his buddy, Spider-Man. It was emotional for me to watch.
With the death of my friend still fresh in my mind, watching my favorite super-hero witnessing his best friend's death, unable to do anything about it was a little close to home for me. I'd always related to Peter Parker, he is the everyman of super-heroes. I'd read Harry's death in the comics (masterfully written by J.M. DeMatteis in Spectacular Spider-Man #200) but this was different. When I read the book, my friend was alive, even though the book was very impactful, it wasn't this strong for me.
I could feel the pain Peter felt in that scene, mainly because I was REALLY feeling that pain. One of my then friends, just kind of looked at me in a very concerned manner during the scene, he knew how much I was still hurting. I was crying, but at least I wasn't the only one. Say what you will about the film, but Harry's death was very well done. At that moment, I felt like I was reliving the moment I found out my friend died. To this day, Spider-Man 3 remains one of my favorite films, and I still get choked up during Harry's death.
There wasn't much of a point to this post, I suppose. I had just recently watched Spider-Man 3 and was thinking about why I hold the film so close to my heart. No matter what the detractors say, Spider-Man 3 was a conclusion to the trilogy I enjoyed (yes, it did have flaws) and more importantly (to me), it allowed me to see my hero, Peter Parker, dealing with an issue that I was currently dealing with. If Pete could move on, then so could I.
Thank you Sam Raimi, Tobey Maguire, James Franco, Kirtsen Dunst and EVERYONE that made Spider-Man 3. For better or worse, it's the conclusion we got, and in my case, it was the conclusion I needed.
