MovieChat Forums > Spider-Man 3 (2007) Discussion > Flint Marko never really gets his comeup...

Flint Marko never really gets his comeuppance

posted 7 years ago by TMC-4 (20484)
11 replies | jump to latest

That's one thing that really pisses me off about this movie is that Sandman doesn't really answer for his crimes. It's like because we're given this sob story about him having sick daughter and because he didn't really mean to kill Uncle Ben (and Peter therefore "forgave him") that automatically let's him off the hook.

That doesn't change the fact that Sandman was and will likely always be a criminal. Sam Raimi and company seemed to forget that the audience wants to see the bad guy get what's coming to him regardless of how you try to spin it. Doc Ock had to answer for his sins in the previous movie no matter now sympathetic he was made out to be (he was only "bad" because his wife died and his brain got fried in his science accident) himself.

What's not to say that he'll continue to rob in order to fund his daughter's medical bills? And let's not forget that he was an accessory in kidnapping Mary Jane.

[–] moogie (205) 7 years ago

I have thought about this also and agree. I wondered where he went off to once Spiderman forgave him... the desert?

[–] TandyMan (11349) 7 years ago

I edited all that crap with the retcon of Uncle Ben's death out of my copy. Sandman's just a low rent crook, not a murderer. Ending works a lot better that way.

[–] TMC-4 (20484) 4 years ago

Also, superhero movies are by sheer nature, about the battle between good versus evil. I don't give a shit about Sandman having a sick kid if he's going to commit crime and take advantage of hapless people at the expense of it. If I'm watching a Spider-Man movie, then I want to see Spider-Man kick Sandman's ass, not sob like a pansy over his "apology" for "accidentally" killing his uncle ("My bad, Peter!").

I think that Spider-Man: Homecoming with Michael Keaton's Vulture did a better job at making us still hate the villain and still see him as a horrible human being even though he has an otherwise sympathetic backstory. In Spider-Man 3, it just comes off like a half-baked version of the Mr. Freeze origin story from Batman: The Animated Series, where his wife is sick instead of his child.

How is Flint Marko exactly a "good guy" just because he didn't intentionally want to kill Uncle Ben and just because he was only "doing it for his daughter"? They also ripped off from Scott Lang's comic book backstory from the Ant-Man comics, where he resorted to committing crime (in this case, burglary) to aid his sick daughter.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ant-Man_(Scott_Lang)#The_second_Ant-Man

[–] GreenGoblinsOck8 (7977) 7 years ago

I agree. Though it's more than just that. He killed/injured dozens of innocent people needlessly and we are just supposed to forgive that? There's that scene where he literally turns into sand inside a dump truck to hide from the cops and then he needlessly kills/injures them despite being completely hidden from them. I almost feel like Raimi just wanted these special effects scenes with Sand Man without even thinking about how it portrays him. Of course him being Uncle Ben's killer also ruins it for me because it makes it so Spider-Man is guilty of causing the death of someone innocent of murder. I almost feel like that was always going to be in the movie even before Raimi was forced into using the symbiote/Eddie Brock/Venom.

[–] TMC-4 (20484) 7 years ago

https://www.quora.com/In-Spider-Man-3-why-doesnt-Flint-Marko-Sandman-truly-get-his-comeuppance

[–] GreenGoblinsOck8 (7977) 7 years ago

That doesn't even address the fact he needlessly injured/killed innocent people just so Raimi could have another action scene with him.

[–] TMC-4 (20484) 6 years ago

The filmmakers (I don't want to pin all of the blame on Sam Raimi given that he had a lot of people, namely Avi Arad, breathing down his neck) I feel, made the same mistake with Sandman that Tim Burton and company made with Penguin in Batman Returns. They want to have their cake and eat it too regarding their villains. We're supposed to feel sorry for Penguin (especially when he dies and his pet penguins hold a make-shift funeral for him) and Flint Marko yet at the same time, cheer for their downfall.

The officially licensed video game for Spider-Man 3 actually had it that Sandman was basically coerced into working with Venom after Venom told Sandman that he was going to kill his daughter is he didn't go along with him. In the movie, it just boils down to the prototypical plot of a '90s Batman movie, "You hate Spider-Man, I hate Spider-Man too, so lets team up!"

[–] TMC-4 (20484) a month ago

It also ruins the "with great power comes great responsibility" lesson that Uncle Ben taught Peter. It's commonly accepted in Spider-Man mythos that Peter could've quite easily stopped the crook who ultimately killed Uncle Ben. But in the heat of the moment, he didn't pursue the man for his own selfish reasons. This is why Peter decided to devote his life to using his spider-powers to fight crime going forward due to his own guilt over not preventing Uncle Ben's murder.

How exactly is Peter supposed to feel guilty if Flint Marko was the real shooter and he only shot Uncle Ben because his accomplish bumped into him (just as Uncle Ben was getting into Marko's conscious) and startled him. I mean, did Sam Raimi and company really think that we would just accept that type of bullshit? Think about it for a moment, even if Peter had stopped the other guy, Marko still would've pulled his gun on Uncle Ben with or without the other guy being present.

Why can't Spider-Man just fight a bad guy who just happens to be a bad guy who is rotten to the core? Why these every villain he faces have to have a personal connection no matter how contrived it may be?

[–] AP (5295) 7 years ago

Yeah, I hate it when movies and TV shows absolve villains of their crimes just because they have a tragic backstory.

[–] TMC-4 (20484) 7 years ago

http://nostalgiarush.blogspot.com/2018/06/five-disappointing-villain-comeuppances.html#more

Spider-Man 3
I was one of the many excited to see Venom in this movie. As I’ve noted, while never a big Marvel fan the one story I did like was the whole “Black Suit Saga”. So yeah, I was hyped..and disappointed by how it was done! Not only do we hardly get ant of Venom (yeah we want to see more Topher Grace!) but the way he is defeated is pretty weak. The battle could have been so much more.

[–] [deleted] 5 years ago

He should've just put Penny in that sand thing which gave him his powers and she would've basically become immortal like him.