Spider-man 3(M) not recommended under 13, PG to 15 (Violence, Disturbing scenes, Themes)
This topic contains:
Children under 13 | Not recommended due to violence and disturbing scenes |
Children 13 - 15 | Parental guidance recommended due to violence |
This section contains details about the movie, including its classification by the Australian Government Classification Board and the associated consumer advice lines. Other classification advice (OC) is provided where the Australian film classification is not available.
Name of movie: | Spider-Man 3 |
Classification: | M |
Consumer advice lines: | Moderate action violence |
Length: | 139 minutes |
This review of the movie contains the following information:
Spider-man 3 begins with Peter Parker/Spiderman (Tobey Maguire) and Mary Jane Watson (Kirsten Dunst) happy together. However, a small meteor crashes to Earth bringing a sinister black oily creature, which attaches itself to the back of Peter’s motorbike and ends up in his apartment.
Soon Harry Osborn (James Franco) as Green Goblin junior attacks Spider-man. The battle results in Harry being knocked senseless and losing his memory. Peter and Harry resume their old friendship with Harry having no memory of his Green Goblin alter ego.
The next nemesis Spider-man encounters is Flint Marko (Thomas Haden Church), an escaped convict, who turns out to be the real killer of Peter Parker’s uncle Ben. While attempting to evade capture, Flint stumbles into a particle physics test site and is transformed into the giant Sandman. Flint then embarks on a crime spree stealing money to buy his dying daughter medicine, with Spider-man thwarting his efforts at every turn.
Meanwhile the sinister black creature attaches itself to Spider-Man to exaggerate his worst characteristics. After alienating himself from everyone he cares about, Spider-man finally realises that he is in the grip of an alien entity and rips it from his body. Unfortunately for Spider-man, the creature lands on, and joins with, a disgruntled photographer named Eddie Brock (Topher Grace), to become arch-nemesis, Venom.
In an effort to destroy Spider-man, Venom teams up with Sandman and they kidnap Mary Jane. With Harry’s help Spiderman is able to overpower the Sandman, destroy Venom and save Mary Jane.
Children and adolescents may react adversely at different ages to themes of crime, suicide, drug and alcohol dependence, death, serious illness, family breakdown, death or separation from a parent, animal distress or cruelty to animals, children as victims, natural disasters and racism. Occasionally reviews may also signal themes that some parents may simply wish to know about.
Revenge, alter ego, identity crisis
Research shows that children are at risk of learning that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution when violence is glamourised, performed by an attractive hero, successful, has few real life consequences, is set in a comic context and / or is mostly perpetrated by male characters with female victims, or by one race against another.
Repeated exposure to violent content can reinforce the message that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution. Repeated exposure also increases the risks that children will become desensitised to the use of violence in real life or develop an exaggerated view about the prevalence and likelihood of violence in their own world.
While Spider-Man 3 features a large amount of stylised comic book violence but some of this violence is extremely brutal in nature. Examples included:
Children under five are most likely to be frightened by scary visual images, such as monsters, physical transformations.
In addition to the above-mentioned violent scenes and scary visual images, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children under five, including the following:
Children aged five to eight will also be frightened by scary visual images and will also be disturbed by depictions of the death of a parent, a child abandoned or separated from parents, children or animals being hurt or threatened and / or natural disasters.
Children in this age group are also likely to be disturbed by the scenes described above. .
Children aged eight to thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic threats and dangers, violence or threat of violence and / or stories in which children are hurt or threatened.
Children in this age group are also likely to be disturbed by a number of the scenes described above, particularly those involving Venom.
Children over the age of thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic physical harm or threats, molestation or sexual assault and / or threats from aliens or the occult.
Most children over 13 are unlikely to be disturbed by the images described above but parental guidance is recommended.
None
There are some sexual references in this movie, including:
There is some nudity and sexual activity in this movie, including:
There is some use of substances in this movie, including:
There is some mild coarse language in this movie, including:
Spider-man 3 is a comic book style superhero movie with spectacular special effects which will appeal to a teenage male audience.
The main messages in Spider-Man 3 relate to Spider-Man’s identity crisis. It is from Peter’s self-doubts and insecurities that his darker side arises when the alien black creature becomes attached to him, and he must overcome self doubt to defeat Venom. Younger children may need explanation of the uncharacteristic behaviour of the superhero while he is in the creature’s clutches.
Values in this movie that parents may wish to reinforce with their children include forgiveness.
This movie could also give parents the opportunity to discuss with their children the manner in which the film represents women as helpless victims in need of rescue by male heroes, and the film’s representation of unequal gender roles. Parents may also wish to discuss the manner in which all conflict depicted in the film was resolved through the use of violence.
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