There is simply no escape - Peter Parker (aka Spidey) seems to be everywhere our family goes: Supermarkets, Bus-Stops, Website Ads, Toy stores… Our child is not a big Spiderman fan, but all the advertisements are starting to wear him down. He finally asked this morning to go see the movie “to find out if it’s good or not” as he put it. I told him that he needs to pay for his own ticket. Sure enough he was willing to pay. Well done, Hollywood.

Spiderman 3 Movie Screenshot

I am sure many parents will face similar scenarios this weekend. The movie received a PG13 rating for sequences of intense action violence, which I can confirm there are to be plenty. Overall the movie tried to outperform itself in every aspect, but ends up disappointing “by the meandering storylines, sub-par performances and lackluster bad guys” as Richard Roeper from the Chicago Sun-Times puts it.

With retail success guaranteed, we assumed that game publisher Activision would put some reasonable effort into the Spiderman 3 Videogame. Earlier this year Activision promised a Spidey experience that would be “Next-Gen” (state of the art) and would expand on everything previous Spiderman games did right. But instead of being smart, fun and truly “Next-Gen”, the game is brainless and frustrating. Parents and Kids schould be aware that the PlayStation 2 version is entirley different and much worse compared to the Xbox360 and PlayStation 3 button-mashing gameplay.

Spiderman 3 Xbox360 Screenshot

Spiderman 3 PlayStation2 Screenshot

Bottom line:
Try to keep you kids out of Spiderman’s marketing and money making web. Be aware of the intense and glorified violence in the game and movie. If your kids can’t resist: Let them spend their own money, perhaps they’ll listen to your recommendation in a couple month, when “Transformers”, “Pirates” and “Wizards” want their money too.

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