Yes, Tobey and Jake both have medium brown hair and big blue eyes. That's about where the similarity ends. That and they're both the same relative age. Tobey doesn't have a smile that lights up the screen - hell, the theater. Tobey doesn't have an infectious laugh. Tobey doesn't have a sweet, soft voice that could melt butter. Tobey doesn't have about six more inches and 40 more pounds. And he's shorter and weighs less, too.
I saw Spider-Man 3 yesterday as promised. And as I suspected, I was underwhelmed. Way too much of Tobey and way too little of Topher. Topher Grace was really the only one worth watching in the whole damned thing. And J.K. Simmons. After that, everyone else just phoned it in. Blech. Tobey's whiney voice is wearing way thin, and when he turned into a "bad boy," it came off like Crispin Glover with a few extra pounds and plenty of cigarettes instead of someone truly menacing.
Oh, by the way, it turns out Kirsten Dunst has really a very nice singing voice. Beyond that, she was just O.K.
I dunno - there just seemed to be a lot of missed opportunities. Why not cast someone truly scary to be the Sandman - like Michael Chiklis or someone of that ilk? Sure, he can still have a good heart underneath it all, but why make him so benign that you can only feel sorry for him the whole time? And to think what they could have done with a character like that - have him forgetting where his sick daughter really lives because of his transformation and visiting other children's rooms at night and scaring the shit out of them... Maybe that's just too precious, but I was kinda hoping for it, anyway. And like I said, there was way too little of Topher. He's a great actor, so you got the full characterization with just a few scenes, but as such, he left you wanting more. Every time he wasn't on the screen, which was unfortunately most of the time, everything was just a bit drearier.
And the action sequences weren't as thrilling as they used to be. It's almost like they were too slick. You could see they spent a boatload of money on them, but they didn't get my heart pounding, like, say, the action sequences in Casino Royale that were grittier and more urgent and real.
I give it a 6.5 out of 10. Meh.