While Spider-Man 3’s most infamous scene, also known as Peter Parker’s (Tobey Maguire) emo dance scene, is quite controversial, it’s also arguably one of the film’s smartest moments. As audiences watch Peter Parker poorly adopt a suave villain persona, possibly the genius behind the emo dance scene is its controversial nature and how it elevates the entire film by intentionally yielding an extreme reaction from the Spider-Man fandom.
Even though Spider-Man 3 was a box office hit, grossing $894 million worldwide, the film received poor reviews from fans and critics alike. And Peter Parker’s emo dance scene isn’t the only thing that arguably went wrong with Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 3; what's interesting is that it's the one scene that is most notably associated with Spider-Man 3 since it is as memorable as it is uncomfortable to watch. After coming into contact with a parasitic alien symbiote, Peter Parker begins to embrace his darker side by adopting a devil-may-care attitude, emo bangs, guyliner, and some new dance moves outside of a department store in New York City. While the Spider-Man fandom may be divided on whether or not the infamous scene is cringe-worthy or comedic, one theory suggests that the scene intentionally conveys a bit of both in order to call attention to Peter Parker’s evolution as a character.
Within Spider-Man 3, Dr. Connors (Dylan Baker) claims that the symbiote “amplifies characteristics of its host, especially aggression,” which is why Parker begins to indulge in his darker instincts after bonding with the parasite. Apart from igniting his jealousy in his relationship with Mary Jane Watson (Kirsten Dunst) and his vengeance against uncle Ben’s true murderer, Flint Marko (Thomas Haden Church), the symbiote encourages one of Peter’s other vices: his inflated ego. The confidence boost Parker received at the beginning of Spider-Man 3 when New York threw Spider-Man a parade skyrockets into an aggressive assertiveness in Peter’s everyday life, which causes him to demand the staff position at the Daily Bugle, force his infatuated neighbor to feed him cookies, and shoot unsuspecting women on the street with finger-guns. Unfortunately for the audience, the symbiote doesn’t magically transform Peter into a "cool bad guy," but rather manifests characteristics that he already has, including his own perspective of what makes someone cool.
Since Peter’s idea of the “cool bad guy” is so far removed from reality, and from his own personality, the scene becomes dorky and uncomfortable in a way that benefits the film as a whole. By having the audience experience such discomfort watching him turn into a villain, the emo dance scene allows for some interesting insights into Peter's character, no matter if the scene is viewed as either comedic or cringe-worthy. The true comedy embedded within the scene reveals that a lot of his darkest instincts are hilariously tame, since the symbiote's influence essentially gives him the confidence to stand up for himself and dance in public, two very ordinary actions. Alternatively, the awkwardness of the emo dance scene is a reminder of just how ill-fitting the "cool bad guy" persona is for the friendly neighborhood Spider-Man, and it’s a weird, but fun way of making the audience uncomfortable with the person Peter has become.
Ironically, just as the audience becomes aware that Parker’s villain persona isn’t too becoming for his character during the emo dance scene, Peter as well becomes aware of how much he’s changed during a similarly uncomfortable dance scene from Spider-Man 3 in which he attends a jazz club with Gwen Stacy (Bryce Dallas Howard). In the comparably cringe-worthy scene, Peter commands a crowd's attention at an establishment where Mary Jane is working, picks a fight with a bouncer, and accidentally hurts Mary Jane in the process. As the mood of the scene shifts from fun and dorky to intense and serious, it takes Peter’s exhibition of violence against someone he loves to realize the negative aspects of the symbiote’s influence, see the person he’s become, and begin his journey back to the hero he once was.
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