"Spiderman: The Dragon's Challenge" was, as it turned out, the final episode of the Amazing Spiderman TV series in the States (shown in July 1979, a full five months after the one before it due to the series being pushed out of its prime time slot) before it was cancelled in the face of poor reviews and ratings but it did make it over for a UK and European cinema release a couple of years later in 1981 with the aim of kickstarting a new series. However, this never happened and Spidey wouldn't be seen on the big screen again for another two decades.
(NB - I s'pose if we're going by cinema release dates then it should probably go after next week's Captain America 2 - however, firstly I'm going on the order these things were released in and secondly, a double dose of '70s Captain America could well end in me losing my sanity and I'm sure nobody needs that. Also, interestingly, there was apparently plans for a "Spiderman vs Hulk" movie in 1984 to try and reboot both series with Nicholas Hammond and Bill Bixby/Lou Ferrigno starring but due to lack of interest, this also came to nought)
One year on from the abysmal "Spiderman Strikes Back!" and Peter Parker is still working at the Daily Bugle having now graduated from college. J Jonah Jamieson returns in this third instalment as does his receptionist Rita Conway who we saw in the second film but otherwise it's pretty much a whole new cast here. Gail Hoffman has been replaced as Spidey's sort of love interest at the Bugle by Julie Masters although it's never properly established whether they're dating or just friends.
Anyway, the story this time - J Jonah Jamieson gets an unexpected visit from a Chinese exchange student who he was friends with at Uni called Min Lo Chan who now works as Industrial Development Minister for the Chinese government but is currently on the run after being caught up in a corruption scandal involving some American GI's approaching him for secrets about Chairman Mao during the war. He now needs to find the GI's to prove his innocence but an evil American industrialist called Zeider who wants to build a huge nuclear plant in Shanghai is on his trail. As Chan opposes the plan, Zeider wants him dead or imprisoned and has sent some goons to make sure he never gets back to Hong Kong. Jamieson's solution - I know, Peter Parker's friends with Spiderman, I'll send them to look after you!
Pete and Min get an early warning that this isn't going to be a cakewalk when they're ambushed straight away in the archives room at the Daily Bugle. Luckily the Matt Berry lookalike goon who's been sent is probably the most inept hitman ever and Spidey defeats him by catching a stack of newspapers that the guy throws at him then bowling them back at his legs to knock him over.
Min takes Peter to his daughter Emily's house where he says they'll be safe which, of course, means that the villains promptly break in about five minutes later. Peter runs off into the spare room leading Emily to think he's done a runner but he returns as Spidey to take the villains out. Unfortunately Min ends up having a heart attack with the stress of the whole thing and Emily calls Peter a coward and storms off after her dad's put in the ambulance and taken to the hospital.
Forced to go it alone on the case, Peter discovers that Zeider's right hand man Evans has stolen the information regarding the contact details for the three GI's caught up in the corruption scandal and is planning to pass it to some goons to take back to Hong Kong later that day. There's a punch-up at the tube station which sees Spidey shot in the arm after he nicks the film and he only narrowly avoids getting mown down by a subway train but just to say makes his escape. Unfortunately it turns out that of the three GI's, one is dead, one is critically ill in hospital and the other one, a Professor Dent at Peter's old college, wants nothing to do with the case.
Rendezvousing back at the hospital, Jamieson comes up with a plan which involves the Bugle printing a fake news story (blimey, there's ahead-of-the-curve thinking for you!) stating that Min is dead to throw the villains off the scent while they transfer him to a private hospital out of the city. In the meantime, Min orders Peter and Emily to put their differences aside and try and persuade Dent to go with them to Hong Kong to testify in the trial.
Rain check - halfway in and so far, this has actually been a bit of an improvement on its predecessors with a lot more happening, the action sequences being a lot less repetitive and even though the villains yet again aren't really proper OTT Spidey villains, the plot's at least reasonably gripping. Unfortunately we've still got 50 minutes of the film to go and it's almost like the scriptwriters completely ran out of ideas here. After persuading Dent to go along with their plan, Peter and Emily jet off to Hong Kong with the professor in tow. The film then spends twenty odd minutes on them going sightseeing which makes for as captivating viewing as you'd expect before thankfully Evans and his gang end this torture for the viewers by kidnapping Dent at an Oriental market.
Spidey gives chase on a junk boat but loses the goons halfway across the harbour. Him and Emily then try to locate where Dent's being held in a helicopter...only to land at the farm where the villains had him about five minutes after they've done a runner meaning the place is empty. That waste of time takes up another ten minutes of the film before Spidey trails the villains back to the harbour again only for them to shoot him with a poison dart which leads to him falling 30 feet into the water. Emily and some locals pull him out and take him to the local hospital where the doc ends up removing his mask and Emily finally twigs that Peter is Spiderman.
At this point, there's literally five minutes of the film left meaning the final sequence with Spidey trailing the transmitter he placed on Dent earlier to Zeider's HQ, beating him, Evans and the goons, rescuing Dent, winning the trial and having a quick snog with Emily before he gets back on his plane feels just a bit rushed especially given how painfully slowly the film's been going prior to this.
Although it's a slight improvement on its predecessor, this is still a massively below-par film which is pretty much terminally wrecked by bad pacing. The first 30-40 minutes is passable enough but as soon as Peter Parker jumps on the plane to Hong Kong the film slows to an absolute crawl and it's all you can do to avoid losing interest. I do actually feel quite sorry for Nicholas Hammond as the poor standard of these films isn't his fault (certainly compared to Reb Brown in the Captain America film the other week he's practically Richard Burton in terms of acting ability) and there's only so much he can do with the poor material he's been given. Any road up, this was pretty much the end for Spidey on the big and small screen for 20+ years. Happily the reboot would make for some much better viewing...but unfortunately it's gonna be a good few months before we get to it.
FINAL RATING: 🕸🕸🕸 3/10
CURRENT MARVEL FILM TABLE
1. Doctor Strange (1978) (5/10)
2. Spiderman (1977) (4/10)
3. Spiderman: The Dragon's Challenge (1979) (3/10)
4. Captain America (1979) (2/10)
5. Spiderman Returns (1978) (2/10)
NEXT WEEK: Captain America versus Sauron! Unfortunately not as exciting as it sounds...
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