Quote of the Week -- describing Spidey 3's black squiggly thingy

Critics tried hard to find a good way to describe that black squiggly stuff that falls out of the sky and latches on to Peter Parker and Venom-izes Topher Grace.

As always, Dana Stevens of Slate nails it: "Evil space licorice...space fungus, which looks like a living bundle of black licorice whips." And I love her use of the term "air guns" to describe Peter's space-licorice-enhanced gesture as he struts down the sidewalk.

The Washington Post's Ann Hornaday calls it "a dollop of black alien glue" that propells "Peter to assume the haircut and eyeliner of an old Joy Division cover band and sashay down Manhattan streets with an awkward cock-of-the-walk strut."

The paper of record does its research and gives us the source material's description along with the critic's own characterization and an accurate description of its consequences. In the New York Times, Manohla Dargis calls it "an inky extraterrestrial glob (a symbiote in Marvel-speak) [that] spreads its gooey tentacles over his body, turning his suit and soul black."

And over at Entertainment Weekly, Owen Gleiberman calls it "a sticky, shiny black tangle — beware! It's the crawling audiotape! — that, for no discernible reason, heads straight for Peter, infesting his cruddy apartment like fleas waiting for a dog." I also like his second reference: "alien stickum."