Spider-Man 3 – Review

After the first two, this is a surefire web-spinning winner, right?! So, why is my spider-sense tingling…? The opening credits recap movies 1 and 2 so the stage is again set, before some ominous black ooze takes center stage. Where were we….

The tiger is going and getting, as Peter Parker aka Spider-Man (Maguire) flings himself through the sky to everyone’s delight below. He remains in college and is a top student, along with Gwen Stacy (Howard). He is finally happy with Mary Jane (Dunst) and is even eyeing an engagement ring. Miss Watson herself is in a Broadway stage play. However… there are no pizzas involved with the plot, so something is clearly off.

Pissy Harry Osborn (Franco) creeps from above having become more than half his father, and then a sympathetic criminal Flint Marco (Church) gets discombobulated, and black goop from space latches onto whatever it can nearby. Sound like a lot? It is, and overall too much.

Spider-Man 3 misses an opportunity to advance the timed pizza delivery plot from Spider-Man 2 in favor of introducing many villains. Some of it still works pretty well, and there is some fantastic action. It is well cast other than Eddie Brock (Grace) and continues a lot of the vibe of the first couple films.

However, it also gets a bit fast, loose and goofy. Venom could have been handled better, but I am still saying that for all of his feature appearances. Sandman was fantastic and I don’t think too many shits were given about Harry. The film is too long in order to accommodate all the characters, and definitely has some iffy dialogue sprinkled in throughout.

If you love the first two, you probably can handle this one, but it has more uninteresting subplots than the others. There is plenty of good, including some of the performances and the special effects, but the goofiness and negatives drag it down slightly. It does however have the best quote of the series:

Sandman: “What does it matter to you anyway?”

Spider-Man: “EVERYTHING!!” *Attacks*