The greatest battle is for story development

Rating: 5/10 (5 October 2007)

"Spider-Man 3" is the latest installment of the "Spider-Man" superhero series. For me, this film represents the worst of the trilogy.
The main problem in this film is its script. It has many threads, but never develops any of them strongly, so that the film becomes muddled and tedious. Rather than focusing on a jumbled array of side plots and three villains, this film should have focused on developing some side plots and one or maybe two of its villains instead. As it was, the plot developments that were put forth were mostly lax. The development of the "dark Peter Parker" subplot was actually laughable as Peter suddenly decided on a more conspicuous and blackened hair style and makeup. Even the film's final conflict wasn't particularly exciting.
Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst's roles in this film aren't on par with what they had to work with in previous films. James Franco is proficient as Harry and did have some notable scenes. Thomas Haden Church is effective as Flint Marko, but the character was very underdeveloped by the script. Invariably the best performance of the film was from J.K. Simmons as J. Jonah Jameson. Topher Grace's character was developed as a trite "office rival" and was unnecessary. However, Bruce Campbell's cameo as the Maître d' was amusing. Overall, though, "Spider-Man 3" was a disappointing entry into the superhero genre.