Good, but not in comparison

Rating: 8/10 (7 May 2007)

As a kid, I always loved Spiderman. Alas, I have somewhat of a bias in my review, since I give him some credibility that some do not think he deserves. On top of that, I love Sam Raimi as a director.
Spiderman 3 had way too much on the plate to feed the audience. A lot of things were all over the place, and the story just did not flow smoothly and naturally. For some films, multiple story-lines can be pulled off correctly and have a wonderful outcome, i.e. Sin City. In Spidey 3 though, the good result is not seen.
As a stand-alone film, I thought Spiderman 3 was good. However, when you compare the movie to Raimi's past work, i.e. Spiderman and Spiderman 2, the film is just depressing. The style changed completely, and I was really disappointed with what Raimi came up with. I loved what Sam did with the first two films because you could see he loved the comics. The first two movies created an authentic atmosphere and world which was believable. Spiderman 3 seemed like some high-budget yet mediocre Michael Bay film, e.g. The Island.
There were some parts that were completely bizarre. I was not crazy how Raimi's brother wrote the infected Peter Parker part of the story. The whole "emo" look for Peter was jut stupid and inappropriate. Dancing down the street, playing the piano and rubbing it in MJ's face, it just seemed so out there in comparison to the rest of the film. I also wasn't crazy about Sandman's character. I like Church as an actor, thought he was great in Sideways. But, his character in this story was not only incorrect, it just didn't fit in.
I think Spiderman 3 was originally going to be a great film. Raimi intended for the included villains to be Sandman and Harry. I can see that working out really well. Not too much going on since Harry already relates to Peter's personal life. Throwing Venom into the mix was just a joke though. It ruined the story because there just wasn't enough of him to have a solid role, and thus took screen time away from Sandman and Harry's "New Goblin" development. This movie just seemed way over done with the three stories.
Honestly, I would have loved to seen Spiderman 3 be primarily about Venom. Give Venom versus Spidey the first half of the movie, then bring Carnage in for the second half. Staying true to the comics, Venom and Spiderman would have to join forces to defeat Carnage. That would have been a great movie. Unfortunately, that won't happen since Venom is pretty much done at this point. On that note, the CGI, primarily for Venom, was horrendous in Spiderman 3. One could tell that the CGI director of the first two films was different than this film. Venom's eyes and mouth just look weird the few instances they are seen, and when you can see Topher Grace's face while in the symbiotic suit, the end result just doesn't look great. I thought a lot of the action besides that was good.
In the end, this movie sticks out like a sore thumb in comparison to its predecessors. 1 and 2 were directed by a man who loved the comic as a youngster, you could really tell by what he made. This film though, its as if Raimi did not direct it. The movie has its great scenes including the French restaurant and the celebration parade (I was bummed when I found out the Spiderman theme song played by the marching band wasn't on the soundtrack) make the movie notable. However, I never felt the power and immensity the first two films left me with. Still, as a Spidey fan at heart, I can't give the film a bad score. =)