A big disappointment.

Rating: 1/10 (7 May 2007)

I am a fan of Spiderman comic book. I have been collecting them since I was a young child. I know the origins of Peter Parker, how he became Spiderman, the origins of Sandman and his interaction with Spidey, and etc.
That being said, I know you have to change the story when you adapt a book/comic book for movie purpose. I get that but I don't think they did it well. On top of that, the movie had just too many things going on. Due to this, the movie could not sufficiently delve deeper into a particular story line, even though the movie was over 2 hours. The movie just glossed over major characters or conflicts leaving the viewer, or at least me, less than satisfied.
First of all, I cannot stand seeing Kirsten Dunst as Mary Jane Watson. This just annoys greatly. If you are a Spiderman comic book collector like myself, you know that Mary Jane Watson was gorgeous. She was a supermodel and therefore, very beautiful. Dunst is cute but she is no supermodel. I don't know who picked her for this role, but as I said before in Spiderman 1 and 2, she should have been replaced. Hopefully she will be gone for Spiderman 4.
Tobey Macguire is OK. He would not have been my first choice for Peter Parker role but he grew on me.
In this movie, these are the things that were covered (the movie did not cover these things in this order): Petey's (Peter Parker) problems include finding out Sandman is the real killer of his uncle, he wants to propose to MJ (MaryJane Watson) but ultimately does not due to other reasons discussed below, Harry Osborne (his best friend) wants to kill him, MJ's career is in ruins and is now a waitress, Steve Brock is trying take Petey's job at the Daily Bugle so Petey's career is going nowhere, Petey has a new costume that is a living symbiotic-life form from out of space which makes him stronger and gives him self-confidence but is also trying to overtake his body, the origin of Sandman is shown and he is battling Spidey, and on and on.
Let's start off with Harry Osborne. In the comic book, he becomes the Hobgoblin. Here, he has no name and his costume should be a variant of the Green Goblin but it is not. Fine, I could overlook this.
Next, you have Sandman, a major villain and character within Spiderman stories. He becomes just ONE of the villains in this story. I mean you have 3 MAJOR villains in this story! I could understand 2 but 3! If they had done it well it would be OK but they did not.
Next is the symbiotic life form. This life form's name escapes me now but he bonds with this life form when he was on another planet. Here, the life form comes to Earth as a meteorite in a fashion very much like the Blob. The story of this life form and its interaction with Petey should have been sufficient to constitute as being the sole villain in this movie but they brought in 2 more! I know I am belaboring the point but they just gloss over these great villains and it really annoys me.
This movie had great special effects. That I will not deny but all of you know that that alone will not make a good movie. You have to have a good and smart script as well as good performance from your actors and actresses. Here, the story/script which is a major component of this movie was weak. There was too many superficial topics and characters covered but not in depth.
I understand why Sony wanted to create a movie to override your senses because if I was a studio executive and I had OK'ed nearly 400 million dollars budget for this movie, I would want to make sure that I put in as many action scenes as possible to override the audience senses but at a certain point, enough is enough. You have to start developing the characters so that the audience can feel for these characters.
I went to the movies with my friend and her 10 year old child. My friend and I did not like it while the child did. My friend does not know anything about Spiderman except what she saw in the movies.
In my assessment of the Spiderman trilogy so far, I would have to say that Spiderman 1 was the best for me. Spiderman 1 was better than Spiderman 2 and 3 because Tom Osborne, the Green Goblin's character was really developed enough that you could really understand the villain; meaning, how he thinks and why he does such evil things. By the way, Willem Dafoe played this character really great.
In the end, I recommend waiting for it to be released on DVD. If you cannot wait, then at least see it at matinée price.