Spider-Man 3 Review

Rating: 7/10 (7 May 2007)

The third and what appears to be the last installment of the series is somewhat disappointing. It is no secret that the vision of Sam Raimi for the Spider-Man franchise is that of a love story, but to continue milking the whole "star cross lovers" angle up to a third movie, got old really fast. The way that this film was conceived was to sum up the previous two so there is bound to be unresolved issues. But to continue picking at that particular scar in the life of Peter Parker shows lackluster by the creating team. Spider-Man notoriety as a bad luck magnet is well established in the comics and there is a ton of problems that have a negative effect in the life of Peter to choose from, aside from women problems. Without giving too much away here is a little dissection of the film.
Performances Tobey Maguire as Spider-Man/Peter Parker I was hopping to see a more evolved version of Spidey comic-wise. More wisecracks and less mopping around. And we do get to see a little bit of that but nothing alike the comics.
Kirsten Dunst as Mary Jane Watson We see her character devolve more into a redhead version of Kristen Dunst and we definitely see less of Mary Jane Watson in her performance.
James Franco as New Goblin/Harry Osborn This guy stole the show. Swinging back and forth between Peter's best friend and a homicidal maniac out for Pete's throat, he easily gave the best performance of the movie. I would have loved to see the costume department come up with a better version of the Goblin costume though.
Thomas Haden Church as Sandman/Flint Marko Not so different from the comic book version. Thomas Haden Church delivered a solid performance.
Topher Grace as Venom/Eddie Brock A very good portrayal of Edward Brock Jr. and a lame version of Venom. 'Nuff said! The rest of the performances were OK. Bryce Dallas as Gwen Stacy sold her character fairly well. As always Rosemary Harris (May Parker) did an excellent job and so did J.K. Simmons as crazy J. Jonah Jameson. There was nothing special about James Cromwell performance as Captain Stacy and Dylan Baker didn't brought nothing new to the table while continuing his role as Dr. Curt Connors. As expected Bill Nunn (Joseph 'Robbie' Robertson) Bruce Campbell (as the Maître d') and Elizabeth Banks (Miss Brant) deliver the goods in their respective roles. The extras in the movie could have done a better job selling their reaction to the surroundings. The kids in the movie did a better job than the adults.