Forget the critics!

Rating: 10/10 (4 May 2007)

Spider-Man 3 returns after a three year absence with director Sam Raimi along with Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst, Rosemary Harris and James Franco returning with some new cast members along the way. Spider-Man is back with a new attitude this time!
In the first Spider-Man movie it was all about Peter Parker (Maguire) donning the gift of fighting crime without anyone noticing; in Spider-Man 2 (The best of the trilogy), Peter Parker can't seem to balance himself as an ordinary guy making money along with being a crime-fighter for which he loses his powers and his truth is revealed to Mary Jane (Dunst) and Harry (Franco); in this installment Parker shows off to the public and at the same time dons another power: the symbiont for which in the comic book it gave Spider-Man more abilities than he ever imagined along with hurting those people he cares for along the way including Mary Jane.
Like any superhero movie comes the villains. In this latest installment we have Flint Marko/The Sandman played with sympathy by Thomas Hayden Church after making an escape from prison to get money for his ailing daughter (Perla-Haney Jardine, Kill Bill 2) while duking it out with Spider-Man after being revealed to Capt. John Stacy (James Cromwell) that Flint killed Ben Parker. Topher Grace plays the desperate Eddie Brock Jr., who after being humiliated by Peter Parker in the office dons the gift of the symbiont where he becomes Venom towards the end. I'm not sure if Harry Osborn could be consider a villain despite that in the film he carries amnesia and doesn't remember who he is after trying to kill Spider-Man.
While we still have all the old characters from the first two movies from Aunt May (played by Rosemary Harris with such little time), J. Jameson (the talented J.K. Simmons) and so forth, the only other character introduced in the film is Gwen Stacy (Bryce Dallas Howard) who falls in love with both Spider-Man after a rush with death.
Does Spider-Man 3 promise to keep the audience entertained? You bet!
Is it better than Spider-Man 1? Yes! The two sequels ARE better than the original.
Is it better than part 2? No! Part 2 was its own movie with dazzling special effects, non-stop action sequences and more like the Empire Strikes Back with more drama and care for characters.
Will i get my money's worth? YES! Like i said, forget the critics! Go out there and have a good time watching Spider-Man 3.