Does everything a sequel should, but overzealous

Rating: 6/10 (26 June 2007)

SM3 compounds on elements from the first two films, is the most visually stunning (Sandman's birth--classic), and had a decent moral attached to Peter's dilemma this time around, but falls short on the villain side, the first two movies' strengths. I have no doubt Church and Grace would have turned better performances had each of their characters been in separate movies, but here they are mashed into the already dry story of MJ and Peter's off/on relationship, something I personally felt was wrapped up fine in SM2. Gwen Stacey has a fair introduction, if a bit awkward in this continuity, and I think they squeezed she and Capt. Stacey into the story far better than Sandman and Venom. Church has the worst dialog, but the best visual effects, while Topher is the most amusing character but lacks a good amount of screen time. Prior to the Raimi-confessed producer "pointers" made towards fitting in Venom "at the fans' demand" (but not at the cost of a decent movie, dammit), Raimi had in mind a simpler, better-flowing plot with about three or four less characters, which would have smoothed the choppy storyline. Sandman's motivation for crime was unbelievably lame (a sick daughter???) and his ties to Peter are revolting, it just all reeks of studio intervention to sell some black-suited Spidey toys. Venom as the embodiment of Peter's struggle with vengeance makes sense, but Sandman as the catalyst? Several fans were advocating Flint Marko's murder of Peter's uncle as a hallucination induced by the symbiote, which would have heightened the drama and better expressed the threat of the symbiote (where were the producers then?). Harry's character came full circle. No disappointments there except for the costume, which, after the first film, I stopped caring about as Raimi makes the characters work anyhow. I especially loved Harry tormenting Peter emotionally, "attacking his heart" as the first Goblin aimed to.
It's definitely the most ambitious and worst of the three films as it tried to juggle so many story lines that somewhere along the task of tying them together it got really ridiculous. I'm not suggesting the villains have to be the focal point of the story like the Burton Batman films, but SM3 lacked the nice balance the first two had of Peter's growth as a person, and the villain's story. I'd say overall it beats X3 and every other recent, sub-par superhero film, even though it has nearly the same kinds of problems--poor, strictly expository dialog, lame or underused story elements, and a plot not worthy of the visuals associated with it. Raimi barely holds it all together.