The third isn't bad, but it's time to end the series now

Rating: 6/10 (2 July 2007)

Spider-man 3 has shattered the box office record previously held by Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest for highest-grossing opening weekend ever, taking in $151 million compared to Pirate's $135.6 million last July. Although never poor movies, the Spider-man series always seems like the least deserving of the super-hero movies to garner such money. The drawing points of the Spider-man flicks has always been the web-action, but why market a movie on that when the bulk of it is spent with this love story trash between Peter Parker (McGuire) and Mary Jane Watson (Dunst)?
At the beginning, Peter is chatting it up with Mary Jane, and their chemistry appears to be better than ever. However good the acting may be, the love angle still sucks. Anyway, Peter later tells Aunt May (Rosemary Harris- good actress, wrong movie) about his plans, so once they open their mouths, they quickly kill any hope of the movie picking up. For a few brief seconds, we get to witness Spiderman swinging across town, and he even gets into a mediocre battle with the New Goblin. The New Goblin is Harry Osborn (James Franco), the original Goblin's son. Spiderman's battles seem to be sequences to enhance the real plot of the story. Now of course, Spiderman is human, so Peter Parker can't just fly around all day- he has to bring in money to keep a good living. Peter works at the Daily Bugle, an ignorantly-titled and fictional New York newspaper. Making a return is Mr. Jameson, the manager of the Daily Bugle. He looks, acts, and sounds like Vince McMahon, and is the man who he always has been, ordering his minions around with ego-driven orders. As you can guess, his character is a laugh-riot, and most of that is because of his witty temper. Jameson hired Peter Parker, yet he doesn't know that Spiderman is his alter-ego. And Jameson hates Spiderman. Anyways, like every make-believe work office, there is competition. Eddie Brock is a photographer, just like Peter Parker. Eddie Brock is played by Topher Grace, who is known to everyone as Eric Foreman from That 70s Show. They feud from the get-to, and are each assigned to snap cool pictures of Spiderman. After Parker dispatches Brock after catching him cheating by making up pictures of Spiderman, Brock gets his revenge by being Venom. Yes, that's correct: Eric Foreman is Venom!
Now, I could talk more about the story, but for two reasons I wont. One, I don't necessarily spoil movies when I review them. Two, I will dive into a hostel pool of negativity. I don't feel like being negative right now, but if you honestly want to know what happens in the rest of the story, expect to see too much of Peter Parker, including an emo-punk side. Too much of Parker equals not enough Spiderman. Not enough Spiderman equals a lack of other interesting characters, such as Sandman (a shape-shifting man made of sand), Venom, and even the New Goblin. The reason as to why there should be more time on these characters is because of just how cool they are: Sandman grows in size and is one hell of a special effect. Venom has perhaps one of the coolest spandex-like suits ever seen in a superhero movie. And for the first time ever, Harry Osborn grows to be a character who isn't annoying. But then there's that unexplained black stuff.
Here's the bottom line: Spider-man 3 is not a bad film; it's a good film with many misjudgments. All of the main actors seem to have picked it up, the newcomers did a respectable job, favorites like JJJ returned, and we still got to see some cool web action. On the other hand, way too much time is spent on non-superhero activities, Peter Parker's troubles (who pays money to see a geeky young male adult struggle through his love life?), andBroadway musicals? In a superhero movie? I think not.
Good) Sandman, Venom, New Goblin, Mr. Jameson
Bad) Peter Parker, the entire middle of the movie, not enough time spent on the villains May
25th) If you haven't seen Spiderman 3 by that date, you can completely forget about it