Had potential to be the best, but fell flat

Rating: 8/10 (7 May 2007)

Well the wait is over and Spidey is back on the big screen. Unfortunately my biggest fear was realized when I saw it. They tried too much. I have a feeling that it was mostly due to the fact that Sam Raimi had let on that he wasn't going to do another film. But everybody wanted to see Venom, even if he didn't seem to want him. Other than the specifics, which I'll mention in a sec, Venom just seemed like he was tacked on to keep everybody yammering for him happy.
The acting was very well done. Thomas Haden Church was just excellent as Sandman. There have been plenty of complaints on how his character was changed from the comic.
~spoiler~ He was a very deep and sympathetic character and not just the random thug whom gets super powers as in the comic.
Normally, in fact in just a minute, I would hate the major personality change in a character that has a lot of already established background. However, it fit in with the movie's theme of vengeance vs forgiveness. It also fit with Sam Raimi's style of having deep characters.
~Spoiler~Harry Osborn...Other than the obvious mention of the Butler near the end telling Harry exactly how his father died which did not make any sense. Maybe if sometime in Spidey 2 if he had mentioned it maybe...but...He was fine.
On the whole, Harry was much better, and much better acted. The face gear was ridiculous. It was all designed so that you could easily see James Franco's face which wouldn't have been possible with the old goblin-y mask. That seemed to be the trend with you constantly seeing Peter with out his mask, and Eddie(post symbiosis) revealing his face to the Sandman. We can't have our pretty young actors' faces covered at all times now can we.
On to Venom.
~spoiler~ If they had just had Peter get rid of the symbiont and it bonds to Eddie before Eddie runs away. Then leave Venom for the 4th movie. Everything else could have been left the same. But heaven forbid that anybody do something with what Raimi had already started. Not to mention that he was a bit more sane in the movie than he should have been. Also referring to himself as "I" and "Me" instead of "Us" and "We". But all of that could have been forgiven until ~BIG SPOILER~ THEY KILLED HIM. What?! Here's an idea, Eddie and the symbiont aren't completely in sync and when Spidey starts to separate them he escapes and you don't see him till Spider-man 4.
The majority of people upset with the movie will be overactive fan boys, the rest should be entertained by it. Just because they screwed up Venom doesn't mean that the movie was a total waste.
All in all, it wasn't enough to make the rest of the movie unwatchable, a la the way that the 3rd Matrix made the entire trilogy unwatchable. Every trilogy has a weak spot, and this is it. I just hope that everyone involved in it learns from their mistakes and decides to come back to do a 4th movie just to end the series on a true good note. Here's a suggestion, Spider-man 4 should be Mysterio and Elctro