Kiss of the Black Widow.....Spider Cannibalism at work

Rating: 6/10 (6 May 2007)

The 1st film laid the seeds of good characterisation and story, solid action (if wanting in a few CGI FX scenes of realising Spiderman). This in turn gave us the personal issues of growing up we have come to expect from Parker's teenage angst. The 2nd movie was quite nearly perfect, the only real weakness (& now prevalent in all 3 movies) is when Raimi insists on sentimental flag-waving "Spirit of America" imagery. This third film is messy- sure, its packed with some amazing fights, but story-wise its the weakest of the 3 films. This is due mainly due to the plate-spinning script problems of introducing too many issues and characters. The FX sometimes fall short as well; The Sandman's "birth" is great- but his construction site finale "monster" is more reminiscent of the Marshmallow man of Ghostbusters! Sandman is convincingly (and sympathetically)played by Haden Church- a small miracle given the poorly structured arc of his journey. His character does things to service the inclusion of a big fight, or functionally join the plot holes, rather than aid the story itself. The characters are immersed in a soap opera script- they do things that have you wanting to shout "Why don't they just tell one another whats on their minds?!"- Then, of course there would be no misunderstandings to unravel! But It would save screen time & allow a more structured story to unfold as we have come to expect from this franchise.
And Sam Raimi?! How could you have taken your eye off the ball so much?! Could you please do a "Director's Cut" and lose "Mr & Mrs Exposition"- that bloody butler and the annoying British Reporter- both used to fill in the yawning cavern of a plot hole (or Black Hole) that had been developing since the 45 minute mark.
Shame to see Cromwell and Dallas Howard shoe-horned into the film and so underused.
I still had fun watching it,if my criticism seems a little harsh- its because Spiderman movies have really shown what a Superhero movie can be. Unfortunately, this Three-quel, as with the X-Men, has fallen from the towering heights of the near perfect 2nd movie and slipped into an erratic, overly packed story. Sometimes less is more.