The curse of the third sequel......

Rating: 5/10 (11 May 2007)

Saw it this afternoon, double featured it with "28 weeks later" and if I hadn't gotten to see both for the $6. price tag I would have been complaining bitterly. I had high expectations for this movie as I am a huge fan and saw that the preview voter ratings at IMDb were at 8.4. I was tempted to see it at the initial general showing last Thursday at midnight. I'm glad I didn't. The ratings plummeted within a few days and as of today were at 6.8. They probably shouldn't even be that high. The film has spectacular special effects that go to the next level of technical development in much the same way that X-Men progressed from film to film. But that isn't enough to carry the whole project through nearly 2 1/2 hours of viewing time. I was disappointed with the screenplay, dialog and especially the direction and evolution of the character development. I found myself antsy in my seat and glancing at my watch between battle scenes.
Early on, an alien meteorite just HAPPENS to strike the earth exactly where Pete and Mary Jane are "pitching woo" in a spidey hammock and beyond THAT coincidence, they don't even take notice !? Who developed the Green Goblin's improved transport vehicle and new mask ? I thought I remembered that James Franco's character just barely graduated from High School. If it was him then he must be some kind of repressed super-genius. Tobey Maguire does a laughable morph when he's symbiotisized by the black goo and becomes a low budget Tony Manero, strutting about with an Adolph Hitler hair-do. I half expected to hear the Bee Gees start to sing "Staying Alive" in the background. PUH-LEEZE ! These are just small examples of the stupidity woven throughout this VERY poorly developed movie. Danny Elfman's scoring is adequate, but he's no John Williams. J.K. Simmons is amusing but underutilized as the editor of the newspaper; James Cromwell's formidable talents are completely wasted.......... too bad.......remember how disappointing "Alien 3" was ?.......Maybe Spiderman 4 will be better............