Does whatever a $250 million budget can

Rating: 6/10 (22 May 2007)

With Spider-Man 2, Sam Raimi basically set the benchmark by which all superhero blockbusters are judged, exciting, funny, action packed, spectacular, with characters that you care about and a great villain, it is virtually everything you could want from this kind of movie. Naturally, this means that expectation has been incredibly high for the third and final, for Raimi at least, instalment of this super series. Unfortunately, by his own high standards, it is hard to consider Raimi's third Spider-Man to be anything other than a disappointment. That is not to say that it lacks moments of spectacle and pure summer blockbuster fun, not to mention the odd moment of genuine emotion, but it certainly does not hold together as a film and swings quite wildly from the sublime to the ridiculous.
That Raimi has stated pretty strongly that this will be his last Spider-Man feature even if the series continues, as it almost certainly will, is just the problem here. The film feels a lot like Raimi getting all of his good ideas in wherever he can, packing what is really two movies worth of quality material into one not only damages that material, giving it no room to breathe, but also sullies that excellent work Raimi did in the first two films to set this one up.
With each villain given limited screen time, they have poorly fleshed out backstories. Thomas Haden Church is a very watchable actor but even he can't sell Flint Marko's clunky sick child plot or the awkward insertion of his story into Peter Parker's own history, something that heavily undermines moments from the first film, meanwhile his actual transformation into the Sandman comes in a rather ridiculous moment in which he literally stumbles into some unexplained scientific testing site. Secondary villain Venom fares little better and the director's dislike of his villain is clear in how underused Venom is here. Indeed, in trying to juggle multiple plot lines, the film has a tendency of just losing them and then picking them up much later. With all these extra characters and plot lines, the film really does feel quite long in places despite only being about ten minutes longer than its predecessor.
So, the movie is deeply flawed, but this is not to say that it doesn't have multiple strong points at the same time. In his third Spidey film, Tobey Maguire is perfectly comfortable in the role and having great fun with it, nicely reflecting the newfound self confidence and pride with which Peter Parker begins this movie. His turn to the "dark" side is very entertaining. Critics of the film have derided the emo hair, eyeliner, finger clicking, jazz dancing sequence as not a convincing turn to evil and laughable but that is rather the point. The sequence is pure Raimi, every bit as silly and entertaining as the Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head montage from Spider-Man 2. Indeed, it is pleasing to know that in all the pre-release hype about its dark edge, Raimi hasn't lost his light touch with Spider-Man and the film is still very funny in places with J.K. Simmons' J. Jonah Jameson act still stealing scenes and the inevitable Bruce Campbell cameo his best yet, playing a French waiter whose accent is only marginally more ridiculous than his moustache.
Raimi has always handled the soap opera relationship stuff well and that continues here with inevitable difficulties entering Peter and MJ's relationship, leading to a new love triangle with Goblin's son Harry Osborne.
Ah yes, the third of the film's triumvirate of villains and Spidey 3's one unequivocal strength. With a couple of films behind him, Harry actually has sufficient backstory and motivation to give his clashes with Spider-Man that extra edge. Meanwhile, James Franco, such a promising star in TV's Freaks and Geeks all those years ago, finally has something to really sink his teeth into and he seems to relish bringing out both Harry's charming side and his vindictive one. Even the slightly ridiculous amnesia plot works well, allowing Harry some moments of genuine bonding with Peter that highlights the tragedy of the way their relationship has gone. Of course, Harry at last gets the chance at some proper superpowers and a chance to have a real go at Spider-Man, or rather at Peter, because their clashes play out while our protagonist is not in his Spidey persona which just makes them extra effective. The first is a very cool looking action sequence which showcases the much better New Goblin costume and a great moment in which Peter does his wall climbing thing on a wall tumbling to the ground, their second is a down and dirty scrap that ends with the dark Peter in his one moment of genuine nastiness.
Indeed, Spider-Man 3, even while it doesn't quite match the train sequence in Spider-Man 2, does deliver on some explosively entertaining action sequences. While the Sandman's transformation is poorly introduced, the moment that the sand comes together again to form a man is a triumph of special effects as is the scene in which Spidey sheds his Venom suit and it latches onto Brock.
A film of poor plotting but great moments, then, rather than the final triumph some would have hoped for after Spidey 2, Spider-Man 3 is a flawed but entertaining slice of summer blockbuster fun. ***