Not quite bad, not quite good enough.......

Rating: 6/10 (14 May 2007)

After the 2nd film broke the chain of sequels always being inferior by in many ways surpassing the original, the 3rd installment shows signs the creative forces are tired.
There are many elements that make the film enjoyable. The thread of emotional struggles between love, hate, revenge, jealousy, envy, pride, etc, are fun to watch. But with so much going on and the tidy clean up at the end, you feel cheated somewhat.
The bad; too many villains and too many subplots. This was not the time to introduce TWO new villains. I would have been content with just the introduction of either Venom or Sandman rather than throwing them both into the mix. The Sandman story needed much more time to develop, yet ends up taking too much time away from this film which ultimately causes the film to merely brush over the whole Venom storyline. I have to agree with many that the special effects seemed a bit too......well, like special effects. I found myself many times being taken out of the moment by sub-par character effects.
The good; Gwen Stacy. I thought Howard was great. She is gorgeous, so much so that Kirsten Dunst looks rather plain compared to her. Jamison and all the supporting cast once again come with their A-game. Tobey is very good as is Dunst, though she by far is saddled with the least appealing character this go around.
In the end, Spider-man 3 fell victim to the curse of putting too much into one story in order to accommodate some producers desire to sell more toys.