For once I'm with most of the other reviews

Rating: 4/10 (27 May 2007)

STAR RATING: ***** Saturday Night **** Friday Night *** Friday Morning ** Sunday Night * Monday Morning
Spider-Man (Tobey Maguire) has now died down a bit as a phenomenon and is now more of a neighbourhood service, doing his duty and delving out justice to the low-lives of Manhattan. But his old friend Harry (James Franco) still has a score to settle with him over the death of his father and returns as the 'New' Goblin, ready to wreak vengeance on his old friend. But a freak accident lands him in hospital with severe memory loss (and just as well because villains wise in this film he's already got his work cut out.) So with him out the picture, Ol' Spidey must now battle the inner villain within himself when an evil new serum attaches itself to him, causing his suit to turn black and making his vicious instincts to come to life. These come in full force when he discovers the identity of his grand-father's real killer Flint Marko (Thomas Haden Church) who's just escaped from prison and has been turned into The Sandman, capable of morphing into a giant indestructible monster who can take on anything. In the face of his biggest challenge yet, Peter must defeat his greatest enemy as well as the raging evil within himself.
With the rave reviews for the last two films still ringing fresh in my mind, I was expecting the final instalment in the Spider-Man franchise to receive similar glaring words. But I was as surprised as probably anyone was when it received a barrage of not awful but distinctly average reviews. A big complaint has been too many villains and I would agree with everyone on that. In fact it speaks volumes that the film's most memorable moment comes not with one of Spider-Man's showdowns with one of these villains, but with a spectacular action sequence involving a giant building block crashing into a skyscraper, causing everything (and everyone) in it to come plummeting out of it.
This aside, I also want to niggle about the theme and tone of the film, involving Peter's quest for revenge and battle against the inner demons raging inside him. Batman is a dark hero, Spider-Man I think is more of an undemanding kind of hero, and the whole dark tone of the film I felt was totally mis-placed.
I'm sure it won't be the worst blockbuster out this year, but I must say I'm glad Sam Raimi has finally closed the lid on the downward spiralling Spider-Man franchise and that there won't be any more to tarnish the memory of the highly enjoyable original. **