Spider-Man 3 good but not great

Rating: 8/10 (13 September 2007)

Spider-Man 3 kicks the summer off very successfully with amazing special effects and an edge of your seat knockout. Peter Parker (Toby Maguire) has finally found the balance that he's been looking for between the love of his life Mary Jane Watson (Kirsten Dunst) and his responsibilities as Spider-Man. The city of New York is finally praising him for all of his hard work and Peter is inn the running for a new staff job at the Daily Bugle. However, everything that Peter has worked for will start to unravel. Flint Marko (Thomas Haden Church), while escaping from prison gets caught in an accident that displaces his molecules and transforms him into the Sandman, who can make himself whatever shape, size he wants. When Peter discovers that Flint maws actually the one responsible for his Uncle Ben's death, Peter will stop at nothing to get revenge. Before Peter is able to do this, he discovers that a mysterious black substance has turned his Spider-Man suit jet black and has brought forth a dark side of himself and Spider-Man that no one has seen before. Peter begins to give in to this dark personality and he starts to abandon the people he loves most of all. His friend Harry Osborn (James Franco) decides to take up his late father's title and becomes the New Goblin. Peter begins to have a new romance with Gwen Stacey (Bryce Dallas Howard), but by doing this he sets off a rival photographer Eddie Brock (Topher Grace), who is obsessed with Gwen. Little does Peter know, the black substance has its sights set on Brock as well. The substance transforms Brock into Venom, an arch for that can mimic anything Spider-Man can do. Peter has to forget everything behind him and take on his greatest challenge yet. Many people say that Spider-Man 3 was a major disappointment; on the other hand many may say that it was the best of the series. To me it was a slight disappointment, the first two movies were fantastic; they had great villains and great story lines and everything. Spider-Man 3 has great villains as well. Sandman becomes one of Spider-Man's toughest enemies; he can make himself whatever size he wants even if that means becoming 20 feet tall! The biggest disappointment would have to be Venom. Yes Venom looks amazing in the movie, but there just isn't enough screen time with him. Venom doesn't actually appear in the movie until there is approximately 30 minuets left in the film. They should have waited until the 4th movie and gave Venom his own movie. The director (Sam Rami) is great behind the camera yet again. He somehow manages to make each film look better as it goes on. That includes the special effects, which also are visually stunning, and has you convinced that Toby Maguire is really swinging through New York.
Spider-Man 3 has one of the best story lines in the series; Spider-Man has to deal with 3 villains, sorry make that 4, yes that's right, 4 villains! Sandman's great strength, Venom's mimicking powers, Harry's mind and heart attacks, and Peter himself overcoming the revenge in his heart. Many people have said that Rami has put to many things into this movie, that is not the case. Rami has put in just enough story lines and he is able to make sure everything fits and that it doesn't become a big mess. The acting from the cast is great. Toby Maguire gives another strong performance as the troubled Peter Parker, while Kirsten Dunst gives a good performance as Mary Jane Watson. Rosemary Harris gives a great performance as Aunt May who gives Peter much needed advice throughout the film. Lastly, the two best performances of the movie came from James Franco as the menacing best friend of Peter, and Topher Grace who exceeded expectations as Eddie Brock.
The slight disappointment of Spider-Man 3 is that, while it is very good when it's dark, there is just too much of dark suited Spider-Man. On of the greatest things about Spider-Man is the colourful suite that he wears that makes Spider-Man so recognizable. The only other thing that made it a slight disappointment was that there wasn't that scene at the end where the audience sees Spider-Man swinging through the skies of New York unlike the first two where there is that scene at the end, that scene is always so spectacular to watch, unfortunately there is no scene like that in the Spider-Man 3.
If you are contemplating about seeing this movie or not, go see it; yes it is a slight disappointment but it's still a fantastic movie. With the amazing visually effect and great storyline, Spider-Man 3 rates 8/10 and starts the summer off with a bang!