An amazing end to the trilogy.

Rating: 7/10 (7 May 2007)

When Spider-Man 3 begins, everything is going great for Peter Parker. New York finally loves and supports Spider-Man, he's doing great in school, and his relationship with Mary Jane couldn't be better. In fact, he's going to pop the question. Unfortunately, things start happening that get in the way of Peter's plans. Harry Osborn returns as the New Goblin and tries to kill him, he finds out that a new villain called the Sandman is his uncle's actual killer, and a strange alien creature takes the form of a black costume and tries to possess him. The alien begins to make Peter more aggressive as his new found fame goes to his head, making him cocky. Finally, Peter realizes that something is wrong, and he gets rid of the strange substance. Unfortunately, the creature attaches itself to Eddie Brock, a man who has lost everything to Peter Parker, and a new villain is formed. Quite possibly the most evil and deadliest villain Spider-Man has ever faced. Though this movie isn't as good as the first two in the series, it's still amazing and a lot of fun.
What I liked about the first two movies was that they had a formula to them that allowed for plenty of personal drama for the characters as well as plenty of action. In this movie, Sam Raimi tries to squeeze in tons of personal drama between Peter and Mary Jane as well as Peter and Harry, and Peter and Eddie Brock, and Sandman and his daughter, and the list goes on, while also having action scenes featuring New Goblin, Sandman, a malfunctioning crane, and eventually Venom. This made certain scenes seem rushed and pointless. I liked that they kept the movie both funny and serious, because the humour in this series has always been a high point for me. The twenty or so minutes where Peter becomes evil were so enjoyable and humorous to me that I just couldn't stop smiling. The plot isn't that bad because it covers all the points that needed to be covered, and by the end of the movie it ties everything up nicely, leaving no need for a 4th film though I'm sure that it will happen. The action scenes in this movie are fantastic. The crane sequence was done really well and featured some of the best special effects yet. Also, the ways Spider-Man maneuvered in that scene were amazing. Both of Peter's fights with Harry were incredibly awesome. They were the most violent and intense fights in the whole series, and I loved them. As with the first two films there were a few lines of dialogue that made me cringe. Sam Lee's cameo in this film was his worst cameo to date. Now, what I really didn't like about this film was the characters of Sandman and Venom. The movie needed New Goblin because it was a continuation, but either Sandman or Venom should have been cut out. My reason is that Sandman was pretty much pointless to the rest of the story, and if he was gone, Venom could have had more screen time and development. If Venom was taken out, his character wouldn't have been destroyed the way it was. Venom had so little screen time that it literally annoyed me. And half the time he was on screen, he retracted his mask so it was just Eddie Brock with a black suit on. I really didn't like what Raimi did with the character, though I am happy I saw him in live action at all. I also didn't like that Mary Jane was whining about Peter being Spider-Man through the whole movie, and that by the time the movie ended, Peter still hadn't proposed.
The acting in this movie is just as good as the other two. Tobey Maguire did a good job playing both the good and the evil Peter Parker. Kirsten Dunst played Mary Jane well once again, though I didn't really like her character in this. James Franco did an amazing job as Harry in this movie, especially when he was insane. He gave his best performance in this movie. Thomas Haden Church was pretty good as Sandman, he looked the part, but he didn't really get to do a whole lot with his talent. Topher Grace was funny as Eddie Brock, and he was surprisingly good when he became Venom. He's no longer Eric Foreman to me.
Overall, the first two films are better, but Spider-Man 3 is an amazing ending to this trilogy, and if they decide to make a 4, 5, and 6, I hope they can be as epic and as interesting as these films were.
7.5/10