So much better than 2!!!

Rating: 9/10 (7 May 2007)

If you want to know how to doom a Marvel franchise to three with smashing success at the box-office, watch X-3. If you want to know how to come back from a big-turn out, too much sappy music, too much Hamelet-esquire pontificating on love and identity, too much screen time given to Gee-Wiz comic-science, and not enough bad-guy action, and hit a home run, Spiderman 3 is the answer.
The movie was genuinely fresh. The bad guys were complex and yet simple, in a way that made the poignant image of a number tattooed on Magnetos arm look flat. And the special effects were extraordinary. I'm not just talking about eye candy that shows up in every sci-fi movie and TV show now. There is a rapid decent free fall with full on fist fighting so complex and realistic, I can only imagine what it looked like in I-Max. The sandman special effects during the armored car fight were extraordinary. The funny business of strutting down the sidewalk in New York, or the enthusiastic french waiter were all employed to add some levity to what otherwise typically ends up a formulaic super-hero exercise of (1) Tell Good Guy's Story/Make him good (2) Introduce Bad Guy/make him bad (3) Make them Fight.
Part of this film was shot in Cleveland, but the visuals from New York were extrodinarily well placed ... and I don't mean an obligatory shot of the Chrysler building or the Empire State. There are shots of the top of the AT&T building casually woven into the background. There is the partial destruction of the Fisher building by a crane. Probably only New Yorkers and architectural fans will get these images, but it shows great attention to detail.
One criticism: it runs a little long. Cut action, and it would have dragged like Spidey 2. Cut the interludes with the singing and dancing, and it would have failed to impress on the order of X3. The one thing that could have been cut were the sappy scenes with Aunt Mae. Her presaging the difficulty between Peter and MJ, was completely unnecessary - it's a story that can tell itself.