A hard one.

Rating: 6/10 (8 December 2007)

Spider-man has been my favorite hero since I learned to read (or even look at the pictures). Loved the first two, but this is something else.
Like almost everyone says - too crowded. Too many things, plots and villains in one movie.
It seems that I belong into some kind of minority, but I still think that Venom is a villain that should not be included in these movies. Maybe I got older at some point, I don't know, but I never liked the damn thing. Also I think that Venom is too out-of-this-world (even if it's supposed to be) and adds to the contrast in a wrong way.
Anyway, Venom was handled in a manner that I can live with. Yes, it was rushed like everything else, but Raimi did his best. Hell, he didn't even want to include Venom into the movie. Sandman looks great, and you gotta love the shirt.
With Venom, you get a few more sub-plots and nuances, and they all pretty much suck. You get a disco-dancing Peter wearing make-up and having to live through yet another identity crisis. You get the Sandman joining Venom in a (great-looking) final fight, thus losing every bit of character development he had so far. This was a shame, because Sandman was a good character, and he kept me interested to a point where his intentions and motivations are thrown to the trash, just because "EPIC END BATTLE GUISE".
Now studios, if you have a franchise that does great, trust the director, listen to him. Raimi had a vision what he wanted this film to be, but NOOO, you just have to ignore him with some stupid ideas and make him deal with wrong and too many things in one movie. If I am wrong and this was the absolute best that Raimi could do and wasn't forced into any of the crap involved, then...well, at least the new Amazing Spider-man reboot succeeded.
Raimi doesn't get 10 points for the effort though. Every laughable (in a bad way) part from the previous movies are nothing compared to the evil make-up-Peter. Come on Sam! So yes, there is a lot of nitpicking. But when the action kicks in, your jaws drop open and fall to the floor. You have never seen anything like this. The action, and how it's done, made me watch this movie several times. I don't do that a lot, especially with movies that make me complain this much. Maybe it's the kid inside me being happy, seeing his favorite hero in breath-taking movement and action, and being able to forgive many flaws.
Worst of the three, but I think I'll be watching this many more times that the previous ones. Strange.