Not too good.

Rating: 5/10 (15 May 2007)

This movie was very disappointing. I saw the first two Spiderman movies and I thought they were entertaining. They brought the feeling of the comic to film very well. This episode was very flawed. First it was too, too maudlin. Second, there were too many references back to the original movie. Give it a rest. I don't want to see Uncle Ben die again. Is Cliff Robertson in financial trouble and in need of a job? I'll donate to a Cliff fund just to not see Uncle Ben die again. Third, the relationship between Peter Parker and Mary Jane has to advance beyond the grammar school hand holding. What is the target audience? Twelve year olds? It is so goofy. It is so boring and there's way too much time spent on it. Get over it. The movie bogged down so much without the action sequences. I heard audible sighs from more than one patron and the sighs weren't over the love story. It was exasperation. Even the ending, after the climatic fight scene, was overly long and saccharine. I watched people leave before the end shaking their heads. But on the plus side there were the effects. The Sandman effects were fascinating and the black gooey stuff was good. What happened to the stuff in the lab? That was a bit of a plot hole. The New Goblin fight sequences were exciting and Spiderman's city swinging was fun but again they had to drag Willem Dafoe back into the movie along with the immature Harry Osborn. I'm glad he died since maybe, please, we won't have to go through that story again. The Venom character was good but he was too much. There were too many villains and because of that each one was only superficially developed. The franchise has to move beyond the original story and develop new story lines. It seems difficult for these comic book heroes to move beyond their superficial story lines. Batman is troubled and brooding and you have to watch the moody, pouty scenes. Superman will have some romance with a skinny Lois Lane then some villain will get some kryptonite and trap Superman only for it to be foiled by the villain's moll. Spiderman will appeal to shut-in pre-teens. The plots are predictable and frankly boring. The special effects are the draw and I wish the back stories would just disappear. I enjoyed Hellboy but expect a sequel to repeat lots of the original story. I rate this movie low because too much of it was saccharine hand holding and repetition of the original movie. The action was fun but too interrupted by sentimentality.