The Poorest Of The Trilogy, But Still Fun

Rating: 6/10 (18 September 2008)

When I saw that the villain Venom would make his appearance in this film, I could hardly wait to see it, because I remember how I used to read the magazines with him in them to pieces as a child. The overall story is more or less just a continuation of the previous ones, Peter Parker (Spiderman) and Mary Jane (Mary Jane) are about to take their now rather close relationship to the next level, and the future looks bright. Harry (James Franco) and Peter have become alienated, and are hardly on speaking terms anymore, after the unfortunate demise of Harry's father (Green Goblin) more or less by the hands of Spider-Man. Introduce two new villains, Sandman, a "bad guy" that probably is "good" but just very unlucky, and a parasitical thing from outer space that multiplies any bad sides in its potential hosts by a hundred, and you've got yourself Spider-Man 3! The special effects are, as always in this series, simply amazing, and they have truly taken it up a notch in this one. The story is also quite entertaining and well written, but there are sadly so many negative sides to this film that it really suffers from it. First of all, all the "Go America!" stuff in this film is just so overwhelming that I'm willing to bet one of my eyes that 99 % of all non-Americans (and hopefully a high percentage of Americans as well!) just feel embarrassed and sick to the bone from all this silliness. Another thing is that they overdo the whole "Ooo look at us, we're from New York, we're so multiracial and everything is so fine here." I recognize that they take their money from certain sources to make these films, but come on, tone it down a little at least. Also, the number of cheap jokes and cheesiness is just too much, it feels artificial and at a certain bar-scene (you'll know it when you see it), I was about a second away from turning the whole thing off. Granted, I'm probably a bit older and perhaps a bit more cultivated, intelligent or whatever than the target audience, but I do enjoy a lot of the Marvel universe, so I guess that entitles me to an opinion. The film is simply too long for it's own good, not that I feel its "boring", but in all honesty there's a limit to how many times seeing Parker swing himself across a street can hold anyone's attention. They should perhaps have had one less bad guy, 3 in one movie with separate fates is a bit much, and if it was up to me, they would have had a lot more of Venom in it than the last ten minutes or so. Quite a letdown. All in all, I recommend this film for those that have enjoyed the previous ones, and it is great entertainment for the effects alone, but it seems to me that either the customers have become dumber or they have lowered the age of the ideal customer. 3,5 stars.