Terrible

Rating: 1/10 (17 June 2007)

After 2005's epic Batman Begins there is no excuse for a comic book movie this bad that one wonders if Raimi was watching Batman & Robin or Superman 4 while trying to get ideas for this trash.
I honestly liked the film when I first saw it in the theaters, but quickly the novelty wore off and the flaws became very evident. First off, the story is very weak. The majority of subplots (Peter's relationship with Mary Jane, anything with Sandman, Peter's relationship with Harry, etc.) were completely unnecessary and only made the film feel long and pointless. And while we are on the subject of Peter Parker, the scenes where he is becoming more arrogant and obnoxious not only dragged on too long, but they also felt incredibly cheesy. A good hour of the film could have been cut out and quite a few problems could have been solved.
But when you start to really dig at it, you realize the problems were not just story, but also with the acting. Topher Grace may have been a good choice to play Eddie Brock\Venom, but Tobey Maguire, James Franco, and Kirsten Dunst overacted so bad that it was actually quite funny. Gwen Stacy and Curt Connors also served very little purpose in this movie and could have been cut out.
Minor problems include the ridiculous TV news inter cuts in the fight sequences, Eddie Brock being introduced way too late into the story, and other minor moments of cheese where you seriously wondered how much Batman & Robin had influenced this trash.
I believe if this would have been cut by an hour and also would have been the second film in the series as opposed to the third, it would have worked better. Normally in trilogies a film where so many bad things happen is the second one which leads into the resolution in the third film. But these changes still probably would not have saved this film from being awful.
I am dreading the thought of another Spider-Man film unless they make some radical changes and would avoid this movie like the plague.