Unnecessary Additions To The Franchise Is What Killed It.

Rating: 5/10 (29 July 2014)

"Spider-Man 3" at the time remained one of the most anticipated movies in all my life, mostly because I saw the trailer about a year before it actually came out. Looking back at my 14 year old self, the only highlight to be said about "Spider-Man 3" is that it was the first movie I "hyped" for considerably.
Well at the time the film had the biggest opening weekend, and I contributed by seeing it 3 times in the span of a week. Had I been paying enough attention, I should have seen that the franchise took a somewhat bizarre turn for the worse and effectively ended the series before more damage could be made. Looking back after those repeated viewings I can just about get away this one, but the drop in quality is considerable. Sam Raimi never wanted to approach the symbiote costume, but was forced to due to fan demand. Peter does become fairly interesting when the alien takes over, but ultimately reduces him to a whiny, dancing, hard to relate to "emo" character with his hair down (I can't believe I just wrote that in a Spider-Man review).
After all that, the film becomes very depressing in a sense. Redeeming qualities is that Mary Jane (Kirsten Dunst) becomes a lot more of a fleshed out character, and Thomas Haden Church was phenomenal as Sandman. For everything bad that people say about this movie, did they forget the scene when they introduced the character after the transformation?
Other than that, the movie continues to gradually go down hill. The original comic book storyline the movie is based on has some of the most visually striking moments in the characters history (Including a nightmare sequence, where the two costumes fight over a powerless Peter Parker), why none of it was incorporated is beyond me. Three's a crowd with the villain aspect, leaving no development for rising antagonists from previous instalments. The addition of Gwen Stacy was pointless this late in the game, and I enjoy Topher Grace but I feel that was really bad casting on someones part.
Overall, what can be said is that I enjoyed some of the visuals that were displayed, and the action scenes still work but lack the scenarios that made the previous battles so enthralling. I'm glad that "Spider-Man 4" didn't happen, even though what I heard would have been very interesting to see.
Final Verdict: Flawed. Sam Raimi gave us two of the best superhero movies the genre has to offer, so I think we can forgive him for this. 5/10.