The Sandman's a comin....

Rating: 6/10 (20 May 2007)

I did just see it. Most of the complaints about it are true-to an extent: overlong, way too stuffed w/ lazy writing devices(the Butler, Harry's constant switcheroos, tacked on ending), too many baddies(More Sandman/deep six Venom), strangely truncated Gwen Stacy role(Cameo! say wha-?), etc. So sure, I can understand the bitching here. It's also too long, and some of the Emo Peter stuff was lame and for the birds. But you know what? Though it suffers from Lethal Weapon III-ness, it DOES work, despite itself. Sandman's great. Spidey/Gobby II fights ditto. JJJ is a hoot, as always. The whole Saving Gwen routine w/ the crane from hell was fun. I did think they over did the 'combat/heroics while falling' stuff over-much, and yeah, once again, you had MJ doing the damsel in distress routine at the end, but it was still pretty good. I did think the Dumping Petey on the bridge after being threatoned by Harry part was the low-point of the whole movie, for what it's worth-none of that worked. The much-abused butler was lame too but you can live w/ it. I actually got a kick outta the whole 'Twistin in the Kitchen'/'Stayin Alive-the Spidey remix' routines, but they do seem to have come in from a neighbouring set, ya know?
This was clearly meant to be the last of a series, let's hope if they come back to it-they trot out new writers and let the Lizard/Electro do their things. Raimi seemed like he was stretched here. I liked it though, FWIW--pretty entertaining, if you set yer sights lower and don't expect coherence in some of the Gobby's actions etc--it's worth your time.
*** outta **** just because it's fun.