Just saw it and........

Rating: 8/10 (23 April 2007)

I just saw Spiderman 3 at a press screening in Adelaide and here's the deal... It is better than the first movie but not quite as good as the second. The major thing the movie suffers from (and many audience members agreed) is that for most of the 140 min running time Spidey is MIA!! I mean even when he is swinging around NY he has his mask ripped off or isn't even wearing his costume at all. It's a wonder the entire eastern seaboard doesn't know who Spidey really is. Sam Raimi has otherwise done a pretty good job of melding late 60's story elements from Amazing Spiderman comics to the Todd McFarlane era of the 80's. Venom was impressive and it didn't matter that small details such as costume design deviated from the what fans remember from the pages of Marvel. The saga of the black costume was threaded into the movie well, even if the only explanation we get for the symbiotes presence is that it simply came down in a meteor. A Spiderman acolyte I saw the movie with also mentioned that Sandman's part in the film was largely superfluous and his argument is valid, but when you see the digital work that accompanies his screen time you will be glad he's there, because it's pretty revolutionary. All in all a nice roundoff to the trilogy and let's hope if there ever is another movie that at least Toby Maguire and Kristin Dunst return because at this point they are cemented into their respective roles.