Uneven but an ultimately satisfying experience

Rating: 9/10 (13 June 2007)

Spiderman 3 opened to mixed reviews but I wouldn't consider it a failure of a film. I personally thought it was a very uneven experience at first but satisfying overall. More importantly, it served as a satisfying conclusion to the series.
The main problem, I think was that so much was resolved in Spiderman 2 (Harry knows who Spiderman is, Peter and Mary Jane get together, Peter confesses to Aunt May for lying about Uncle Ben's death, etc.) that there was little tension left over for Spiderman 3. That left the first hour of Spiderman 3 boring and uneventful. It started to feel like a teen flick and reminded me that without the superhero element, Spiderman does not have as much to offer in terms of rich and dynamic characters. In other words, I don't feel that Peter Parker, Mary Jane, and Harry are interesting enough characters to base a film around if the superhero angle was taken out of the equation.
Therefore, it was imperative for the film to not waste too much time with exposition and get into the superhero dynamics before the audience gets bored, which was the case with me. Once, the film found its groove, things started rolling, however. When Spiderman's suit turned from red to black (I'm sure there's some more technical term for what happened to him that some comic geek would know), you could really tell that Tobey MaGuire was having fun playing against type for the first time in his career. The new additions to the cast were all added in small doses, so as to not shadow the development of the three main characters: Topher Grace's sardonic humor complimented the tone of the series well (his humor sort of doubled that of the newspaper editor who provided much needed comic relief in the first two installments), Thomas Haden Church's character created opportunities for some great special effects work, and I have no major complaints about Bryce Dallas Howard.
My final verdict of satisfaction came about ultimately because the ending really was very effective and it's hard to feel satisfied by any ending that you've waited five years and sat through a combined 7 hours of film to see.