Curse of the Three

Rating: 4/10 (12 May 2007)

This review is being broken down into three parts. Good, Bad, Forgivable, and Non-Contributing. This review contains spoilers.
Bad : The biggest mistake was tying Sandman into Ben Parker's murder. Spiderman is one of the few heroes that actually was successful in avenging the death of his family member. But because he could have stopped it and didn't, it drives him to help others. You don't need every super villain to have some personal connection to the hero. The villain is bad, the hero is good, and the cops can't stop the villain, cue hero, enough said. The next big mistake was the symbiote suit. The suit was never able to be removed like ordinary clothes. Not to mention that it could morph into any type of clothes the host could desire. Also, it was shown as more as an addiction than a real parasite. Also, there was many points where the characters went to places for no reason than to further the plot. Biggest example. Spidey goes to the church for no reason to get rid of the suit, and Eddy Brock just happens to be at the church at the same time to be the new host. I know arguments will be a plenty for this next point, but Spidey has on many occasions fought multiple super villains and won. Sure, we can still see him take a beating, but the movie portrayed Spiderman as a wimp in this movie. Finally, while Spiderman wore the Venom suit he never actually made any finishing moves to kill anybody, he would come close but than come to his senses. The movie portrayed a different view, as if Spiderman no longer cared, when his conscience would always stop him at the last moment. As a minor note, Harry is supposed to be insane and see the original goblin in reflective surfaces. Windows, mirrors, etc. Not to mention, that he doesn't really want to fight Peter. More of this interaction between the two Goblins, as the Green Goblin persuades Goblin Jr into fighting Spiderman, would have helped flush out Harry's character into more than a one sided figure.
Forgivable : Being a movie, it is always a given that certain details are modified, as in the movie making world, they just don't pan out. While some things can be modified, not all are acceptable as they change the very essence of the characters. The following, were acceptable. Since we can't send Jameson's son back up into space to bring the symbiote back, the meteor does just fine. The suit looking like a black recolor of the original spider suit is also acceptable. If we were to be picky, Parker would have had to develop the web shooters in the first movie.
Good : Despite all the flaws, there were some decent parts to the movie. There were several good humorous parts to the movie. Like Parker strutting through town and while he was on the phone with Conners. The fights with the new Goblin were really good, and Bruce Campbell's scenes were great. The symbiote suit worked correctly on Eddy Brock.
Non-Contributing : As a final part, I feel one final piece must be said. I made no mention of special effects until this section for a reason. There are movies that make us go wow with their special effects. These movies represent the leaps and bounds of visual technology on the big screen. From Star Wars to Willow (the movie that brought us morphing technology) to Final Fantasy and Lord of the Rings. Each brings us a step beyond what was previously done. However, with each new step, as other movies incorporate these technologies, it does NOT remain the same degree of impressiveness. Yes, Sandman's CGI animation was "top notch". But it was nothing great by our standards today. In fact, it was just that. Standard. If you want to get technical, it was basically the same as the sandstorm in The Mummy. Does that mean I will not doc this movie if it has bad CGI, no. Because it means the movie hasn't kept up with the visual technology that it needs. While I didn't notice anything along these lines, the CGI was not anything to compliment on to give it a better grade.