Excellent (despite what critics have said)

Rating: 9/10 (17 June 2007)

Having heard many of the lukewarm (to put it kindly) reviews, I went to see this film with no expectations whatsoever. Imagine my surprise when it turned out to be absolutely the equal of the other two in every way.
I still find the criticism incomprehensible, other than as some sort of 'pack' phenomenon. Perhaps, feeling they've over-praised installments one and two, people feel the need to balance the scales by trashing number three. I simply don't know.
What I do know is that on any meaningful basis, this is a great movie. It's more reminiscent of it's immediate predecessor, in that it strikes a - very marginally - better balance of action and drama than the original, and in that the CGI effects do a better job of humanizing the Spider-Man figure.
Other than that, it's all the same good stuff. Raimi's genius in this series lies in realizing what made the original comic (i.e. the first 38 Ditko/Lee issues, as opposed to the several hundred issues of filler that followed) so wonderful: this is a story about Peter Parker, troubled, geeky teenager... NOT about Spider-Man, omnipotent super-hero. Raimi never lets you forget that. (The one negative consequence is a propensity for tearing off Spider-Man's mask... If it ripped that easily, the whole secret-identity thing would be a total loss right from the start.)
Yes, like many other fans, when I heard that this film would have no less than three villains - 'Son of Goblin,' Venom and Sandman - I was concerned. No need. Raimi balances the three effortlessly, weaving them in and out of a single storyline, which remains relentlessly focused on Peter Parker. Raimi uses each villain (plus the competing newspaper photographer, and of course MJ) to counterpoint a different aspect of Parker's psyche. The action scenes flow from this, and hence each has real meaning, never degenerating into mere CGI slug-fest for its own sake.
The dialog, the characterizations... they're just what they should be. This IS a comic book, and one of the more wacky and surreal ones to come from Marvel in its glory days. This movie mixes moments of excitement, humor and tragedy in just the right Marvel proportions, and on just the right slightly-larger-than-life scale. (Soap opera? Heck, yeah! Did it really take forty years for anyone to notice?)
I have only three real quibbles. One, the endless Stan Lee cameo; fifteen seconds with his ego is like an eon in purgatory. (Hats off to the brilliant, irascible Steve Ditko for not even wanting his name in the credits.) Second, the giant-sized version of Sandman; it's unnecessary, and really only weakens the emotional impact of Sandman as a human-scale threat. And third, Peter Parker's big line at the end of the climactic fight; it's more awkward than it could have been. But these are minor points, and none of them diminishes my admiration and affection for this film.
Some might say there's a fourth point: Peter Parker's ego-tripping in the middle part of the movie is SO well done, it does get painful to watch. I'm sure this is deliberate, and it's certainly not unfaithful to certain aspects of the comic. Raimi does a great job of depicting a guy who's making a TOTAL jerk of himself. That's kind of the whole point. These episodes create a contrast for the nobler side of Parker, which of course must come through if he's to pull things together in the end. I think we can all see ourselves in this. (Aside, maybe, from a few of us who really ARE total jerks, and have yet to discover that they even have a nobler side.)
As I said, I have no idea what people found lacking in Spider-Man 3. It may be significant that many of the loudest criticisms are non-specific, of the "this was utter crap" variety. Maybe what we're hearing is the vague disappointment of fans who came late to the party and got hooked on later, 'cooler' versions of Peter Parker, and can't abide the notion that their hero could even HAVE a geeky, awkward side...
Who knows? My advice: take a chance and check out Spider-Man 3 for yourself, with an open mind. I, for one, saw a great movie here. Maybe you'll get lucky and see it too.