Spider Man 3 has beautiful special effects, but the storyline is jumbled and confused.

Rating: 6/10 (18 February 2008)

Spider Man 3 continues the saga of the world of Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire). This time around he is having on and off relationship trouble with Mary Jane Watson (Kirsten Dunst), and also has a load of villains and inner demons to face off with. The villains include Sandman/Flint Marko (Thomas Haden Church) who steals money to try and help his sick daughter, until he is transformed into an angry, powerful shape shifting sandman. Harry Osborn (James Franco) is hellbent on killing Peter for allegedly killing his father. Harry has turned himself into the New Goblin and tries to exact revenge, until he hits his head giving him amnesia and forgetting the whole thing for a short while. The real villain however lies within Peter after a black slimy entity from a meteorite turns his suit black. This alien entity is bringing out the dark angry side in Peter, and before long he realizes this and tries to take it off. However in that process he creates another villain out of his photography rival Eddie Brock Jr (Topher Grace), turning him into the dark and evil 3rd villain Venom. There are way too many other plot lines to explain so I'll try to get into them a little later.
Spider Man 3 has more than a boatload of great special effects, it has a cruise-ship full of them. The first fight scene between him and New Goblin is an amazing scene, and it looks brilliant and feels exhilarating. The scene where Sandman comes to life out of a sand molecule pit will go down as a landmark in CGI history. To put a long story short the effects are beautiful and the best out of all three films.
The acting in this film is somewhat mixed. Some of the actors such as Kirsten Dunst and Tobey Maguire do a fine job, but they seem to be slightly stale and look as if they're just repeating themselves this time around. The actors playing the villains however seem to be very enthusiastic about their roles. Thomas Haden Church is not given a great amount of lines but still manages to give a good performance. Topher Grace does not have a good amount of screen time, but when he is on screen he manages to make something of his character Eddie. I thought he did a nice job as Venom, but three villains was just way too much, and Venom is only on screen for around 7 minutes. James Franco is without any doubt the best part of the whole movie. His acting is very strong and enthusiastic. The New Goblin looks very cool, and because Harry has the first two films as character development we can believe and understand his rage.
Spider Man 3's script is not terrible, but it is not good by any means. Not compared to the first two Spider Man films. The scenes involving the tension and battle between Harry and Peter are well scripted. Whereas the scene involving Peter's new love interest Gwen Stacy (Bryce Dallas Howard), and her dangling off a building edge with an out of control crane contains horrible dialogue. Gwen's father sees her dangling off the side of the destroyed building top, and without any horror or emotion simply asks "What is she doing up there?" I don't know if the dialogue in the crane scene was meant to be funny, and I don't care because it was just plain stupid.
There were a few more scenes with bad dialogue and emotion, but mostly it is the whole plot line that is not well thought out. Three villains is far too many for the movie. Venom is never truly menacing and he is only in the movie for around 7 minutes, which exposes the script's laziness and how overstuffed everything is. I also cannot comprehend why Flint Marko/Sandman has such a small amount of dialogue. Thomas Haden Church is a great actor and deserved to have a more drawn out character. Too many villains definitely made for a jumbled story. But then again I remember the Spider Man comic books packing way more than just three villains into one story, and everyone seemed to be fine with it that way. However it is not the villains that sink Spider Man 3. It is the fact that it promises you a dark evil side to Peter Parker, and all we get to see is his new Gothic look and dance methods. Why in the world Spider Man 3 does not take its storyline seriously is beyond me. Spider Man 3 should have exposed the threatening and violent side of Peter Parker. Instead we get completely random dance sequences, a black suit which we see very briefly, and Peter becoming a womanizer. The dance sequences are obviously the director Sam Raimi's style if you have ever seen his Evil Dead movies. But they do not belong in Spider Man.
Spider Man 3 was created with a 250 million dollar budget, arguably the most expensive movie ever made. The special effects are gorgeous but everything else is mostly shallow and way too silly. It is still entertaining from a special effects and fight scenes perspective. But I cannot deny the problems it has.
I could tell from the sloppy feeling of the movie that the makers just tried too hard to top the first two when they should have been taking their time to make another good sequel. Obviously they I give Spider Man 3 a 2.5 out of 4. If the directors and producers of this film were asked "If you had to go to a deserted island and bring only one item, what would it be?" They would not be able to make up their minds trying to choose over a black spidey suit, Venom, Sandman, Gwen Stacy, New Goblin e.t.c. They tried to pack way too much into Spider Man 3.