Does spider-man 3 live up to the hype or fall victim to the threequel curse?

Rating: 9/10 (17 October 2007)

It seems almost an unwritten law that the final part of a trilogy often collapses into a clichÃ©d, trite and hard to follow mess. Particularly with Suprhero movies ( *cough* Batman Forever *cough*).
After the literal waves of both critical and fan acclaim for Spider-man 2, this sequel immediately had a lot to live up to. However the announcement that this instalment would have three villains pushed concerns with some fans.
ever since the movie's release, a mass of negative reviews have surrounded it, with IMDb users split on either side.
But despite the harsher critical response than to its predecessors, and the vast amount of controversy surrounding the film amongst fans, Spider-man 3 is a hugely enjoyable, engaging and breath-taking spectacle.
Where previous instalments have eased us into the action with smaller, and in the long-run unnecessary set-pieces, Spider-man 3 begins with a fabulously kinetic battle between Peter and his revenge-obsessed old friend Harry. Moving at a faster speed than any of the franchise's previous fight scenes could muster, it also has a powerful emotional edge.
Admittedly, this first action sequence is never quite trumped, but several other set pieces come close.
However the Spider-man films have never been simply about the action scenes, but also about character progression. the film serves as a great bookend to the character of Peter,as with each film he goes through a different stage on the struggle caused by his abilities- First the struggle to emerge, Second the struggle to be accepted and in this film the struggle with arrogance and one's own darkness.
Tobey Maguire once again captures the essence of Peter Parker flawlessly, and in a highly unique, Saturday-Night Fever inspired sequence, puts an entirely new spin on the character.
As eve Sam Raimi proves himself one of the great modern directors, skillfully mixing jaw-dropping special effects with moving human story lines- take for a example an extremely profound scene showing the birth of Sandman- literally like a newborn he struggles to stand up but keeps falling, eventually succeeding through sheer determination. Though the scene is entirely computer-generated it is a heartfelt portrayal of the character's birth.
This time round, Raimi's direction of the more emotionally engaging scenes has a far defter and much more accomplished touched and as per usual he mixes plenty of humour in- Bruce Campbell's cameo in this one absolutely blows away his small roles in the previous two, and once again J.K. Simmons makes maximum impact out of a small role.
However there are many points where Spider-man 3 come dangerously close to falling. The appearance of the symbiote is dealt with clumsily and at times the screen feels cluttered with villains. Also an otherwise excellent final showdown is marred by a ridiculous reporter and a young girl selling Jameson a camera.
But the main point of the film is to entertain, and it does so superbly while still keeping an emotional integrity that never goes over the top or outstays its welcome. Raimi and his cast walk a thin line but keep balance most of the time, with many inspired and refreshing scenes (The previously mentioned Saturday night fever scene and a surprisingly light cooking scene) more than making up for most of the shortcomings.
Again an excellent cast, with James France shining in particular along with great villain performances from Topher Grace and Haden-Church, this Spider-man is, at least in my opinion, the strongest of the three, for the first time making clear its highly important theme and moral message- "To err is human. To forgive is divine" Spider-man 3 - 9/10