This one remains somewhere between the first two...

Rating: 9/10 (4 May 2007)

First of all, the obvious: Sam Raimi is an excellent director, the special effects are amazing, and pretty much everything that made the first two films amazing is what makes this one just as enjoyable.
HOWEVER, since we all already know what makes the Spider-Man movies GOOD, we should really pick out what made this one almost not. There are THREE MAIN STORY THINGS I had a problem with. And they are...
*SPOILERS* 1) You've heard this by now: there's a lot going on in this movie. And even though it all ties together, that still doesn't mean it didn't feel crowded, and I kept thinking of ways they could've condensed some plot elements for the sake of more action; I'm mainly thinking with the Mary-Jane/Harry subplot. Scenes could've been combined or even just cut, saving around 15 minutes for another duel or something (I'm not a brainless action freak, but this IS a Spider-Man movie, right?).
2) I really wanted Venom to be introduced sooner, so we could see more of him in action (which could have happened if my first point was met as well). I'm not one of the comic book fan boys who demands source purity all the way, but I still thought the dropping of the meteor to introduce the symbiote almost felt like a writer's cop out. It's literally just dropped into the story. There's one take in the "Ultimate Spider-Man" comics that suggests the symbiote was made in a lab on earth... they couldn't have used that here? And the death of Eddie destroys any possibility of a huge fourth-film face-off, which I kept hyping to be the point of Venom's short outing in this installment, but now found I was wrong. He was merely viewed as a supporting role in the eyes of Raimi *sigh*. Part of me believes he was adequately used when looking at the bigger picture of the three films, but if they're making a fourth, WHY KILL HIM NOW??
3) Finally, I didn't have a problem with Spider-Man forgiving Sandman for the murder of his uncle (some vengeful-minded viewers may have, as I heard a few "whhaaat?"s in the theatre), and I thought it made for good character on Peter's behalf. That said, he should have at least struggled a lot more with the decision at the time of Sandman's end speech before forgiving him, just to make for good cinema.
AGAIN, THIS REVIEW WAS JUST TO POINT OUT MY THREE MAIN PROBLEMS WITH IT.
And when you think about it, that's not too bad for the movie if that's all I have to complain about! It was highly entertaining, however, because of the problems I mentioned, I feel that Spidey 3 lies between the first two films, just because the second film was just so perfectly crafted. Number 2 remains the best in my opinion (and that seems to be the general consensus, too), but that doesn't mean this film is bad. GO SEE IT!!