Spiderman 3: web of wonder or woe?

Rating: 8/10 (4 May 2007)

Ever since the closing moments of Spiderman 2 on that hot summer night in 2004, the third instalment the highly successful arachnid adventures has been top of my "Must See the Moment it Comes Out" list. And for once I succeeded. The show started at 12:01 AM on the day of release, so I was pretty much seeing it as soon as humanly possible.
With popcorn and drinks at the ready in a theatre full of the usual trouble making delinquents (although they didn't really bother me on this occasion), I had a slight sensation of nervous anticipation, like any good fanboy would. The film starts, and my anticipation eases as the 140 minute visual feast unfolds in typically unabashed "prepare for the ride" style.
It starts off, and all is peachy for Peter Parkerhe's found stability in his life, and able to balance the pressures of being a superhero with trying to live a normal life. More importantly, however, he is in love with the girl of his dreams, the omnipresent MJ Watson, played by the delightful Kirsten Dunst. Soon we learn that Peter is so in love that he's going to proposecue emotional scene with Aunt May about how much he loves MJ and all seems to be going rather smoothly. However, we all know there is no such thing as a happy ending.
Over the next 2 and a bit hours, we, the audience are subjected to pretty much everything. We have action sequences galore with enough CGI to make you choke on your Haribo, three very different and menacing villains, two love interests and an internal struggle in the psyche of Peter Parker. One wonders if Sam Raimi merely forgot to add the partridge in a pear tree because he was too busy orchestrating this cinematic chaos.
It is a gloriously ambitious film, maybe a little too much so. With so many plot threads dangling up in the air, at times you want to give the film a good hard slap, so as to give it some semblance of order. There are instances of scenes placed next to one another that seem like they shouldn't be thereemotionally they don't carry. However, this doesn't mean that the plots in this film are bad. Aside from the well publicised "enemy within" that Peter Parker faces, there is also the matter of dealing with a best-friend-turned-evil-son-of-a-gun Harry/Green Goblin 2, who is hellbent on revenge, the newly revealed killer of Peter's uncle from the first film  Flint Marko/Sandman and the cocky photographer Eddie Brock who would later become Venom. There's a lot of stuff to deal with, and this is where the film falls down. The film is an engaging one, and never do you lose interest, but it is the cinematic equivalent of having a three course meal followed by a pint of Guinness and a Chocolate Forest Gateau, it just feels bloated.
However, there are many good points about this film. It is surprisingly very funny. At times I had to ask myself, am I watching a summer action blockbuster or a romantic comedy? I suppose with Sam Raimi's character focused ethos, it affords him the opportunity of showing all sides of their personalities, not just those relevant to the plot. With this in mind, the scene with the new "cocky" Peter walking/dancing down the street is a very amusing one.
The action is superb, but crucially, not groundbreaking. There are many fights between Spiderman and his nemeses, but none them make you sit up and think "Wow, this is amazing!". I was particularly disappointed with the final confrontation between Spiderman and the villains, because it just felt like we had seen it all before, and didn't come close to touching the climactic "Train Battle" sequence of Spiderman 2.
I also would have like to have seen Topher Grace given more room to spread his wings, because whenever he is on screen, as Eddie Brock at least, he is captivating. The same can be said for the 40s-esque editor of the Daily Bugle J. Jonah Jameson, who defines the term "scene-stealer". But hey, it's all well and good for me to tell Sam Raimi where he went wrong, but he and the rest of the people who put this film together must be applauded for creating a piece of such magnitude, even if it is flawed.
So, overall, how is it? It's good, really good, but doesn't compare to Spiderman 2, I'm sorry to say. If this is the last of the films in the franchise, then it is a fitting end as all the loose ends are tied up, and is suitably emotionally weighted. However, if this does stay as a trilogy, then it only goes to prove, like the Godfather and Star Wars (originals) before it, that the second part is always the best.