Notable improvement

Rating: 9/10 (18 May 2007)

Having only seen the first one I can say for certain that Spider-Man 3 was a notable improvement. It finally takes on some of the traits more common with the comic-book and combines this with a plot that has both shades of comedy and tragedy.
Spider-Man still lacks his internal monologues, but his musings at the beginning and the end of the movie were still a nice addition. Also, the plot and its many sides are what make this movie superior to the first. We get an entire story-arc's worth of plot in one film, rather than having to buy anywhere between 2-20 issues of any Marvel comic book.
The film also gave me new respect for the Sand Man which I had previously considered to be one of the lamer villains in the Spider-Man roster. Harry's role is also wonderfully diverse this time and Eddie Brock also known as Venom is also very convincing.
Aside this the plot is very dark at times such as when Spider-Man begins to succumb to his darker side with his second encounter with Sandman. On the other hand great comedy is spread throughout, such as the kid in the Spider-kiss scene, Jameson's buzzer and better yet, Parker's ego-trip after exposing Brock.
The only slight point of criticism is probably that as a villain, Venom didn't get to shine a lot, but his story-arc was also handled extremely well so his ultimate fate was only minor hinderer to the viewing experience.
Also the ending was wonderfully whole.