Good ideas....but too many of them....

Rating: 4/10 (4 May 2007)

This movie ran into the same problem as did X-men 3. If you are a comic book fan who is looking for fan-boys goodies...this movie will satisfy. However, if you go to see this movie for it's value as a film....you will be disappointed, especially in comparison to the fantastic work done on the first two.
This movie tries desperately to cram two movies worth of plot into one, and suffers for it. The film is a jack-of all trades of trilogy wrap-ups, it tries to do too many things and doesn't excel at any one of the things it tries. The plots running about in the movie end up tripping over each other and weakening the entire piece.
There plots are as follows: Peter and Mary Jane having relationship troubles. Peter and Harry feuding over the fate of the dead Mr. Norman Osbourne. An entire character intro and development on Sandman. The development of Eddie Brock. The Development of Gwen Stacy. The arrival of the symbiote. The internal struggle of peter. The creation and motivation of Venom. As well as the mini-plots around all the supporting characters like Aunt May, Jameson, Betty Brant, the Russian Land Lord, and still the long dead Uncle Ben.
There are also several points in the film where dialog is delivered as blatant and unabashed exposition. Doc Conners, Harry's Butler, and a random news Crew all are reduced to mere narration for the sake of moving the plot along.
Several events in the movie also feel entirely contrived. The landing of the symbiote is the first one. An arbitrary asteroid lands on earth literally 100 yards from Peter and Mary Jane, who do not seem to notice, and a random alien life form latches onto Peter's scooter and follows him home, the film offers no further explanation. The origin of Sandman's powers also feel terribley contrived. He runs through the wilderness from police and falls into a random pit literally 30 seconds before a scientific experiment is about to be conducted. Even though the police see him fall into the pit, no further investigation is made into his fate, and apparently whatever experiment was being conducted in the pit required very little follow up since the next morning Sandman crawls out completely unnoticed and carries on. And lastly the death of Harry is a horribly clichéd movie death. Harry takes the bullet for peter, Except in this case the bullet is the blades of a glider. Granted it was appropriate for him to die as his father did, but given the amazing fight scenes of the movie, it seems very fake at that point that Harry would jump in front of an attacking Venom with his back turned to take the spikes for Peter rather than say, jump Venom or in some way fight him.....it felt very fake.
The Death of Venom is by far the worst. Even though it was established that sonic noise was the Symbiotes weakness....the terribly powerful creature continues to trash and struggle as the sounds echo...and spider-man's make shift sonic chamber would have been easily knocked down or escaped from by Venom despite being encumbered by the pain the sound caused.
Overall this movie only makes sense if you know the comic lore and does not stand on it's own. The movie would have been great if the plots would have been limited. If the movie had revolved around the Peter/Harry dispute and just one of the Villains, it would have been much much better. The movie lacks the compelling human elements the first two did and is only satisfying as a sensory experience.