nearly the best, or at least most overall satisfying, of the franchise; has terrific (and gleefully corny) humor, big action, and superb characterizations

Rating: 9/10 (4 May 2007)

Sam Raimi knows what he's doing with the Spider-Man franchise. Some will come away from this third installment and disagree, that he's put out an over-long, angry/sad/delirious blockbuster that doesn't reach into the same levels that the first two films did. For me, if anything, Raimi has gone further in the best possible ways: he's made the kind of grand entertainment that he's been working for since the last two films. One thing to remember, of course, is that the Spider-Man movies are each rides unto themselves, with lots of emotional twists meant to get the audience sucked in by its complex human characters and the wild new villains.
But this time there's a darker element to it- something that could be comparable to the Star Wars movies- where the old key Spider-Man concept (power=responsibility) is really put to the test. It comes in the form of a black gooey parasite-whatever that comes out of the remains of a small comet that's hit Earth. How it got there or why it does what it does isn't so much the issue as what it does to that which it connects to: it brings out what's easier to have as a person, vengeance, lust, greed, and above all a lack of conscience. It's an agent of cinematic contrivance, to be sure, but it's a crucial one for the series as Peter Parker has to come to terms with this other choice- and he's not the only one.
There is a good deal going on in Spider-Man 3, no argument about that. There's three foes of Peter/Spider-Man: Harry has gone fully into being a chip off the old block by taking on his late father's technical gear to get his own vengeance; Flint Marko (Thomas Hayden Church), escapee from prison, who is really the one responsible for Uncle Ben's death, and succumbs to a particle-changing mechanism and becomes Sandman; Eddie Brock (a surprise, Topher Grace), who's not so much a foe as a kind of cocky annoyance to Peter, and who doesn't really become much of a threat until the third act when aforementioned back gooey stuff comes into the picture. And there's some added girl drama with Gwen Stacy (Howard), who comes in as an unintentional block in the way of Peter and Mary Jane's happiness, albeit as not the main block. There's layers this time to the Parker/Spider-Man saga in that this is the first time we see Spider-Man as the hero of the city, or cheered on as such, and so this time Peter/Spider-Man is in the power position, which then goes on to affect his relationship with MJ. Then there's another line with Harry, who gets short-term memory loss after a fight, and what this brings out between the three of them (Peter and MJ that is).
Add on to this the black suit, and its own immense connotation. This is where Raimi has some of his most devilish fun as a filmmaker in years, but at the same time gets out of it on the whole some of those especially poignant and morally questioning points out of comic-books that many take for granted. Of course, it's hard not to laugh as we see the 'bad-boy' Peter, with his hair ala Flock of Seagulls and attitude to spare. Yet it brings to question what Peter, not just Spider-Man, needs to be for those closest to him as much as with those in the city. And even more than the second film, Raimi and his cast get to some fascinating dimensions with the villains.
These aren't just simplemutants or miscreants; they've got incredible, massively damaging powers, to one degree or another (Sandman can destroy the most and make the biggest impression, but Venom is the black suit personified as a real monster, and Harry has got only one real nemesis), and deep down are damaged themselves with how they've dealt with the real world and personal trauma. Even when Spider-Man 3 edges onto its most cliché and corny material (including one shot with Spider-Man behind an American flag in his flight), it's a sort of earned corniness because it doesn't fail to be amusing, if only in recognizable ways (recognizable in that we're all used to and respond emotionally to the characters), and leads up to somewhere satisfying on a mass-appeal scale.
And one more note should be made to the visual effects, which are par for the course spectacular (what else will one do with millions and millions and millions of dollars?) and expansive for the villains- the incredible detail with Sandman- as well as in general what isn't noticed during the fight and action scenes. But to me it's all the more impressive that Raimi and company uses all of these tools to his advantage by not letting them overpower the story at hand. Even during its moments of pure pop-opera and put-on magisterial effect, there's substance that's rewarding and a lot deeper that many in the audience might take for granted. By the end, nevertheless, it's a Raimi picture through and through, loaded with tongue-in-cheek bits and action-packed, high-flying theatrics, and ending on a note that makes the series feel all the more complete.....