well, there's good news....

Rating: 7/10 (11 May 2007)

...and there's bad news.first,the good news.great villains in The Sandman and Venom.Thomas Haden Church(from "Wings" fame)is well cast as The Sandman.He makes a credible bad guy,and even brings some sympathy and humanity to the character.Topher Grace is surprisingly good as Venom.also,James Franco returns as the new Goblin.the fight scenes are spectacular and relentless,but there are not enough of them.the CGI is improved from part 2.the scenes of Spiderman swinging on his web and jumping from one building to another are almost seamless.The CGI Sandman is quite good,as is Venom.now, the bad news.none of the villains are given enough screen time,because the filmmakers tried to cram too much story into the movie.the movie enters camp territory at times,which is(or at least,should be)a no no for this franchise.also,the movie focuses too much on the dramatic aspect,the love story,between Peter and MJ.and,there is also a brief musical thrown in. and finally,there was too much sentiment in this movie,compared to the previous 2.hopefully,the filmmakers will get back on track for the 4th installment due in 2009.for a spidey movie,this one is disappointing,but still much better than most movies.for me, Spider-man 3,while not horrible, rate a 7/10,low by this franchises standards.