A bad case of a missed opportunity

Rating: 5/10 (4 July 2007)

I was majorly disappointed with Spiderman 3.
Not enough, or barely any, time given to new characters and too much stuff repeated from the previous films.
I'd say almost every character (alive or dead) who had been in the first or second film re-appeared in the third. Fair enough Raimi likes to keep the story running in continuity like it happens in the comics, but enough of the re-hashing. Do we really need to see Parker's landlord again or his goofy daughter? That was already covered in Spider-man 2. Shouldn't Mary Jane either succeed or fail as an actress? Having her in the same place she's been for 2 movies was silly. Also, Aunt May and Peter sharing another scene where they talk about Uncle Ben. OK we get it. We got it in the first two movies!
Harry Osborne changes allegiance about 10 times, which I personally found quite annoying.
Thomas Hayden Church was great as Sandman but barely got any dialogue.
Venom is a superb character but did nothing. He had 1 great line at the very end when Spiderman tries to reason with the Eddie Brock part of his personality, to which Venom retracts the mask and says "I like being insane". That brilliantly sums up the character and highlights what they should've showcased throughout the film. Like other users have said, there is no explanation to Venom's origins (they could have at least used his origin from the original Spiderman animated series of the 90's). Also how on earth could Eddie Brock see it was Peter Parker removing the alien costume when he was so high up in the church and Eddie was on the ground?
In the comic (and the way it should have been on screen) Eddie Brock is older than Peter Parker and more of a brute force. Venom never once said "We" instead of "I" in the film (which could have been explained had the story been played out properly over the whole film), plus his voice was just the same as Eddie Brock's, where was the menace of that?
The last 30 minutes or so are a drag and the script seems to have been written in a hurry and Venom added purely due to the pressure from fans to see him on screen. He didn't even look as menacing as he should have done.
All in all this film makes me think of Batman and Robin, in that it features 3 villains and one of them is seriously misused (Bane in Batman and Robin was wasted as a pseudo-Frankenstein's Monster) and here we have Venom, completely misused.
Talk about missed opportunities.
Parker goes bad and does what? He says at one point "Ive done terrible things". What's that then, doing a John Travolta impression and wearing a dark suit? They should've had him kill Harry at least that would have made sense and been dramatic, but sadly Raimi went for the audience pleaser.
Good Points: The Sandman emerging and using his powers. The alien costume was well done, especially right at the end when separated from Eddie Brock.
Bad Points: Not enough villain screen time. A rushed script and Venom being added just for the hell of it.
To sum up: They should have probably given Venom a cameo role at the end of this film and continued the story in Spiderman 4. If this is to be Sam Raimi's or Spiderman's film swansong, it has failed to go out with a bang and remains the weakest of an all together excellent film series. Poor script, lame action, and clichés coming out of all corners. A missed opportunity to do something special. X-Men 3, Alien 3, Terminator 3, Superman 3, Rocky 3, Star Trek 3 - the curse of the threequal has struck again!
Let's hope Fantastic Four 3 doesn't disappoint.