Third time's a charm... or maybe not

Rating: 7/10 (8 May 2007)

In 2002, Spider-Man was a huge hit, impressing comic-book fans and critics alike. Two years later, the sequel gained even more praise, justly regarded as one of the few follow-ups that actually improve on the original. Needless to say, expectations were justifiably high for the third installment. Unfortunately, Spider-Man 3 is the least strong ("worst" is too harsh with a Raimi flick) entry in the franchise (officiallly a trilogy, but there's a strong chance a fourth movie will get made).
Whereas in the first two movies he enjoyed getting his hero in trouble, this time Raimi (who also wrote the script with his brother Ivan) opens the film with an illusion of happiness: Peter Parker is an excellent student, is about to ask Mary Jane (Kirsten Dunst) to marry him and, best of all, has been able to convince the people of New York his web-slinging alter ego isn't the criminal J. Jonah Jameson (J. K. Simmons, still a riot) makes him appear to be. Naturally, this being a Spider-Man movie, things start going downhill pretty fast: first of all, MJ is fired from a Broadway show because of bad reviews; then there's Harry Osborn (James Franco), Peter's best friend, still eager to avenge the "murder" of his father (Willem Dafoe, who makes a brief but memorable appearance about twenty minutes into the film); moreover, an escaped convict named Flint Marko (Thomas Haden Church), aka Sandman, is revealed to be the real killer of the beloved Uncle Ben. And let's not forget Eddie Brock (Topher Grace), a cocky photographer who's trying to steal Parker's job at the Daily Bugle. Quite a lot to handle at once, don't you think?
In fact, the presence of three distinct villains - generally not a good thing, as Batman & Robin "memorably" proved - is the main flaw of the movie, despite Raimi's attempts to construct a coherent plot with the bad guys having a section each until the overblown climactic showdown where they all come together. Not that the actors are bad or anything: James Franco's logical evolution from best friend to new archnemesis works perfectly, and Haden Church brings an unexpected maturity to a potentially campy role (besides, his arc allows Cliff Robertson, aka Uncle Ben, to make a welcome return in a couple of flashbacks). As for Grace, his problem is strictly time-related: the whole movie builds up to his character's transformation in Venom, one of the most loved villains of the comics. Raimi, however, has openly stated he doesn't like him, and so Venom gets a total of six minutes to impress us, which is too little even for Grace's considerable charm and talent (Bryce Dallas Howard, who plays MJ's potential rival Gwen Stacy, is similarly underused).
Still, the "evil trio" allows Spidey to exclaim "Where do all these guys come from?", a deliberate in-joke that sets the tone for the entire film: the trailer promised a darker installment, akin to Christopher Nolan's version of Batman, and there are a few pretty grim moments, but most of the time those scenes are replaced by moments of absurd humor. This isn't a new technique coming from Raimi (he mastered the same balance between laughs and shocks in the Evil Dead trilogy), and the comic-book is well known for pulling off the exact same stunt, but this time the director hits overload, causing a tonal confusion: the usual cameos by Stan Lee and Bruce Campbell (the latter gets listed in the opening credits despite being in only one scene) are hilarious, while Peter's "evil" dance routine (see it to believe it) borders on ridiculous.
Overall, Spider-Man 3 isn't really a bad film: the story works to a reasonable extent, Maguire and Dunst still share a perfect chemistry, and the visual effects are as stunning as ever. Nevertheless, there's a distinct feeling that something's missing. Maybe next time Raimi will remember this: in some cases, less truly is more.