Campy, unoriginal, and disappointing

Rating: 3/10 (7 May 2007)

Being a huge fan of the first two Spider-man movies, I tried to really like this film, but it was a huge let down. It seemed as if director Sam Raimi knew what he needed to accomplish but didn't know how to get there, and that's where the film fails miserably.
The first example comes with Harry Osborne. His character is as cartoony as any character ever in the Spider-man universe. He has this anger towards Spider-man with no depth whatsoever. His anger is understandable but completely disregard the fact that he and Peter Parker were best friends for a really long time. Their confrontations seem more like two soap opera characters feuding. And in order to push Harry aside to introduce the other characters is mind-blowingly ridiculous! There are tons of other ways to get rid of a character rather than the way Raimi and his team chose to do it. Bringing him back includes one of the sappiest moments in superhero film history.
You would think the black Spider-man plot would be dark and dramatic, but on the contrary; it's turned into a comedic subplot. You wouldn't know if you're watching The Mask or Spider-man during a big chunk of the movie, and I'm not even exaggerating. The whole symbiote idea seems uninspired. It's poorly introduced, which is very disappointing considering how they set up J.J's son coming back from space during the second film.
Gwen Stacy is also uninteresting. She's the typical cliché of the damsel in distress with a character that seems like it came straight out of the movie Crash, having some sort of connection to quite a few characters in the film.
The biggest problem is probably Sandman. You just can't understand that character. He's played out to be this nice guy who steals as a means to save his daughter, but ends up causing more destruction than any other foe in any Spider-man movie. It just doesn't make sense. The ends definitely don't justify the means.
While Topher Grace as Eddie Brock is the best inclusion in this movie, he's still not anything worthwhile. He's another character whose ends don't justify the means. He has a reason to be upset at Peter Parker, but is it really enough to want to kill him? The film has it's good points, because it HAS to. It's a Spider-man movie. There's always going to be some enjoyment in that, but overall the film is sappy, unoriginal, campy, goofy, and disappointing.