Spiderman, Spiderman....Does whatever a ........yeah.....whatever...

Rating: 5/10 (7 July 2007)

And lo! On the third movie, the creators looked down and said....let there be CGI! And there was CGI. And the audience looked upon the CGI and saw that it was....meh....overdone.
Yes, sad but true. Once again CGI has been taken to extremes and in places it looks real hokey. USed to be that fire and water were the two big non-no's for CGI. Well....you can add sand to that list now. Sandman, whilst making a valiant attempt, just looked like an effect every time he was on screen. As always, I maintain my belief that, if you can tell it's an effect without trying, it shouldn't be in the movie.
That said, I was impressed with the Venom symbiote/suit. That was a well-done effect. Pat on the back for that one.
But Sandman was woeful, just woeful.
If it seems that I'm focusing mostly on the effects in this review it's for a good reason. There really isn't much substance to the film other than that. Sure, you get the inevitable internal turmoil with Parker/Spiderman and the inevitable relationship issues with Mary Jane. Add in a couple new villains and a dig up some old plot-line about Ben Parker's death and you'd think there'd be plenty to entertain. But in fact, on more than a few occasions you're left shuffling uncomfortably in your seat and wondering when things will get a move on.
There are some good scenes in the film. The crane/destruction of an office thing was quite entertaining. And the fight at the end (minus the Sandman part) was reasonable. But on the whole the movie failed to entertain consistently.
In fact, when the highlight of a movie is a cameo by Bruce Campbell (Love ya Brucey!) you know its a bad sign for the rest of the film.
In summary then....some bad effects, too long, an occasional good scene and the feeling that you could have done something more productive with those two hours of your life.