Fantastic, People's Expectations were too high

Rating: 8/10 (5 July 2007)

With the brilliance of the first two Spider-man films, way too much was expected out of Spider-man 3. Yet, if people went back and watched it with lowered, not out-of-this-world expectations, they would realize the smarts behind this film too, thanks to director Sam Raimi and the interesting way in which he explored the responsibilities of such a beloved superhero.
To understand that this film delivered what it needed to, look back on the themes of each movie: the first explores how Peter was learning to accept his responsibilities; "S2" explores if he is willing to accept the responsibilities; "S3" explores if Peter is going to do the right things with those responsibilities. And in that sense, "Spidey 3" does just that. Yes, perhaps his delve into Venom and his vengeful self is a bit brief, but the audience gets the point. Others complained that New Goblin should have been evil longer, that they should have shown the city's reaction to a new Goblin in New York. But that was not the point of New Goblin. The point was to show that when he felt like he needed to avenge his father's death, when he was full of vengeance, his life was miserable. After he suffered amnesia, and he no longer felt his previous need to kill Spider-man, his life was happy. It was the same with Peter. At film's beginning, his life is great. Once he learns that his uncle's killer is still at large, he becomes vengeful and loses the happiness in his life. This is the paramount theme of the movie that people seemed to not understand.
The action and effects are incredible as well. New Goblin is awesome; he's got cooler gadgets than his dad. The concept of the Sandman was orchestrated rather quick, but well for how quick they had to do it, thanks to the limitations of the studio. And Venom is extremely creepy; the symbiote is great in representing vengeance. 3/4 stars