Spidey runs out of steam

Rating: 5/10 (3 May 2007)

Since the movie only comes out in the US tomorrow, I'll try to keep the spoilers to a minimum. I waited a long time for this movie for mainly 2 reasons: because it's a Spiderman movie and it would feature for the first time, a live-action portrayal of the fan-favourite villain, Venom. We get that and 2 extra villains, the Sandman and the new Green Goblin, sounds neat right? Well...
Make no mistake, I had fun watching this movie, however I can't hide my disappointment over some things. Comparing the 3 movies, number 3 comes out better then number 1, but it pales in comparison to movie number 2.
The good part is that visual effects are top notch(they've certainly made Venom look fearsome and not goofy as some feared, Sandam also looks pretty good), the action is good enough and some of the gags are top-notch. The bad news, however,is when the movie departs from the Spiderman-style goodness to something that somewhere along the lines of a Elektra, Fantastic Four,Ghost Rider and Catwoman(I'm not joking)-style movie. Those scenes will make you cringe, something that's never happened to me before in a Spiderman movie. While the plot serves it's purpose, some plot points are simply contrived. The ending is also sligthly anti-climactic.
It's been a full year since I last reviewed this movie, yet sadly I can't help but too feel disappointed.
Since the movie is well known to the public here's a more detailed spoiler-loaded review. Our friendly neighbour Spider-Man is now pretty much a full blown hero having earned the respect of the entire NY community. Saddly for some reason, Sam Raimi chooses to focus on Mary Jane's carrer troubles with an actress whom I feel has worn out her welcome. Saddly, that's how felt in the entire movie, the actors look and feel tired, new characters are introduced with very little for us to root or boo them. One of the main character's death in the end of the movie is clearly saying: "I'm tired of this!".
The director probably shouldn't have caved in to fan or studio demands to incorporate a villain to which he doesn't really like, in the end, Venom ends up pretty much like pointless fanservice to which has served his purpose at the end of the movie.
They should've kept Venom for a latter movie setting up a more complex battle, because either way, none of the three villains in the movie have actually any major motivation to fight our hero(well, maybe just the Green Goblin), but as I mentioned before, James Franco must've been too tired to carry on in these types of films.
The story itself, is exceptionally weak and with some rather ambiguous morality issues that even a character like Spiderman should be above.
The story feels very episodic, as if I'm watching 3 episodes of a TV show, none of them very compelling. It doesn't help that once Peter's finished with Harry, we're treated to some very embarrisingly bad and corny scenes of Peter seducing women and dancing around the streets with eye liner make-up. One has to dig deep into the Super hero movie catalogue to find worse scenes then that and frankly I can only think of Catwoman and Batman&Robin.
I've already seen the movie on sale on DVD and not surprisingly enough, it's already at budget price, word of mouth did not have a good impact on Spiderman 3. And Marvel should really get their act together, because as a Spidey fan, I feel burned.