Last and Least of the Trilogy

Rating: 4/10 (11 May 2007)

**!!!Lot's of Spoilers!!!**
Before seeing the movie I read the review on Spider-Man 3 in Empire magazine that didn't exactly praise the movie. I thought "this is bull, this is the same magazine that gave 3 stars for GhostRider, the worst movie EVER after Catwoman"
I am something of a comicbook fan, but distant enough to have an objective opinion not influenced by excitement. This is what I thought of the movie after I saw it. I didn't like the lazy titles in the beginning, they didn't really inform you if you hadn't seen the previous two movies about the events and were boring to go through if you had. After the titles the movie begging and I find myself watching events unfold in a fast paste not having a chance to think or feel anything as the plot unfolded. It also kind of felt that I had missed the beginning and walked into the movie 15minutes late, it started too roughly. I was OK with the actors, Tobey Maguire's face has grown a bit round, Kirsten Dunst has looked worst (in Spider-Man 2),I guess, James Franco was good considering what he was given to do (especially in the end of the movie), Thomas Haden Church as Sand Man was quite good I must say, though many people didn't like him in the movie, I even thought Sand Man was a lame choice of villain before I saw the movie, in the end I would say Sandman had some of the most interesting scenes, giving the movie flints of magic experienced in Spider-Man one and two. Topher Grace was good at giving his own -less muscular- version of Eddie Brock though in all Venom was a HUGE disappointment for later generation Spider-Man fans such as myself.
Too many villains they said. I thought "the more the merrier" before I saw the movie, but it wasn't The evil black symbiotic blob takes over Peter Parker and turns him into a black suited Spider-Man, it was cool, though just turning his suit black with a slightly different spider symbol seemed a bit lazy on behalf of the costume department to me Having the symbiot gives Peter more power as Spider-Man, but makes him arrogant as well hmmm not evil enough! Then we go to Sand-Man, the murderer/robber with the heart of gold. I enjoyed the scene of him trying to literally put himself together when he is turned into a pile of sand, it was touching. MJ and Peter's relationship problems become boring, Gwen Stacy has a nice scene at first hanging and falling and being rescued, but after that she is forgotten and they don't even bother killing her off at the end as they do in the comicbook (no one left to kill her since Green Goblin isn't around anymore, she should have been in the first movie!) Though we saw "evil" Peter Parker, there wasn't much of evil Spider-Man. And that's one of the huge things missing in the movie, there was too much Peter Parker and not so much Spider-Man. Bad jokes, American flags waving in the background (could it be any HUGER?), retro badboy Peter shenanigans with bangs, all sins of this instalment. The killer of the movie for me which would have been make or brake was Venom. Why? Just because Sam Raimi was in his 50's by the time Venom was created in the comicbooks he didn't have to snob him that much. I found the special effects used to create Venom mediocre at best. He wasn't bulky enough, he wasn't evil and slimy enough he didn't kill enough, he wasn't in the movie enough and now he's dead, or at least Eddie, his host is. When he spoke with the "suit" on it seemed silly as the mouth wasn't designed to speak but only to chew bits off people and the scene where the slime withdraws to reveille Eddies face made me feel uncomfortable for how badly it was made. I wouldn't blame Topher's performance though he did well on his behalf. I didn't care for the new goblin or whatever Harry Osborn's character was supposed to be, I though his performance as a drunk and spiteful brat was much more powerful in the previous movie. He hit's his head and gets amnesia, he gets beat up by Spider-man and ends up with his face scarred, he dies, and still you feel nothing much Finally, using MJ again as the victim and Spider-Man saving her yet again has started wearing thin.
The news that Sam Raimi and the leads of the cast would not return to do more spider-man movies use to worry me, now after having seen the latest movie I think maybe it would be for the best as they seem to be sick and tired of the franchise and did this last installment because of a three-movie contract they had signed up for and money!
I would suggest that Marvel spent some money on remaking this movie instead of remaking the Hulk, which I thought to be brilliant!
let's hope there is a fourth one with Carnage to do the alien symbiot's some justice!
4/10 because they could have done a hell lot better and they have!