Too much allows for too little to be developed; Spider-Man gets trapped in his own web.

Rating: 5/10 (12 May 2007)

When I heard that this movie was not as good as Spider-Man 2, my heart sank. Why? Because Venom is in this movie. If you can't take Harry Osborne (Who SHOULD have been the Hobgoblin, not some conflicted antihero), the Sandman, AND Venom, Spider-man's worst nemesis ever, and make a good movie without KILLING EVERYONE AT THE END, then you have no business being in the movie business.
This movie is written by Sam Raimi, who also directs it. In case no one is surprised by what I just said, let me take a second to remind you that Stan Lee wrote the first two movies. Therein lies the problem. Sam Raimi, like all guys, wants it all in one shot. So he shoots for the moon, but falls all the way back to Earth. The Sandman is underdeveloped, and he's the most developed of the three villains, in this movie alone. Harry Osborne acts like a depressed shut-in with the occasional Random Acts of Violence, and Venom.........well......doesn't show up until the movie's almost over. Instead, we get emo peter parker and alternate color spider-man for the whole movie. The symbiote is not even explained, and all of it's intricacies and cool characteristics are cast asunder since there's too much else in the movie to underdevelop.
Instead, it shows up in an asteroid, disappears for an hour, latches on to Peter, Spider-Man is black for an hour, and then Venom says about five lines, screams a bunch and gets blown to smithereens. While the effects are amazing (and I mean, amazing) there's really too much in this movie to wince at, like Peter Parker crying when MJ dumps him, he looks like he's actually going to laugh maniacally.
The problems with Spider-Man 3 are all in the character portrayals and the superficial and hollow feel of the movie left by the failed attempt of trying to do too much all at once. Unfortunately, those are the things that you REALLY don't want to go wrong with your movie. The effects save this one, 5/10.