Worst of the franchise

Rating: 4/10 (3 May 2007)

*** SPOILERS *** OK this movie is not bad if you're only here for the eye candy, although in that respect I didn't find it in any way superior to Spider-man 2. (In particular I found the FX for Sandman pretty lame - if I wanted to see a big monster storming around bashing buildings, I'd watch Godzilla or King Kong instead.) I rate it 4 out of 10 because most people can do eye candy nowadays.
What I am looking for in a movie like this is compelling conflicts leading to dazzling fight scenes. This movie failed first of all because the conflicts were far too contrived to be compelling, and secondly because said contrivance wasted far too much screen time. I mean if you can only come up with some lame excuse why some guys are going to fight, then get it over with quickly and spend more time fighting.
Why not compelling? OK, let's see what are the major conflicts in the movie:
1. Spider-Man versus Sandman. The guy who is his uncle's real killer just happens to have remained anonymous until now (reasons unexplained), just happens to escape from prison at this time, just happens to be given superhuman powers, just happens to rob a bank just next to where Spider-man is having a press conference ... I don't really see any difference between that and just having a voice over saying "Now Spider-man is going to fight a guy who can turn into sand because I said so", except that the latter would get us to the fight scenes quicker.
2. Spider-man versus Venom. I admit I'm prejudiced against Venom because I consider him virtually the stupidest villain in the comic book. But leaving that out of it, a meteor just happens to land right next to Spider-man? Out comes a black substance which just happens to be able to change into clothing? (I mean OK it's a comic book movie, but you could at least give an explanation?) The guy who Peter Parker screws out of a job just happens to have a girlfriend in his physics class, allowing for a contrived opportunity to increase his enmity due to said girlfriend being stolen? Spider-man just happens to rip off his suit in the exact same place where said guy is praying for revenge? The guy just happens to see his face even though he's way up in the bell-tower, allowing "Brock vs. Parker" to transition smoothly into "Venom vs. Spider-man"?
3. Spider-man versus New Goblin. OK, this conflict actually had a basis in the previous movies, so far so good. But it gets lost in the twisty turny passageways of the script. Now Harry is trying to kill Spider-man. Now he's not - memory loss! Now he is again - memory returned! Now he's trying to steal his girlfriend first, OK plot-wise acceptable, but I don't watch superhero movies for their love triangles. Whole build-up of relationship problems between Peter and MJ seems engineered solely to make it more plausible that MJ would be stolen by Harry - who just happens to be an enemy of Spider-Man.
4. Peter Parker versus MJ. See above. This whole aspect of the story does not stand on its own and is there only to add artificial emotional weight to the Spider-man story.