"This could be the end of Spider-Man." - I hope.

Rating: 5/10 (12 May 2007)

Spider-Man 3 (2006)- 2.5/5.
Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst, James Franco, Thomas Haden Church, Topher Grace, Rosemary Harris, J.K. Simmons, Bryce Dallas Howard, Dylan Baker, Bill Nunn, James Cromwell, Bruce Campbell, Cliff Robertson. Directed by Sam Raimi.
Possible spoilers.
Terribly disappointing sequel that had been highly anticipating since the release of the impressive "Spider-Man 2" in 2004. Peter Parker's life is going well in New York City. He's the on top of his classes in College and he is also still in a strong relationship with his high school sweetheart Mary Jane Watson. His former best friend, Harry Osborn, still holds a grudge against Peter about being revealed of who his father's real "murderer" was. Following in his father's footsteps, Harry has now become the New Goblin and will stop at nothing to kill Spider-Man. This time, Spider-Man must also deal with two more villains, one of which coincidentally is responsible for his Uncle's death (Sandman) and the other who is a photographer also working for the Daily Bugle (Venom). The meanest villain of all is one that isn't even human - the black symboite that takes Peter's costume over and leaves him in a change of personality that he must fight. So much expectation from many fans of the series thinking it would be the strongest part of the series like "Return of the King" was for "Lord of the Rings" and "Revenge of the Sith" was for the new Star Wars trilogy. Problems with the storyline and characters are really what makes the film go down. Everything seems so rushed and sloppy compared to the first two films. Maguire's performance is less than impressive, as all he seems to do on the screen is either to act like a jerk or cry over Mary Jane. James Franco is really the only performance I actually enjoyed, but even he can't make up for all of the other performers. Sam Raimi must really have a tough time thinking of new ideas for the film because we still have the same sub-story lines regarding Uncle Ben's death or Peter and Mary Jane's on-and-off relationship. The second film was fresh because there was a completely different villain and Peter's personality was very understanding for him not wanting to be Spider-Man in order to live an every day life. Here, watching Peter is about as likable as hanging out with Rush Limbaugh for a day. The "dancing" scenes are especially stupid, and his "new look" is just painful to look at. That being said, the special effects are at least decent and there are a few funny scenes and enjoyable action sequences. Overall, I just think that it could have been a great film had the director put in the effort to develop it. In the end it just looks like he wrapped it up like a teenager working on a high school book report at the last minute.