Very Disappointing

Rating: 6/10 (7 May 2007)

'Spiderman' was clearly conceived from the beginning as a story about Peter, Mary Jane and Harry. Whether you want to see it as a love triangle, or a retelling of ancient mythologies concerning revenge, betrayal and the ghosts of father figures, these three characters were introduced in the first movie's opening scenes, and it their dynamic that has driven the narrative ever sinceuntil now.
While 'Spiderman 3' is by no means a bad movie, it is nowhere near as good as it should have been and fails to satisfy for the simple reason that Sam Raimi forgot what these movies were about. For the first movie, Raimi had the writing talents of David Koepp, one of the most successful screenwriters around. For the sequel, Pulitzer Prize winning Michael Chabon contributed to a screenplay written by the Oscar-winning Alvin Sargent. For the third installment, Raimi makes the all too common mistake of developing delusions of grandeur and feeling that he can take over the writing duties himself. Though Sargent is credited as a co-writer, it's clear from the mess of a screenplay that his input was limited. Raimi's screenplay forgets everything that the two previous movies stood for and were clearly moving towards, and abandon all dramatic consistency and cohesive storytelling in favor of redundant characters supplying equally redundant CGI set-pieces.
'Spiderman 3' feels as though it was made by different people with a different vision. The emotional drama between Peter and Mary Jane, so carefully built over the last few years, becomes illogical soap opera theatrics. Harry becomes a leering painter of Impressionist masterpieces. Peter starts crying all the time and develops a 'Saturday Night Fever' obsession. Sandman is completely redundant, receiving no character development and vanishing as inexplicably as he arrived. Similarly, Eddie Brock serves absolutely no purpose in the movie other than to become Venom in the final scenes. Very little of New York or its citizens are involved in the story, which is claustrophobically self contained  there are barely two scenes in the newsroom and the citizens of New York rarely seem to be in real peril.
Again, it needs saying that 'Spiderman 3' is by no means a bad film, but it does nothing to close out the trilogy or provide anything close to satisfying emotional or dramatic closure, the fault for which can only be laid, unfortunately, on Sam Raimi.