With the bar set so high, minor short comings were inevitable.

Rating: 7/10 (1 May 2007)

Finally I got to see a premier movie on a premier release date, couldn't pick a better time to throw in review for the commercially driven Spider-Man 3. Let me get this out of the way first: I do not collect comic books and it has been probably a good ten years since I've read one. Having said that, I have a pretty decent knowledge of the Spider-Man mythology and have enjoyed the series on video games and such. Going into Spider-Man 3, I was stoked and little worried at the same time, as sequels tend to water down the original pieces.
S3 brings back all the major characters from the first one and even adds a few more. This time around Peter Parker commits to Mary Jane but unfortunately she has trouble dealing with his alter ego. Peter also finds out Ben's real killer, a poverty driven criminal turned scientific accident freak named "Sandman." Harry Osborn, who has figured out Peter's secret, decides to dabble in his father's legacy and is set on burying a few axes. Finally, the popular villain "Venom" makes his present felt along with the entire transformation. All of this coupled with a few love triangles, flashbacks and side stories. A bit much for a two hour film? You betcha.
This was what I was kinda afraid of. Comic books are filled with thousands of characters and character history. Alterations to a character's history on film I can deal with, as sometimes it is unfeasible. For example, in the comics, Spider-Man finds the symbiote in outer space. In the movie, it crash lands on Earth. Perfectly fine. What I do have a problem with is the attempt to jam every single hero/villain know to man (complete with origin) as a series progresses. A tactic which killed the Batman series (ok, Joel Schumacher, Kilmer and Clooney had some input.) Daredevil had the same problem tossing in Kingpin, Bullseye AND Elektra in the initial movie. This also almost killed the X-Men series adding in useless characters based solely on comic fan requests as they went on, but I give this one a slight pass because the X-Men realm is based on multiple characters.
Without giving too much away, the constant flip-flopping of the several story lines became annoying. Peter & MJ, Peter & Harry, Harry & MJ, Eddie Brock & Gwen Stacy...on and on and on. There was even a possible sequel injection adding Dr. Connors for the third time. The first two films were perfect focusing only one hero and one villain, giving you time to soak in all aspects of the plot and the characters.
Regardless of my nitpicking, this is still a good movie and a serious must see in theater. I recommend seeing this in a quality theater as the sound effects and editing were superb putting you practically in the middle of every battle scene. Speakng of which, the CGI was amazing and character animation made Sandman amazing to watch and Venom just straight vicious. The acting and screenplay was also pretty good that will stir up a few tears and laughs between combat scenes. It is an action film, and the film is full of it. In fact, the ending may make feel a little empty as the ending comes nearly immediately after the final battle sequence.
Bottom line: Go see it, as the theater experience itself is fantastic. Unfortunately I do not like the where the series is headed, and this one slightly inferior to the previous movies.