Ruined what could've been a great trilogy

Rating: 6/10 (10 August 2007)

It is very easy to bash a movie like Spider-Man 3. It has it cornball moments, its overflowing story lines, and a terrible montage sequence. Not all the villains work. Harry loses his memory and becomes the cornball of cornballs. Mary Jane fails to tell Peter about why she is truly depressed, making you want to slap her. The last fight sequence was a disappointment. Yet it is only upon reflection when you can say such things. This is my Spidey 3 review, take 4.
The first time I watched the movie, I was so absorbed, and it fulfilled everything I had hoped for (aside from the montage sequence). But as time passed by, I began to notice more and more things and it has finally sunk in; the movie is a reduced shell, the monster that needed to escape after the great success of Spider-Man and Spider-Man 2.
Spider-Man is at the prime of his Spidey life; the city adores him and even has an Appreciation Day for him. But of course, happiness never lasts long in the life of young Peter Parker. His friend Harry attacks him, the case of the murder of Uncle Ben opens up once again, and MJ is having problems communicating with him. And once all these things begin taking their toll on him, a symbiote finishes it off by taking over him and he loses it.
The symbiote, sadly, is like watching a really bad parody of Jim Carrey in The Mask. He parades around the town trying to win over the ladies (which he never succeeds), and even begins dancing. I've seen the movie two times, and I cringed and turned away both times I saw that. It was devastatingly painful to see what Sam Raimi had done to Spider-Man. Thankfully, this didn't last too long, and right after, he removes the symbiote in probably the best Spidey scene yet.
Speaking of best scenes, Spider-Man 3 contains many. As the symbiote takes over him physically, you find yourself so absorbed that you feel like the symbiote is taking you over itself. It also has my favorite fight scene which is the second one between Harry and Peter. It is a very brutal and dark fight, perfectly exemplifying how the symbiote really should've been. But that retarded montage sequence follows right after it.
I also liked Kirsten Dunst's performance in the movie. In the past two films she had an occasional semi-corny moment, but that's gone. She has matured as an actress and does good in her role (too bad it was poorly written).
James Franco also did a nice job- when he was a baddie. When he loses his memory you do feel for him but yea, he's corny. As a baddie, the guy is a genius. Too bad it was only during the beginning and middle/end of the movie in which he was GG2.
Speaking of villains, I have to say that 2/3 villains worked. Tose villains were Sandman and GG2. Sandman was nearly as good as Doc Ock in Spidey 2, but he was really only there because Maguire and Raimi liked him. They had to include him being the killer of Uncle Ben just to try to give him some purpose in the film. Thomas Haden Church did a magnificent job in the role and his villain was a marvel to watch on the silver screen, but he was probably the least important villain in the film and should've been taken out. Like I already said, GG2 I thoroughly enjoyed.
But Venom. Tsk tsk, Raimi, tsk tsk. One reviewer said Venom was really just bait to draw in viewers and they could make more than they spent ($250 mil is a lot for a movie). The reviewer was probably right; I liked Eddie Brock and Venom was more powerful than Spidey but his one weakness kills him and his fight is poorly done. As a matter of fact, most of the battle between Spidey and Venom was Spider-Man falling down and Eddie Brock talking to Peter. Eddie Brock had enough screen time to be developed as a character, but was misused, making him the least effective of the villains.
Other small roles include Gwen Stacy and a quick scene with Willem Dafoe. Willem Dafoe is brilliant but the brilliance is shortlived since his scene ends as soon as it started. And Gwen Stacy probably had 2 or 3 scenes total, which was certainly not enough time to give her even 2-dimensional character development.
Action sequences and CGI were good as usual. Aside from Harry vs. Peter the second time, none of the action sequences lived up to the ones in the first two. I did like Venom's with MJ on the web but his fight afterwards was pathetic. And Sandman degraded the fight.
The love story was very tight, and was so sad. This probably worked best. But because the film had the longest running time they had to cut it off and end the movie leaving their relationship questionable. The movie ended with one of these scenes and I was very disappointed; the movie ended too soon.
This is a sad movie in the Spidey saga (since they now have confirmed three more Spider-Man films). While the movie certainly had its highlights, each one had at least one flaw and whatever wasn't a highlight was severely flawed, degrading the presentation of the film. The trailers were deceiving and the hype they built up around the movie was full of lies. We can only pray that Spider-Man 4 will be better and that Sam Raimi will have learned to follow in the footsteps of Spider-Man 2 rather than take the script into his own hands. 6.7/10.
By the way, Bruce Campbell's cameo is great!