Not with a bang but a whimper

Rating: 5/10 (28 May 2007)

I have noticed over the years that the death of a superhero movie series usually starts with the introduction of multiple villains. The Batman series, until Batman Begins, threw multiple villains at us for fun without any discernible link or reason for the villains to cooperate. Spiderman 3 has taken multiple heroes and run with it by including three instead of the usual two. This caused the movie to have far too many stories going on at the same time with not enough attention given to either one in particular. Sandman could have been developed far better as a sympathetic character, but instead is pushed to the background as a guy who shows up every once in a while and gets sand in everyone's eyes. Harry's Goblin is a natural extension from the last movie but (spoiler) the story becomes mushy with his subsequent concussion and then return as a bad guy, no wait and good guy. I can't keep track. Venom was poorly done. The only reason I can think of his mask coming and going is so we can see that Topher Grace is behind it. Those vain actors. The fake sharp teeth Topher Grace was wearing seemed to make his lip twitch from the pain and gave him a speech impediment. Poor Topher.
Sam Raimi has gone back to his roots with this move, putting over the top "comedy" in with a serious story. Go see Evil Dead 2 (which pulled it off better). Peter Parker's transformation with the venom suit is just stupid. (Spoiler) Peter struts around acting like a cowboy and tries to make Mary Jane jealous. This part had absolutely no reason to be in the movie and ultimately just looks ridiculous and takes up valuable movie time. There were many more examples of this type of filler which had no rhyme or reason to be in the movie.
Overall I was bored and sad to see what started as a great series go down with a whimper. The acting was bad, the action was passable but mediocre, and the dialog needed someone besides a 5th grader to write it. I doubt I will see the next one unless it goes through great changes to put it back on track.