1/5 And they thought Topher Grace would be a great Venom... why, exactly?
  by William James Taylor IV
Plot in a nutshell: picking up where #2 left off - or maybe a year or so after #2 - it almost looks like Peter Parker's life has turned around for the better. He's excelling in his studies despite being hit with spitballs by lesser intellects (spitballs? come on Sam, even first graders don't do that anymore!), he has the love of his life, Mary-Jane Watson by his side, MJ just got the lead role in a Broadway musical, he's thinking of popping the question to her, and New York is loving his alter ego, Spider-Man. After the first showing of MJ's play, they enjoy a moment in a big web, staring at the moon, being romantic and affectionate towards each other, so for our hero, life is finally good.

But then the real world brings Pete and MJ's fantasy world crashing down around them. Old friend Harry Osborne is still out to avenge his father, Norman's death, as Norman died as Green Goblin against Spidey - derailed only by a brief memory loss - MJ gets fired from her play due to bad critical response over her singing ability or lack thereof, Peter is so high on the love he's getting from the NY populace that he's not being quite as sensitive to her as he should while she's not giving him the grounding he needs, and Gwen Stacy, a cute classmate of Peter's, seems to have her eye on him. To make things worse, Peter learns that a villain named Flint Marko, now the mutated Sandman, was the real killer of Uncle Ben ala Joker killing Batman's parents in the 1989 Batman film - though Sandman reveals it was an accident - and Peter's spot at the Daily Bugle is now being threatened by a smarmy rival photographer named Eddie Brock Jr. Then Pete's Spider-Man suit gets slimed with black goo that turns out to be an alien symbiont, that augments his powers as well as his aggression. When Peter finally realizes what the black symbiont is doing to him and what it will cost him, he rids himself of it in a church, using the noise of the ringing bell to knock it off - only to have it fall on Brock, who came to the church to pray for Peter's death by God's hand after Peter got him fired for submitting photo-shopped pictures of Spider-Man doing evil. This results in the creation of Venom, who allies himself with Sandman to kill Spider-Man. Who will survive? While it stands head and shoulders above last year's barely broke even super-turkey "Superman Returns", a super-heroic dud if there ever was one, Spider-Man 3 suffers from the same problems that plagued last year's runaway swashbuckler hit sequel "Pirates of the Caribbean 2: Dead Man's Chest" in that it over-stuffs itself and loses some of the idiosyncrasies that made the first go around so appealing, and also works against its themes of hubris and forgiveness. The actors do their best, but the material isn't up to par. Maguire appears to be having fun during his "dark" montage (the walk down the streets while pointing and pelvic thrusting at women who look at him with disgust obviously meant as a dark flip-side to the lighthearted 'Raindrops' montage of #2), but his fling with his dark side really should have been handled more seriously. Dunst, not the greatest actress by any means, gives her all but the film isn't always complimentary towards her. Franco perhaps fairs better as Harry, the friend haunted by old demons and a father's specter that he cannot shake.

Sporting what must be the worst bleach job in cinema history, natural red head Bryce Dalla Howard, almost unrecognizable with ice cream blonde hair, makes the most of the underwritten Gwen Stacy, here given a connection to Eddie Brock that never existed in either the mainstream or Ultimate Marvel universes. But Gwen, the ill-fated lover who was brutally murdered by the Green Goblin back in the 1970s, is little more than a MacGuffin, a plot device to annoy Peter and MJ.

Villains... oh there are too many. Thomas Haden Church makes the most of his Sandman character, a complex but fairly low ranking villain who gets the spotlight mostly because director Sam Raimi seems to like him, but he only appears sporadically, and the thing with him as Uncle Ben's accidental killer not only feels forced but undermines the guilt factor that drives Spider-Man.

Rail thin Topher Grace is hopelessly miscast as Brock/Venom, playing him as basically a mean, jerky version of his 70s Show character, and he's clearly in over his head because he has neither the physicality or intense range to pull it off. Grace no doubt hoped Venom would do for him what Batman did for Michael Keaton, but it just doesn't work. This is what happens when directors are forced to use characters they clearly don't like and then create watered down hybrids of them from their mainstream/Ultimate universe counterparts.

Well, the action sequences are still superb, and the film does have an obviously deep love for its title character. It's biggest crime is that it over-reaches its grasp, as seems to be the fate of so many comic book film franchises. So it's entirely great, but it's not entirely bad either.

3/5 Too many crooks spoil the broth
  by Tim Brough (Springfield, PA United States)
"Spiderman 3" falls victim to a common ailment of most hero movie franchises. If one villain is good, then two would be great, But if two would be great, then three would be fabulous! (Think the horribly overstuffed "Batman & Robin" or "Superman III.") So while I really enjoyed the third installment in the Spiderman series, I kept getting the feeling that I was watching what would have made two great movies crammed into a single average one.

For instance, is Thomas Haden Church's Sandman necessary to this film? Granted he lets the dark Spiderman loose for a bit, but both The New Goblin and Venom get their turns as bad spidey bait. It also sucked points away by convoluting plot points and weakly re-writing the circumstances of Uncle Ben's death. The movie's pace would have significantly improved had the conflicts been more limited to Peter, Harry and Eddie Brock. Since the main focus was on Harry and Peter's attention to Mary Jane and Eddie's anger at losing his girl to Peter, it would have tightened the story if Sandman had been saved for later.

The conflict also gives Tobey Maguire a chance to goof around with the role. His moments as Dark Peter Parker are some of the film's funniest (following J.K. Simmons as J. Johah Jameson), and his antics in the jazz-cafe were the ones that got the big reaction in the theater I was watching this. I also found it amusing that when Peter gets bad his bangs suddenly fall down his face and he looks like he should be joining a Fall Out Boy/My Chemical Romance concert.

What all this crowding does accomplish is a shortchanging of character development. How Sandman and Venom form an alliance in zero seconds flat is whiplash inducing as is the almost total lack of development in Topher Grace's character. He's brought in so quickly you wonder how he became so angry so fast in his evolution into Venom. Aunt May is barely in the plot at all; Peter's apartment manager and daughter get more significance. Harry/The New Goblin plays a major role throughout, but his character stages are done so abruptly that, once again, you end up wondering what the heck just happened here.

This probably won't distract you from all the action, and Sam Raimi again delivers the goods. The flights, fights and special effects are astonishing as ever. Spiderman's suits are as sleek and cool as before, and all the gimmicks will keep your eyes on the screen. So will the obligatory Stan Lee cameo. All told, "Spiderman 3" is not a bad movie, but given that both one and two were amazing, it is still a minor let-down.

1/5 3's a crowd.
  by Eric Hildebrand (Portland, OR)
I love comic books and there are many comic book movies I have liked, including the first 2 Spidey films. But `Spider-Man 3' is pretty terrible. I think the major problems with this film come from 3 big mistakes:

1) Trying to outdo the first 2 Spidey films. I.e., Spidey #1 had 1 super-villain, #2 had 2 super-villains, therefore #3 should have 3 villains. This doesn't work because these villains are clearly too much for Spidey, thus necessitating some extremely unbelievable and stupid plot twists. And it doesn't work because there isn't enough time to develop any emotional interest in the hero-villain conflict.

2) It's obvious that this movie was created to produce maximum video/computer game spinoffs. The menu screen of the DVD features video game versions of Spidey and other characters moving about in video game style and a couple of the `special features' are video game promos. The creative decision to go this way has led to fight scenes that are way too long, break too many laws of physics too often, shatter all sense of believability, and feel downfight oppressive and exhausting. My guess is that for those of us over 35, at least those of us who don't play computer games daily, our eyes are simply not geared fast enough to really follow this kind of action.

3) Over-reliance on Computer Generated Images (CGI). The fight scenes all look like either cartoons or video games, and so you just don't have the kind of dramatic involvement required to suspend disbelief. In the old days, directors had to rely on tricks of editing, camera position, stuntmen, harnesses, etc. to create exciting and believable fight scenes. Now that those gimmicks aren't necessary, directors seem to think we'll just buy into anything. Not so: the old school fight scenes, where you had stunt men doing what was vaguely possible intercut with close ups of the actors' faces, looking angry, exasperated, sweaty, etc., had much more dramatic impact. Sean Connery, Errol Flynn, Johnny Weismuller, Steve McQueen and Clint Eastwood never needed CGI. Hollywood seems to think that CGI solves all problems of special effects and fight scenes. Not so: CGI looks fake, just in a new way.

Overall, Spider-Man 3 is bad because it follows the conventions and formulae of most modern action films: more, harder, bigger, badder, etc. and full-speed ahead with the games and merchandising. This movie is all about the paycheck, there is neither heart nor soul.


5/5 Spider-Man 3 takes you on an emotional journey and does not disappoint
  by Porfie Medina (Colorado Springs, Colorado, USA)
I have to say Spider-Man 3 was another great addition to the Spider-Man trilogy. I do have to admit I was afraid this movie would not live up to the first two Spider-Man's. I mean those first two were great and how could this one possibly match that? After I finished watching it I can say I was not at all disappointed. I think many people were expecting this to be just like Spider-Man 1 and 2. Spider-Man 3 does take more risks than its predecessors by having more villains than usual, but It still manages to entertain, spark emotion and above all inspire and bring out the kid in many of us. It is like the first two with many of the same characters returning, but where Spider-Man 3 differs is when we get to see the dark side (with the black suit) of Spider-Man which takes the movie to a whole new level. I have to say this movie was AWESOME. This movie truly has a great stand out cast. TOBEY MAGUIRE who plays Spider-Man did a great job as usual and brought emotion to the character that made him more human than any other hero in a comic book inspired movie. The action scenes are amazing and they make you jump out of your seat a few times. All that along with the emotional journey that Spider-Man takes you on, that's what truly makes this movie so great and special. This is one Roller-Coaster ride that I highly encourage any one to see. The ending is also a surprise and I will not give it away, but I will say some people liked it and some people did not, Go figure. I did not buy in to all the hype of this movie, or the negative things some critics had to say. I went to see Spider-Man 3 to be entertained and I was not at all disappointed. With a expected DVD and blu-ray release date of November 2007 this is sure to be one great year for Spider-Man fans!

3/5 Okay film, typical DVD
  by B. Newby (any town, USA)
The movie: mediocre at best. They crammed too many half-developed themes into a movie with too many characters doing too many things that mostly don't get resolved (or not resolved well). Individual scenes in the film are good (e.g. the birth of Sandman, the final fight) but these scenes just did not mesh well with the others. Poor editing did not help either. The scene-stealer in this one is Topher Grace as Eddie Brock/Venom. His character is a perfect blend of the Brock characters from Amazing S-Man and Ultimate S-Man and Grace plays it with style. I would recommend the movie to die-hard fans and people who just want to watch a movie with a lot of interesting CG fight scenes. If you are looking for another Spider-Man or Spider-Man 2, you won't find it here.

The DVD: Tons of little featurettes dominate this 2-disc set. Each one spends a lot of time discussing the details of the CG and special effects processes which proves just how reliant the filmakers were on gimmicks instead of a coherent script. The 3 main featurettes focus on each villain. The interviews with the actors are good because you can see that they enjoy the characters they play. There is a trailer gallery that includes tv spots from different countries, an interesting addition (especially the German Venom-fest). There are two commentaries: 1)the producers/filmakers talk mostly about technical aspects of the film and pat each other on the back; 2)Sam Raimi and the main cast discuss there roles in the film. This latter commentary is entertaining since the cast has great chemistry together and crack plenty of jokes. The most glaring flaw in this (as with other S-Man DVDs) is the lack of deleted/alternate scenes. This is a shame because there were plenty of great scenes removed from the theatrical cut (read the novelization or scope the internet for details).
I would recommend the 2-disc set for die-hard Spider-Fans only. Otherwise, save $10 and buy the 1-disc version.