Spiderman 3 Review

Spiderman 3: The web slinger is back in his third installment and this time his web was stuffed with one to many storylines. The Hollywood formula for these blockbusters is to always top the last one…..well sometimes more is less, as is the case with Spiderman 3. For starters, Peter Parker has a record - 3 villains to take on while balancing his relationship with Mary Jane and new love interest Gwen Stacy. On top of that he is overtaken by a mysterious black substance that gives way to a “darker” Spiderman and Peter Parker. All of this crammed into a 2 hour 20 minute action packed movie, there is no wonder it feels “rushed” at the end. This is not to say that the movie is without highlights. The action sequences are a plenty and are the best of the series. Catching me by surprise was the humor the movie had, this is by far the funniest Spiderman. As for the 3 villains mentioned before: Sandman played by Thomas Haden Church was well done and looked fantastic on screen, but due to limited screen time, never lived up to his stature. The New Goblin played by James Franco came out with a lot of energy, however needing to stretch his plotline out, he gets thrown into a soap opera storyline for much of the movie. Finally we have Venom played by Topher Grace, all I can say is “way under written”. It felt Venom was just thrown in there to satisfy some hardcore fans as he appears late in the movie with almost no back story. The ending has everyone and everything colliding for a climatic battle atop New York City. It was the 1st time I finished a Spiderman movie and did not feel totally satisfied. This is in no way a BAD movie, it just failed to live up to the expectations the first two movies created for it. I enjoyed a lot of it, I was disappointed by some of it, the result….an average Spidey 3.
* * and ½ or a grade: C+

If this movie had parents they would be: Batman & Robin and Superman II

With a running time of 120 minutes
This film is rated PG-13