Spider-Man 3

The first time I saw this movie in the cinema, I thought it was pretty enjoyable. Months later, I see a lot of nitpicking about it. It's true that Spider-Man 3 has it's flaws, but I think the good parts outweigh the bad ones.

Many say that three villians was too many. Well, The Dark Knight had three villians too (The Scarescrow, The Joker and Two Face), and did that make it a bad film? No. One argument is how those three villians were handled. Sandman, I thought was handled rather well, considering how much was crammed into the story. He's sympathetic in that he's trying to raise money for his ill daughter and he's also remorseful for the part he played in Ben Parker's death. New Goblin, I couldn't see being developed any more than he has been. Harry Osborn was there from the start and his usage of the Goblin technology seems like a natural evolution for the character. Now, I agree that Eddie Brock was a pretty bad excuse for a final showdown enemy, but the way I see it, the main villian was in fact the Black Suit itself. It even transforms on it's own at the end into what the production staff call 'Comic book Venom'. And as the main villian, it does the very thing Norman Osborn tried to do in the first movie- turn Spider-Man evil. It's good fun seeing Peter Parker, (whom I thought was a bit of a social push over in the second movie) throwing his weight around for a change.

The fight scenes are epic. Like when Spider-Man takes on Sandman for the first time and their rematch in the sewers. Also Symbiote possessed Peter vs Harry Osborn in Osborn mansion; Peter just beats the crap out him!

The main themes of the story are revenge and forgiveness. Harry hates Spider-Man for his father's death, Peter hates Sandman for shooting Uncle Ben, Eddie hates Peter for exposing him as a fraud, ruining his career and stealing Gwen from him, and Mary Jane hates Spider-Man for...being more popular than she is.

That's my only real complaint about this film. That Mary Jane is portrayed as such an unlikeable character. She's so self centred and has such a bad attitude in almost every scene she's in that it becomes hard to remember exactly why Peter and Harry are still fighting over her.

The dance numbers Peter does- yes, they were silly. But its not as if there were no silly moments in the previous installments, like the 'Raindrops keep falling on my head' montage from the second movie.

And of course, J.Jonah Jameson is his usual loud mouthed, hot headed, blustering, hillarious self. JK Simmons, this series wouldn't be the same without you.

Again, I have to mention the action scenes, a chase through the city on an armoured truck, a heated battle in the subway tunnel, a climactic showdown at a building site, it's great stuff. The story is jam pack with lots going on. Some say this is a bad thing but I think it gives each scene a function. It doesn't drag at all and maintains a good quick pace throughout.

My favourite scene is when Gwen Stacy presents Spider-Man with the key to the city and a band starts playing a fantastic rendition of the classic Spider-Man theme tune.

Final words: Go into it with an open mind, and you'll enjoy it. It's a good, fun finale to Rami's Spider-Man saga and no where near as bad as people make it out to be.

Far too long at almost 2hr 30mins. The story was just too contrived with I feel too many plot threads going on at the same time. The story line between Harry and Peter Parker(and love triangle with MJ) was the most interesting.

I did not see the point of the 'sandman' or the other bad guy,or indeed the 'black evil' stuff from outer space.

The 1st film in the franchise was the best.The 2nd a close second only because Alfred Molina is excellent in everything he appears in. This last one will be forgettable for most.