Review of 'Spider-Man 3'

spiderman_3.jpg The third installment in the big-screen adaption of Spider-Man sees Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire) appreciating the love of the public a bit too much…becoming a bit too full of himself to the expense of his long-suffering girlfriend Mary Jane Watson (Kirsten Dunst). Peter's friend Harry Osborn (James Franco) aka, the “New Goblin”, son of the original Goblin in the first movie steps up to show an interest in Mary Jane causing Peter to go into a massive depressing spiral. Into this comes the mysterious, alien, venom, a black tar-like blob creature that turns Peter's costume black and his personality to the extreme - Vain and power-hungry. This does not help his relationship with Mary Jane. Throw into the mix is the Sandman, an escaped convict who is in a bit of an unfortunate accident allowing him to flow like sand…But, we learn, he is simply misunderstood as he was sent to jail stealing to help his disabled daughter. The finale is a suitable fantastic set piece near a construction site with multiple good-guy/bad-guy involvement.

Reading the reviews of Spider-Man 3 I expected to find a movie of endless, confusing action but instead I found quite an interesting character piece – Action while here in spades is not entirely the point – the development of Peter and Mary Jane is far more important. This movie also brings to a satisfactory closure the problems between Harry and Peter. The dialogue is sharp and to the point with a lot of room for the actor's to actually act, much more so than the second outing. At a bit more than two hours, it is a bit long but very enjoyable. I would tend to agree that this is indeed one of the best comic book character movies yet.

Rating: “Nearly perfect, but not quite”

Review Date: 2008-05-25


Directed by: Sam Raimi

Studio: Columbia Pictures

Year: 2007

Length: 139 minutes

Genre: Action/Adventure

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0413300/


Other reviewed films by Sam Raimi: