Peter Parker has finally managed to strike a balance between his devotion to M.J. and his duties as a superhero. But there is a storm brewing on the horizon. When his suit suddenly changes, turning jet-black and enhancing his powers, it transforms Peter as well, bringing out the dark, vengeful side of his personality that he is struggling to control. Under the influence of the suit, Peter becomes overconfident and starts to neglect the people who care for him most. Forced to choose between the seductive power of the new suit and the compassionate hero he used to be, Peter must overcome his personal demons as two of the most-feared villains yet, Sandman and Venom, gather unparalleled power and a thirst for retribution to threaten Peter and everyone he loves.

We had a discussion after the movie was over on how the second part of all these comic book movies was by far the best of each and every series. Superman II, Batman Returns, X-Men 2 and now Spiderman 2. The first movie in each series dealt with getting the character set, and developing each story and then the second one was just free to run with the characters and the story. The third film seems to be the film where they take one step forward but two steps back as they either try to cram to much into the movie or they just don’t develop a decent story as in the case with Superman. Spiderman 3 is fun, its is exciting but they clearly tried to cram too much inro it either in fear that this will be the last one or just under pressure to introduce more villains and more characters. What it leaves is a fun movie, but a flawed one at that and one step forward from the second film and two steps back.

The first two films had just one villain and they spent the entire movie not only developing that villain but also developing Peter Parker emotionally and how these villains effect that emotional state and how he always seems to be on the side of unlucky. The third film has three villains and none of them getting truly developed and it takes time away from dealing with Spiderman and Peter Parkers development in the film. At times it barely seems like the movie is about Spiderman but rather about these subplots and secondary characters. And since there is so many of them none of them get the full treatment that Green Goblin and Doc Oct got in the first two films. Venom is barely introduced and is just seems to be thrown into the film for the fans of the character. The film loses focus at times as its not sure where to go and what to do.

While talking about villains the weakest is easily the Sandman as they neuter him completely. He becomes the misunderstood good villain which just isn’t fitting for the character. Him doing all this for his dieing daughter just reeks of trying too hard. I mean until Venom enters the movie we have yet to see a villain in the Spiderman films that was just a villain, mean and ruthless and who doesn’t have any other motives that to just kill Spidey. I mean they do base a lot of this on Brock feeling he was humiliated by Parker but that just fits the character of the comics so well. The film would have been better off completely cutting the neutered Sandman from the film and developing Venom more or letting Sandman be a true villain. The scenes when the Sandman is in full effects mode are fantastic and fun, its just when he they are trying to explain his motives that the movie seems to falter a little.

I am sure you are going to hear a lot of people complain about the whole Emo story arc but that didn't really bother me that much. It reminded me a little bit of the Raindrops falling on my head scene from two as we get to see another side of Peter and while the whole Emo bangs thing was very stupid it did resolve a lot of issues about the film especially in the confrontation of Harry and Peter. It almost a needed story arc as without it a lot of the issues of the film would have gone unresolved and while silly at times it was still fun to see and could have just been handled in a better manner is all.

James Franco nearly steals the movie as he seems to be having the most fun of all the actors. Every time he is on screen he just lights it up and the movie takes a swing upwards and you can’t help but just love his turn as the Green Goblin. He has this manic energy that just is so much fun and just seems so Green Goblin like that he saves the movie. The movie wouldn’t have been nearly as fun or enjoyable without him. The movie is flawed like so many threes as they try to accomplish so much but sometimes you just need to get past the flaws and enjoy the movie that is there because a lot of Spiderman 3 is still fun, it is still exciting and still very enjoyable its just not as good as two.

Grade: B+