The film opens with Peter having found a balance between being Parker and Spider-man, the public opinion has shifted and Spidey is now hailed as the hero that he is. He is doing well in school making it to the top of his class. He is in love with Mary Jane, who has made it to Broadway and is performing in a musical which Peter manages to make it to. After the amount of crap that got dumped on him in the prior film, it was nice to see things going well for Peter. In fact, Peter plans on proposing to the love of his life. Things turn sour as MJ's performance gets ripped apart leaving her self esteem shattered. Peter tries to comfort her but she resists, saying that he has no idea how she feels even when he (as Spider-man) suffered from similar bad press. This, of course is rebuked as MJ accuses Pete of trying to shift the topic towards him. Peter neglects to remind her that he was simply empathizing with her (or attempting to do so anyways) and from there, the problem snowballs. Soon, a rift is formed that gradually grows larger as the film progresses.
Unlike the prior films, this one does not focus on one villain but instead brings in three. One's first instinct is to think that the movie will be crowded and not enough time will be given to each character. This is half true, Flint does not get much screen time before he is turned into the Sandman (the one villain who is not given his name by Jameson). Harry is developed but this is mostly through the fact that we know him from the other two movies. As for Venom, he doesn't enter the equation until much later in the film. Eddie Brock, however, is developed fairly well. I was skeptical when Topher Grace was cast but he does a good job playing a smarmy counterpart to Peter. The villain roster is a bit crowded but all of them fit into the two themes of the movie, those being revenge and redemption. Still, Spidey was doing well with a one villain per movie ratio. Batman Begins notwithstanding, putting in more villains tends to weaken the film. The final product could have ended up being a lot worse, but i have a feeling that had they done each character over a series of films it would've been much better.
My biggest problem with the movie lies in that most of the plot is driven by dumb luck. Marko just happens to run into the middle of a science experiment that ends up altering his dna. This i can accept as Marko isn't a scientist and i don't think anybody could think of another situation where turning into a Sandman would be the final result. The other plot point, regarding the symbiote is a little more forced. We see Peter and Mary Jane laying back in a web watching a meteor shower. The one meteor that lands on Earth just happens to land near where our characters are, not only that but the meteor just happens to have the symbiote inside. It then follows them home and waits until the right time to go and acquaint itself with it's future host.
From here, the movie returns Peter to angst world where he seems to be so comfortable. His relationships once again crumble and the symbiote drives Peter to turn emo. Much of the things bashed in other reviews are not that bad. OK, the whole jazz thing was odd but it wasn't as atrocious as they made it sound, and while it is ridiculous to see emo peter strutting down the street winking at every girl that passes it is good for a laugh.
The highlights of the film lie in the supporting cast. J.K. Simmons remains true to form as Jameson and Bruce Campbell has his best cameo in the trilogy. Dylan Baker returns with added screen time as Dr. Connors and while he is there pretty much to explain the nature of the symbiote to peter it's nice to see him again.
Also of note are the action sequences. With Sandman and Venom as villains you can expect, and get, a lot of CGI. It works for the most part. The most jarring CGI takes place during the first Harry/Peter fight, aside from that it is quite well done. The fights get a little excessive, Spider-man gets thrown into a lot of walls and construction beams and bounces off of moving vehicles bringing it to the point of almost being cartoon like but somehow you just accept it as the flashy eye candy that it is. The sequences aren't quite as spectacular as they were in 2 but they are good enough that you, as the viewer, have no reason to complain.
i'm a big venom fan, in my opinion he's Spidey's best villain. When they started doing these movies i really wanted him to appear, I didn't care when but doing a Spidey movie series without venom just seemed wrong. i know he's a fairly recent addition to the rogue's gallery but there is a lot of great material to make a great story with. While Brock is fleshed out and everything leading up to the transformation is pretty much on cue with what happened in the comic, once he turns to Venom, he doesn't change all that much. Not once does he refer to himself as "we", on the contrary he simply uses the singular. The symbiote's hatred towards Parker is never addressed, instead Brock's anger at being humiliated is heightened. These are minor quibbles at best and do little to hurt the overall film. Still, Raimi has thus far done a great job of staying true to the comics and it seems odd that the dual nature of Venom is not brought up. i know the studio forced Raimi to put Venom in, and it isn't a bad adaptation, but it seems like there is more that could have been done. Raimi may not be a fan of the character but that doesn't mean you can't do something interesting with it.
Overall i'd give the movie an 8 out of 10. It's not as good as the second but it is better then the first movie. It ties up a lot of loose ends that were left and while there is no cliffhanger ending like before, there is still room to tell more stories should the studio decided to do the three more like they originally planned. i myself am rather torn. On the one hand, I've liked the Spider-man series, on the other I don't want it to grow stale. While it's not quite as high a note as the second film was, this was a nice ending to the Spidey trilogy.
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