"Spider-Man 3" Movie Review

Peter Parker is finally happy. He and Mary-Jane are in a steady and loving relationship, crime is down, and New York City is planning to give Spider-Man the key to the city. Peter thinks life literally couldn't get any better and he's right. From this point forward, his life is going to slowly decline.

Tobey Maguire returns one last time as Peter Parker AKA Spider-Man. This time, he must face off against Harry Osborn AKA Hobgoblin who wants revenge for his father's death, Flint Marco AKA Sandman who robs in order to get money to save his sick daughter, and Eddie Brock AKA Venom who wants revenge for being humiliated by the press - all while juggling a relationship with Mary-Jane, school, and his ego.

New York City is so in love with Spider-Man that the mayor decides to give Spidey the key to the city, which inflates Peter's ego extraordinarily. Peter is then soon called into the police department because the police made a mistake in identifying his Uncle Ben's killer, which angers Peter to the breaking point. What more could Peter take at this point?

Mary-Jane is struggling as a stage singer. The critics dislike her and Peter's too wrapped up in his ego that she feels alone, so she turns to Harry Osborn for comfort. Harry soon has Mary-Jane right where he wants her, forcing her to break up with Peter. Peter is heartbroken, full of anger, and desires revenge. Early on in the film, a symbiote crashed conveniently where Peter and Mary-Jane were in the park and attaches itself to Peter's bike. Once the tragedy and heartbreak fall on Peter's shoulders, the symbiote makes its move, engulfing Peter in a dark rage.

I have to give the film credit for portraying the desire for revenge in a realistic and human manner. Peter Parker, despite his powers, is a human and is vulnerable to mental manipulation. Tobey Maguire's acting is completely believable and beautifully well-performed. What the film did wrong, though, was everything else.

The CGI was laughable. many times, especially in action sequences, it was painfully obvious how fake a lot of things were. For instance, Gwen Stacy's photo shoot scene. There's construction going on outside the building and the crane goes out of control. The crane arm crashes into the building. The crash, however, looked like it was unfinished, like the Special Effects team didn't have the budget. That's how the entire movie looks.

The acting was actually mediocre considering how serious this film is. Tobey Maguire performed wonderfully and Kirsten Dunst improved but the villains weren't at all engaging or interesting and Bryce was horribly miscast as Gwen Stacy. She was not her usual powerful self, which was a huge disappointment.

The film is also full of cheesy comedic scenes. The final fight was incredibly overexaggerated and cheesy as well. Raimi made Venom look like a wimpy crybaby instead of the crazy power obsessed creep he was in the comics.

in conclusion, the film disappoints on many levels and insults the characters that are strong players in the comics. From what I understand, this film was thrown together because Sam Raimi was having disputes with Sony and Marvel and wanted out of his contract as quickly as possible. The film made a ton of money because of the name alone, but it was the true fans who lost out.