Alas, Spider-Man 3 does not deserve its own thread.
A very mixed bag, I found it to be a crappy film that was highly entertaining. Too many villains is the first problem, a somber story involving Mary Jane soap-operatics is the other.
The mid-section, though, of bad Peter Parker loving the dark side of Spider-Man, geeking out throughout Gotham in the series' funniest interlude ... was almost worth the price of admission for the laughs.
Ultimately, though ... the film falls flat after that. The fight scenes were too frenetic, trying so hard to top efforts from the previous films that I felt like I caught A.D.D. just watching them.
There were some entertaining performances though. James Franco was yummy as Harry Osborn, Topher Grace fun as Edie Brock / Venom, and Bryce Dallas Howard redeeming herself as Spidey's new love interest, Gwen. Thomas Hayden Church was appropriately meloncholy as The Sandman ... but of all the multiple villains, his was the part that should have been cut. Unlike the other characters, he had zero to do with the plot of the film ... and after a big set up for his character, he disappears till the overblown and unaffecting big showdown that was a giant yawn.
I think the best part of the film actually came before the movie started. The Cinerama Dome is a class act, since they have live announcers start off the proceedings by touting the cast of the film, and reminding everyone to turn off their cell phones and pagers.
Tonight's guest announcer was none other than Tobey Maguire.
