The third instalment of Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man movie is an ambitious but deeply flawed story. The director wanted to set a more sinister mood to the film with more action featuring not one or two, but three villains taken from the popular Marvel comic books.
By introducing the Sandman, Venom and the second generation Green Goblin into the narrative, the film struggles by not providing significant character development for the three actors playing these roles – Thomas Haden Church, Topher Grace and James Franco respectively. It feels as if the villains were placed in to provide nuisance for our hero, who would later take them all on in separate dramatic and heavy CGI-influenced fighting sequences.
Worst still, the love story between Tobey Maguire’s Peter Parker and Kirsten Dunst’s Mary Jane Watson means certain scenes resembles more like a light-hearted romantic comedy than an action movie… At one point, Peter’s confidence in wearing the new black Spider suit (which was infected by a strange alien symbiote) transformed him to a Travolta-like figure from Saturday Night Fever – including those hip-thrusting dancing moves!
Despite all that, Spider-Man 3 still provides some exciting moments – in particular the chase and fighting scene featuring Spider-Man and the Green Goblin – it just a shame that the movie lacks direction with too many characters and situations.
It is unclear whether there will be a Spider-Man 4 as this outing is likely to be Raimi’s last involvement. Judging by the disappointing ending, this could be the last of the trilogy, unless Sony Pictures has other ideas…