Spider-Man 3

Spider-Man 3 is the prime example of how a great franchise can be ruined by studio interference. Sam Raimi's Spider-Man 3, sorry, Sony's Spider-Man 3 is ultimately the end card for the director's vision of cinematic Spider-Man stories. Ever since then, Spider-Man movies haven't been great until 2018's Spider-Verse.

The story starts off with everything going well in Peter's (Tobey Maguire) life. His romance with Mary Jane (Kirsten Dunst) is always pleasant to watch, especially them stargazing on a web bed. Rift between their relationship with how Peter unrealizing he's full of his Spider-Man persona while Mary Jane is struggling with her failed career is handled well. Harry's (James Franco) vendetta towards Peter is a present danger but the screenwriters chose to cop out by making the latter lose his memory. Peter's pursuit after the real killer of Uncle Ben - Flint Marko (Thomas Haden Church) is a solid idea that didn't necessarily pay off too well.

Out of all, the biggest complaint is definitely about the use of multiple villains, precisely 3. You could tell this from the first 10 minutes into the runtime with the introduction of myriad subplots this film will have a hard time dealing with. It's totally forced in, especially Venom. While the screenwriters have tried their best to fulfill the studio's demands by shoehorning in the narrative revolving Peter Parker and Eddie Brock (Topher Grace), the motion picture would have benefited from this strand being pulled out. It's inorganic in many parts as you could see clearly in scenes such as Eddie appearing at the church right at the moment Peter's stripping the symbiote off him and Venom meeting Sandman for a revenge collaboration. The only wonderful thing to come out of this subplot is the awesome-looking black Spidey suit. While we are on the topic of eradicating the unneeded, Gwen Stacy's (Bryce Dallas Howard) character is a deadweight for the plot to carry around.

The filmmakers took 5 years from Spider-Man 2 before making a sequel. You'd think the script work may have had a considerable amount of time in the oven, without knowing the exact opposite would be true. Peter's missing Spidey-sense, scientists proceeding to run particle experiment blender with a man falling into it and police activity surrounding it, Eddie Brock casually taking pictures of his girlfriend hanging on top of a building with inches away from death, Harry being totally cool and happy after waking up from his short term memory condition, Harry's butler choosing to tell the truth about Norman's (Willem Dafoe) death after so many years, Peter doing an action that's completely out-of-character by kissing Gwen in the presence of Mary Jane plus Harry disappearing from a coffee shop as if he is Nightcrawler are simply ridiculous! Peter's change of tone and character after being engulfed by the symbiote is a good notion, but it is sudden and once again, forced in! Tobey Maguire dancing around the streets and night club? Man, if this isn't the most terrible moment we've seen in this whole trilogy, we don't know what is.

Despite the mess, there are some decent writing underneath. Aunt May (Rosemary Harris is a terrific actress by the way!) recounting Uncle Ben's proposal story and offering her marriage ring to Peter, Harry and Mary Jane preparing meal at the kitchen (even after Harry has requested his butler to cook beforehand), J. Jonah Jameson's (J. K. Simmons) pressure-control desk and Peter explaining his proposal plan to Bruce Campbell cameo are examples. Harry's scheme to attack Peter's heart first is good and the Sandman formation was excellently executed.

One technical aspect that has been consistently consistent throughout this series is the musical score. Impressive title credits also yet again. The action episodes are visual-effects-heavy! Harry and Peter's first building brawl, Spider-Man rescuing Gwen, Spider-Man's initial encounter with Sandman, underground battle with Flint Marko and the climax, although entertaining at parts, you know something is wrong when the predecessors that were made 7 and 5 years before this had way realistically better action sequences! Only the encounter in Harry's mansion has the quality we were expecting for.