Spider-Man 3 (2007)

I was not in love with the first two installments of this film series, but I thought they were both worth watching; that is not something I can say about the third movie. In Spider-Man 3, an evil black entity from another planet attaches itself to Peter Parker and causes him to lose control of himself as he battles the Sandman and for the love of his life, Mary Jane. This is an extremely brief description of an overloaded plot that tries to cram in so many story lines that none of them get a chance to develop. This is one of the main problems a lot of superhero films run into, they try to do too much in one film. It happened with the first Batman series, where in the fourth film, far too many villains were utilized, and now Spider-Man 3 has followed suit. In this debacle, Parker battles the Sandman, the New Goblin and Venom, as well as dealing with two girlfriends and his own inner demons brought about when he becomes the black Spider-man. On top of all that, the acting in this film is horrendous. I think that Kirsten Dunst is probably the fourth worth actress on Earth, and as Mary Jane Watson, she does not disappoint. I used to think that Toby Maguire had the potential to win an Oscar. After seeing five-plus minutes of him strolling down the street acting like a douche bag, I am forced to drop him out of the 'Leo' category and into the 'Jonathan Taylor Thomas' club. This movie even succeeds in making James Franco, one of the coolest young actors around, into a complete tool. I'll forgive him though, because he is normally so solid, and will chalk his performance up to poor writing and directing. Even jamming Topher Grace into this film could not salvage it. I will say, the action in the film is pretty cool, and Spider-Man looks awesome in the black suit, but these moments are so few and far between the obnoxious, whiny love stories, that it does almost nothing to salvage this piece of trash. I tried to convince my wife to watch Spider-Man 3 with me, but in retrospect, I am glad that she didn't. It is hard enough to get her to watch comic book movies with me, and this film certainly would not have helped. I hope you believe me when I say that I am not a comic book purist; I appreciate when as much respect as possible is given to the original work, but that alone does not make or break a film for me. So when I say that this movie is flat out stupid, it has nothing to do with the comic book, it just sucks. It is my fondest hope that after this terrible film, no one considers making a fourth. I give Spider-Man 3 1 star.