Rating: PG-13
Starring: Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst, James Franco
Directed by: Sami Raimi

• Official Site

Peter Parker battles a range of feelings revolving around revenge, love, loss, despair, fury, guilt, self-love and jealousy. All of these get him into a sandbox of trouble.

When his Aunt May said vengeance changes people, I don't think she knew just how right she was. Although, his Aunt May is always conveniently thrown in as a foreshadow or as Peter's "Jiminy Cricket". It's just too convenient—especially this time around.

It is Peter's need for retribution, once he discovers the real killer of his Uncle Ben is still out there, that drives him into a symbiotic relationship with some strange power-enhancing, testosterone-inducing alien substance. After it bonds with Peter's Spidey suit, it is a lot easier for him to do all the wrong things—and the wrong things feel so good—at least they did, until he started hurting those around him that he loved the most.

Peter inadvertently creates new enemies during his "black venom spell", only making them even more powerful once he sheds his ultra bell-ringing duds.

All hope is not lost. Despite all of the damage done by Spider-Man, he still manages to turn a few bad guys back from the "dark side". Of course, it gets a little too Darth-Vader-with-his-helmet-off for me at that point.

While the action in the film is dizzyingly fast at times, some of the effects are a little off-par. It's a shame they didn't use the same fast pace to get the audience through the painfully slow, cheesy romantic exchanges between Peter and M.J.—and M.J. and Harry (Yes...that's right - gag).

The movie has some great action and witty lines in places, but the overall run-time was too long. If the movie had been properly edited to extract some of the scenes that tend to drag on forever, 20 minutes of footage could have effectively been removed, making this a much more enjoyable experience.

This production's story had a lot of potential, but the end result fell short—one convoluted, sticky web-plot after the other. Sometimes a little goes a long way. Unfortunately, Spider-Man 3's crew chose to engorge this filmic block-busting beast, leaving one feeling stuffed to the point of nausea.

The lesson communicated to the audience in this movie has to do with choices—good and bad—it seems the studio could do with a lesson of its own.

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No. 5 :

Don't give a damn about Spiderman 3 (even though i watched it).....OoTP WILL definitely rock the world!!!!! and beat Spiderman in the box office records stuff

Submitted by Adrianne • 2007-05-25 07:31:57

No. 4 :

i disagree, i think this movie was exceptional, unlike the harry potter movies-which are brilliant in their own right-sam raimi has alot more resources and plot lines to choose from, since the spiderman comics held so much action and many plotlines, sometimes 4 at a time in one episode, i think that they are keeping it moving and that it would be if not a little confusing for the people who arent so much fans of spiderman, but just like the movies.

Submitted by Ainz • 2007-05-23 00:12:36

No. 3 :

I saw this and I was disappointed.

Submitted by LJ • 2007-05-22 13:03:06

No. 2 :

Okay, I'm back and I thought that the movie was really good. The CGI was pretty cool and the quick paced action really was terrific. Many of the people in the theater (mainly parents wtih kids) were really enjoying the movie. There are some corny moments which help to lighten the overall tone of this story line in the Spiderman Saga. I won't say much about the ending, but it was quite touching and as Jenna points out, the message being conveyed comes through loud and clear...we all have choices, it's up to you to decided which way to go. Thanks for sharing Jenna and letting me share as well. ~~Dee

Submitted by dliddle • 2007-05-06 21:15:49

No. 1 :

I'm heading to the theater this afternoon to view this one. I can't wait to see what others in the theater think as well. Thanks for the info Jenna.

Submitted by dliddle • 2007-05-06 15:01:47

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