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SPIDER-MAN 3 Send This Review to a Friend
It takes about a half hour of story before the first action sequence arrives in “Spider-Man 3.” That telegraphs what’s wrong with this expensive but bloated sequel. The story is painfully contrived and boring. The cast is game, the film lame. Sure, there is the avalanche of special effects to grab attention, including the shifting sands composing the ominous Sandman. But after a while, even the effects, no matter how well executed by an army of creators, become wearing, and that’s what the whole enterprise is really about.
The gimmick in the screenplay by director Sam Raimi, Ivan Raimi and Alvin Sargent is that when Peter Parker/Spider-man, played by Tobey Maguire, is enveloped by a black crawling and expanding tentacle-like mass, he becomes evil and has to overcome himself: good guy versus good guy turned bad guy. Guess what? he succeeds.
Kristen Dunst has her usual charm as Mary Jane, James Franco does well as Harry, and Thomas Haden Church handles Marko and Sandman with expertise. But enough is enough already. Only absolute comic strip devotees should feel that they must see “Spider-Man 3.” A Columbia Pictures release.
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