I don't think I have heard as many groans as I heard while watching Spider-Man 3 since I saw Batman & Robin in the theater.

I have to say though that I did love Bruce Campbell's part.

Saw it last night. Good but not great. Definitely the weakest of the three, no argument from me on that point. Higly entertaining though, with some real laugh out loud moments as well as top notch action sequences and effects. However, while this was not an X-3, this definitely had dange of becoming one at times. For one thing it never seemed like a product of the same filmmakers of the first two. Someone could tell me an individual other than Raimi directed this and I would have believed them, although explaining Bruce Campbell would have been a bit difficult.
I guess my main gripe is that overall, this movie came off as a spoof of a Spider-Man movie as opposed to a movie itself. Peter going over to the "dark side" so to say was amusing, but they tried to push it too hard. The scene of MJ and Harry dancing almost made me wretch. Venom (who really was the only true villain of the movie) came off as more of a smart ass bully than Spider-Man's allegedly deadliest foe. Topher Grace was wrong on all counts. James Franco seemed to revel in his role with all of his "I'm evil, hee hee!" glances, and I can tell Dunst is over playing MJ. She really wants to get out of this series and it showed. I am guessing the prospect of going on without her is why Raimi and co. almost made her story take precedence over Spidey's. Finally, this movie had way too many stories to try and follow. A movie with what we had minus Venom and Gwen Stacy would have been good, but this way it just seems like a bunch of little talkie bits that serve as an excuse to get from one fight to another.
That said, I still give it a solid B or three out of four stars. The setup for the action sequence at the end with the TV announcemount was just like going into a ride attraction, and would actually work quite well on its own as a kind of fanboy made movie. I loathed the announcers during the actual fight though. Oh well, I will see it again sometime, but I don't have the nagging desire to return like I did with the previous two outings.

Why does CGI spidey still look so friggen awful.

Did Bryce Dallas Howard get some bolt-on upgrades, or just some gell-filled bras?

Does anyone in the film use Sony laptops, phones, Blu-ray players, cameras, etc? I hope they didn't flood this with product placement like they did for Casino Royale.

If they did it wasn't nearly as obvious as it was in Casino Royale.

Yeah I don't remember seeing any of that. There are hardly any gadgets used at all.

Bruce Campbell was the highlight of the movie :lol:.

Bdh = :oooooooooooooo

Bryce did look yummy. Interesting that in real life Dunst looks more like Gwen and Bryce looks more like MJ.

SLIGHT SPOILER


Anyone else notice the reptile fossil and possibly lizard in a tank in the BG of Connor's office? Good foreshadowing, and maybe enough to merit a fourth movie.

Wow, the opening of this review is a brilliant example of why I do not read DVD Talk reviews anymore. This disgusting, smug sense of self-congratulation permeates more than half the reviews here and is so distracting that it makes any opinions of the review invalid. These types of reviews only illustrate a picture of the reviewer touching themselves while looking at a completed draft of their review in celebration. Ugh.

Maybe Daddy bought some for her with his Happy Day's syndication money.

But, tell us how you really feel?

She was pregnant at the time of filming but I don't if she was far along enough for it to make that much of a difference.

See, this is why I don't proof read.

In one interview, she said she found out she was two months pregnant a couple of days into filming her scenes.

Saw it last night. I liked it, but I'm not jumpin' up and down and telling everyone else that they have to as well. The "dance number" didn't bother me as much as the strutting around town montage. That was really out of place. And a lot of the CGI seemed like a step back from the level they achieved in II.

Bring on Pirates!

Why would anyone care about the reviews for this?? AND if they are good or bad would it really sway you to see it one way or another?

This movie is about as review proof as it gets, same with the two other 3 movies Pirates and Shrek no one is really going to care about the critic reviews, Pirates 2 got some of the worst and it was the biggest movie last year...

This movie is going to date horribly - esp. the emo Parker strut (the EPS) and the twist.

Disappointing is definitely the word. I loved the first two. This one is a huge step down. More like a cliff fall down. Horrible script, in particular.
-ringding-

Everyone realizes what went wrong here, right?

Spider-Man 1: Story by David Koepp

Spider-Man 2: Story by Alfred Gough, Miles Millar and Michael Chabon

Spider-Man 3: Story by Sam & Ivan Raimi

This is what happens when your head gets so big as director you think you and your older brother can write the movie as well. Unfortunately, it's going to make a ton of money (possibly more than Spidey 2) and whomever winds up making Spider-Man 4 is going to pay the consequences (when it only does half the business of this one), regardless of how that movie turns out.

Personally, I felt this was the most entertaining one. The Midnight audience had a BLAST. Nothing I've read about the negative reactions was true. The place was packed with fans and there was solid applause at the end.

I was never fully satisfied with the previous films, and it has taken me until now to really warm up to Maguire. I thought he was terrific. Having his mask off for many of the action sequences made it more engaging and enable us to experience the movie more with him, as we did with Christopher Reeve in the Superman films. Nicely done.

The only thing that bothered me was some dreadful mawkishness in the final moments that briefly made me feel like I was at a bad junior high play. It almost felt like a joke, and this was one moment where I felt everyone might have been laughing at and not with the characters.

I liked that we were mostly spared tedious backstories of the villains. That stuff bored me in the previous films, and I'm glad it wasn't repeated here. The action is terrific and the offbeat humor reminded me of a Raimi I thought I'd never see again. He took some chances and played with the characters, and boy did it pay off.

I'm not sure if everyone will agree that this is best of the series, but I certainly felt that this was a fitting end to the trilogy (with plenty of room if they do continue). Great start to a blockbuster season.

On a sidenote, the trailer for Julie Taymor's ACROSS THE UNIVERSE was amazing.

Yup. The entire movie had problems, but the emo-stuff and the dancing scenes were just horrendous. My wife, who enjoyed the first two, turned to me and said "this is just really embarrassing" about halfway through.

I must have said to myself "WTH?" or "WTF?" about 10 times in this movie.

Uugghhh. This is one of the biggest things I've hated about the first two Spider-Man movies. It's ridiculous how often Pete goes without his mask in these films. Why even bother with the Spider-Man costume at all?

I think Spider-Man 3 is the perfect example of too many fingers in the pie. According to the interviews that have been floating around here, Raimi and his brother wrote a full draft with only Sandman and New Goblin as the villains. And if you look at the movie, it's clear all the emotional weight has been placed on those two. Avi Arad twisted Sam's arm to include Venom, and it shows. The whole black suit/Venom storyline was poorly handled and pretty much played for laughs. It's a shame, because the black suit/Venom story could have been incredible if treated with some respect. I'm not really blaming Sam, as he had been vocally opposed to ever including Venom. What gets me are the people in the audience who actually cheered at all the Venom scenes, despite the fact that they basically neutered him as a character and a villain. Spidey has one fight in the black suit, then a montage of being "superbad" and a dance number, and boom, that's the end of the black suit. Venom has two scenes, most of which feature Topher Grace's head instead of the awesome Venom face. Again, I don't really blame Sam, who had Venom forced on him, I'm just sad as a fan that we'll never get a good telling of the Venom story in this series now.

But the biggest problem is how on the nose the film is. Almost every scene has a character who blurts out the subtext of what we're seeing. Every scene is all surface. Almost right from the beginning, characters are either saying what's going on or making massive foreshadowing comments. It also didn't help that Mary-Jane was incredibly annoying all the way through. Give me Gwen Stacy any day. However, that doesn't mean it was all bad. I loved Harry/New Goblin. His arc was by far the most emotionally engaging and his suit/glider was pretty badass. I loved his Marvel Team Up scene, too. Also, the scene where Sandman first tries to form himself was incredibly well done. All of the fights were well directed and exciting. Bruce Campbell's cameo was amazing, and his impression of John Cleese doing a French accent was unbelievable. But on the whole, this was a step down from the others, especially 2. I would have liked to see a version with just Goblin/Sandman, and then a separate movie just for Venom. Still, I'll probably see it once more before it leaves theaters.

P.S. I loved the emo Peter montage. The dancing outside of the clothing store might have been the best single moment in the whole movie.

Upon reflection, this movie in a trilogy is like a football game where your team plays well for the first half, fumbles the ball a lot of in the third quarter, and barely wins a victory at the end. It's still a win, but they obviously didn't have their head in the right place for the whole time, and the game is more of a downer.

I have to take back what I said about seeing it as the conclusion of a trilogy. That actually tarnishes something. I actually think this could work best as a stand alone movie for the casual Spider-Man fan who wants to see a slight nod to everything and certain characters and end it with a super-villain showdown at the end. Basically, someone who doesn't want to mess with the backstory and wants to jump right into the action.