James M's review of Spider Man 3 (2007)

 

Hello and welcome back, true believers. Today, we return to the Spider-realm to review the final entry in the original Spider-Man film series; Spider-Man 3 directed by Sam Raimi and starring Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst, Thomas Hayden Church, Topher Grace, J.K Simmons, James Franco and Bryce Dallas Howard.

Released in 2007 a good few years after Spider Man 2, this movie served as the final entry in the Spider-Man trilogy and received mixed reviews while still a box office success. It was also the live action debut of Spider-Man's symbiote rival Venom (who'd made his debut in the 90s in the comics and cartoons beforehand). Initially, Sam Raimi wasn't going to include Venom in the movie, but Producer Avi Arid and the higher-ups at Sony made him do so.

So, what is the story about? Lets keep it short and simple.

Well after Spider-Man 2, Peter's life seems to be going smoothly for him, especially now that he finally has Mary Jane as his girlfriend and is about to propose to her. However, things shift when Uncle Ben's real killer Flint Marko breaks out of prison and becomes the Sandman before causing trouble.

Then Peter's friend Harry becomes the next Green Goblin and attempts to kill Peter, only to lose his memories after an injury and then gets them back later before ruining Peter and MJ's relationship, which gets strained after MJ sees Peter kiss Gwen Stacy as Spider-Man during a ceremony in his honor. 

As all of that is happening, Peter bonds with a symbiote that came down on an asteroid and gets a black suit. But when Peter realizes what is going on as its changing him, he gets rid of the symbiote suit and the creature known as Venom bonds with a journalist named Eddie Brock, who then teams up with Sandman to kidnap Mary Jane and try to kill Peter. Peter teams up with Harry and they defeat the bad guys, but the battle comes at the cost of Harry's life while Peter reconnects with MJ.

So, what do I think of the movie?

Its not that bad as people think it is, Spider-Man 3 is quite good and ends the trilogy off on a good note to an extent. Had Spider-Man No Way Home not happened, this would've been the last time we ever got to see Tobey Maguire's version of Spider-Man. Spider Man 4 was meant to happen at some point, but due to issues between Sam Raimi and Sony, it never happened and thus Spider Man 3 is the final one. After this movie, we would get the Andrew Garfield Spider-Man films, which we'll talk about later.

Overall, the action sequences are well created, the acting is decent and the musical score's perhaps the best of the best in this film. The tone was fine as well, it knew how to be light-hearted and when to be serious. The CGI and special effects were very good too, Sandman looks spectacular and Spider-Man's swinging through the city is still phenomenal. I salute Raimi's team.

Spider-Man 3 gets an 8.5 out of 10, now I say farewell. See you next time in another universe...