"Spider-Man 3" sounds in concept like it could easily be the best movie of the franchise. It's got the dark side of Peter Parker and of Spider-Man which solidifies into my favorite Spidey villain, Venom (take that all you IMDB posters who called me dirty names for suggesting he was a strong contender for a character in his movie - I mean seriously, people acted like I called their mamas fat and ugly at the mention that Venom could potentially show up, but enough gloating over the fact that I was right and they were wrong nyah nyah nyah nyah nyah nyah). It's got the payoff to the Harry Osborne/Green Goblin story, continuation and conflict in Peter's relationship with Mary Jane, great internal struggles and interesting new external ones.

 

Peter is finally seeing some positive attention for Spidey, but it's going to his head. His fledgling romance with Mary Jane begins to suffer because of his self-centeredness. Harry, having learned the truth about the link between Spidey and Peter, vindictively causes more complications in their relationship.

 

Meanwhile, an alien presence has fallen to Earth and takes the shape of Peter's costume. When Peter puts it on it makes him more powerful, but it also makes him more aggressive. When life starts going wrong again the benefits of this added power make him feel good.

 

As Peter struggles with this new power and influence he learns that there was more to his Uncle Ben's death than he had been told previously. Another man was involved, one who is currently on the run from the law and who is about to develop a sand-based power that may be too much for Spidey to handle without the alien help. Peter has to decide about the kind of man he wants to be - the kind that is there for the woman he loves or the kind that is ready to sacrifice all for vengeance.

 

I thought the second movie was so much better than the first that I held out hope that the third installment could continue that trend especially after seeing the teaser trailer for it. Reading my plot outline above it still sounds extremely promising. Unfortunately they went the wrong way with it; it turns out to be the weakest of the series by far.

 

Where does it fall short? It boils down to being unbalanced. For starters the trailers make this look like a dark movie, closer to X Men or even Batman Begins than the previous Spider-Man movies. Considering the darkness explored in Peter and the use of Venom who is one of the most monstrous villains to be in a superhero movie, a dark atmosphere would be not only fitting but necessary. We get into some dark moments here and there, but they are far too brief and watered-down to be as effective as they need to be. As a whole the atmosphere is nowhere near moody enough to add any power to the dark themes.

 

In addition to that we spend so much time trying to have fun with dark Peter that we lose focus in other areas: Peter dances down the street, he dances at the club, he tries to be a ladies' man in musical montages. And while we're talking about that let's mention that MJ dances with Harry, then MJ sings - this is starting to sound like a musical! Meanwhile Venom gets far too little screen time to do his character justice.

 

Venom is a complex character. He's not a traditional villain because he actually cares about the safety of innocent human lives. He's even willing to protect them heroically, except that he likes using lethal force so he's more like Punisher than Spider-Man. He's twisted for sure, but not evil like Joker or Lex Luthor. He hates Spidey, though. He sees the hero as a menace to be stopped and has to reconsider his position on occasion when Spidey does something undeniably heroic in his presence (well, something that doesn't involve thwarting Venom himself, that is).

 

I can understand not being able to get all of that into this movie, but Venom goes from being complex to completely flat. He hates Spidey for obvious reasons with none of the nuances of the symbiote's love/hate for Peter present. I could live with that if he had been a stronger presence as an entity rather than feeling like Eddie in a fancy mask. The filmmakers focused on not losing the essence of the characters behind the masks, but while that works favorably for Peter, Venom has a peculiar personality that emphasizes him as the sum of two parts rather than somebody in a mask like Peter. For instance, he always refers to himself in the plural. The movie loses that distinction.

 

In addition to that he looks different from the comic version. Eddie is a body builder giving him a bulky physique. The movie goes for someone more similar to Peter. That's fine; the bulk isn't anything to get hung up about, or shouldn't be, but again we get so little development time with him that I for one never had a chance to overcome my existing idea of what he should look like and settle into the new version.

 

Sandman is the exact opposite. I don't think they could have possibly created a look for him that would have better matched my mental image. Thomas Hayden Church's body type, mannerisms, clothing style: all of it made me feel like somehow this character had stepped out of my mind onto the screen. Thomas also does a really nice job with the character. He has the complexities that I had hoped to see in Venom, also ironic since I don't remember him ever being a sympathetic character in the book.

 

I feel like the change they made to the story of Ben's death is something of a sucker punch, but the emotion and struggles it produces are worth it. Peter's emotional turmoil over his connection to Sandman (left vague to avoid spoiling it for you) is the movie's biggest salvation.

 

Visually this movie is superb. Sandman looks impressively real and not because he spends all his time as a human with some sand thrown on him. Imagine the crazy stuff you see him do in cartoons and comics and then imagine that photorealistic. It looks sandtastic! Oh sorry for that outburst of cheese there.

Venom also looks good but has less chance to shine. By the time he's in creepy monster mode the movie is almost over.

 

Acting is pretty good. Tobey Maguire has settled pretty nicely into the title role. He's not the perfect Peter, but he's a solid actor. Unfortunately all the dancey numbers still suck. Topher Grace makes a fine Eddie Brock if you can overlook the physical differences from the original character. I feel his anger and turmoil over what Peter does to him (even if he deserves it).