Spider-Man 3 ***

When you have a movie as perfect, and as wonderful as Spider-Man 2 (****), it is next to impossible to make a movie that is just as good as it, or, the impossible, to top it. I know the makers of Spidey 3 just wanted to make a good movie and were not thinking this, but come on... That thought has to be on their mind from the first script draft, all they way up the last edit. Its like that older brother who's the star athlete, valedictorian of his high school class-your parents still love you, but always seem like they wonder why you can't be like Chet.

All I can say is that Spidey 3 is no Chet.

But, gosh darnit, it sure does try. The problem is there is just to much here. To many villains, to many twists, to much angst. The better movie would be one that had been much slimmer; one villain, one story. Instead we get 3 villains. First, Harry Osborne comes gunning for Spidey to avenge his father's death, even though everyone in the world but Harry knows that his dad killed himself trying to kill Pete. Then we see the birth of The Sandman. Gotta say, Thomas Hayden Church looks eggzacly like the Flint Marlow from the comics. And the character, when in sand form, is very visually stunning. The problem is that the whole character really is superfluous. Nothing he does advances the plot, and other than giving us a kewl fight sequence at the end with Harry teaming up with Peter, really does nothing for the movie as a whole.

The third villain, Venom, played very well by Topher Grace, seems like he's tacked on. The black suit symbiont that attaches himself to Peter and turns him not really evil, just more of an ass, is never really explained. Its just...there. We see a meteor, then it splotches around until it covers Pete up, making him a new costume. Then he splotches onto Topher, and becomes this large teethed, evil eyed thing. This is the villain that should have taken up all the time that Sandman had. Truthfully, he's on screen maybe 15 minutes total, and it would have been much more dramatic if their had been a tad more buildup.

The great part is that its still just as a beautiful movie as the first one. Its been 4 years since we first beheld the wonder that is Spidey swinging from rooftop to rooftop, and it still kicks as much ass as it did then. As a matter of fact, in this movie, he does moves in the air that just defy logic. One sequence has him jumping from one piece of falling rubble to another trying to swing down and catch a falling Gwen Stacy. Totally wow.

Overall, we have a very enjoyable movie that is visually exciting, with characters we love to see. Great fight scenes, frenetic action, and best of all...Bruce Campbell once again almost steals the whole movie.

Spider-Man 3 gets *** out of 5.