Spider-Man 3 (movie review) *spoilers*

I actually went to see Spider-Man 3 yesterday, but I've been too busy writing a hands on preview of Overlord and a couple of other things to sit down and put my thoughts down about the movie.

Firstly, let me say that I preferred Spider-Man 2 to Spider-Man due to it being a generally better film. Better acting, better effects and more impressive finale that wasn't spoilt by any terror attacks.

I'm not a huge fan of Spider-Man 3. The bits that should be good are, like the geneisis of Sandman and Venom and the bad ass four way battle at the end between Spidey/Goblin and Venom/Sandman. I was well impressed with how cool it looked when Goblin flamed Sandman and his glass arm shattered. I was even more chuffed when you saw a flash of Eddie Brock's rib cage as he lept back into the symbiote.

Sadly, they seemed to have marred these great bits with a whole lot of pointless rubbish including a whole worthless sequence of Peter Parker turning into an Emo John Travolta. It was embarrasing. That whole scene could have been done in a much darker, simpler way without the need for the pointing or dance routines.

Another big problem, I felt, was that the plot was really choppy. I got really frustrated with it constantly switching between the various plots and sub-plots that were being played out and never really giving us an satisfying chunk of action until the end.

Finally, I feel the baddies weren't good enough. Thomas Haden Church's Flint Marko has an expression set in stone, never mind sand. I know he's perfectly cabable of acting better because he was funny in Sideways. While the CG for the Sandman was absolutely amazing, the actor didn't do the charatcer any justice. The same goes for Venom. A brilliantly realised CG character (that could have been a bit bigger) but lacking a great actor to portray him. Topher Grace just wasn't twisted enough.

Willem Dafoe and Alfred Molina both portrayed The Green Goblin and Dr Oc perfectly in the previous two movies and having these top quality actors playing the bad guys is one reason why the previous two movies are better than the third.

I also really began to resent the "family fun" sections like when J. Jonah Jameson bought the camera off the little girl during the awesome end fight. I just wanted to see the awesome end fight.

Kirsten Dunst I've never found particularly convincing as MJ and you can't even get away with saying she's an unconventional beauty. While Toby Maguire was good as the increasingly self obsessed Spider-Man. Just a shame he had to start dancing.

It's gone down in history as the biggest movie/fastest selling/biggest grossing/most people in cinema at one time ever type thing but the critics are not amused and neither is this blogger.