Is he strong? Listen bud. He's got radioactive blood.

(Note: This review is deliberately light on specifics and spoilers. I have tried to reveal little or nothing that you couldn't know from the talk shows and trailers)

It's still fair to say the three Spider-Man films taken together constitute the best superhero movies franchise of all time. But the third one suggests it might be time to bring in some new faces behind the camera.

Before I get into the whys and wherefores, I want to say that as I should have expected, the last trailer before the movie for was for the upcoming Fantastic Four 2 (aka Rise of the Silver Surfer).

Seeing comedian, actor and comic book nerd Brian Posehn as the minister performing the wedding of Sue Storm & Mr. Fantasic made me smile. The rest of this trailer actually made me hope the second one is better than the first one, reportedly, was (I still haven't seen the first, the reviews scared me away).



Now, on to the web slinger.

Spider-Man 3 starts out very good and finishes up just good. The biggest problem is one that wasn't too hard to predict: There's at least one too many characters and storylines.

I'm sorry to say this, because I used to like the character in the comics a lot, and I like the actor who portrays him in the movie. But the first character who should have gone is Venom.

He really should have been held back so they could do right by him in a sequel.

First of all, Venom is supposed to be scary. Really, serious, no-kidding around this time, scary. The kind of guy (as I remember him, anyway) who could break your nose and then kiss it off. The kind of creature who if you saw him in a dark room, even if he left without hurting you, you would never again sleep soundly for the rest of your life.

In a few words: He doesn't come to play.


But Harry Osborn is scarier than the guy in this movie (hell, Ozzy Osbourne is scarier than the guy in this movie!).

And Topher Grace is quite simply miscast. I think I know what they were trying to do: He looks like he could be Tobey Maguire's brother, which could have worked for the "mirror image" aspect of the character.

But Grace, a good comedy performer who can also ground his acting with a sense of reality, never summons up the spite and malice (in short: the venom) that his character is supposed to embody. Even after he has been taken over by the black costume, he comes off more pissy and petulant.

Maguire is actually better at suggesting his character's "dark side"-though I probably could have done without the "Peter Parker is Joe Gideon!" musical number.

You think I'm kidding, if you haven't seen the movie, but it's there. It's just one of the many self-indulgences that lead me to believe director Sam Rami and his regulars treated this movie almost like an end-of-schoolyear blowout.

Another is Bruce Campbell's obligatory cameo, extended almost beyond endurance this time and giving him a chance to do his Peter Sellers impression (Geoffrey Rush has nothing to worry about).

Ok, this post is getting pretty heavy into the bad news and is about to get heavier, so let's have some good news: Most of the the action sequences are genuinely better than ever, thrilling and impressive.

Especially the first fight between Peter and Harry (the one we've all seen the beginning of 400, 000 times in trailers and in clips shown on talk shows).

But another downside is that the screenplay, credited to Rami and Alvin Sargent, devolves into inexcusably lazy writing in a scramble to fill in the plot holes before the end. They didn't get to 'em all, either, and the characters (and movie) are let down for it.

In particular, a lot more could have been done in terms of fleshing out the Sandman's motivation and resolution. Thomas Haden Church actually reminded me why it's not always a mistake for an Academy Award nominated actor to do a superhero movie...as long as that movie's not The Hulk (are you listening, Miss Connelly?).

But time that really should have gone to finishing his character is given to Venom, and he ends up a bit wasted.

As does Kirsten Dunst, sad to say. She's never been the MJ of Marvel comics (again, as I remember her)...



...but in the other films they managed to give her a winning alternate persona. Here she's frankly kind of wet (in the disagreeable sense), and fickle. The last two movies kind of backed their version of Mary Jane into Soap Opera Corner, and in this one she basically moves in.

As a side note, this movie also explains to me in what field Curt "The Lizard" Connors got his doctorate. He's a Dr. of exposition.

Perhaps the character who suffers most from the "band aid" school of screenwriting to which the film resorts in order to get to the finish line is Harry Osborn. After two movies succesfully establishing him as a complex, troubled character, they tie up his loose ends by, near as I could tell, bringing in someone from DC Comics. Fans, if you don't know who I mean, here's a clue: What's a penny worth?

Yes, Harry's the most wasted character. But no actor is more wasted in this movie than James Cromwell as Captain Stacy. There's just no reason to use an actor who has so much of the audience's goodwill and then give him little or nothing to do but stand around.

Which brings me to his daughter in the film, Gwen, played by Bryce Dallas Howard. Oh dear. The character in the comics series was so great, and I even thought I had a good idea of the "twist" they were going to give her for the movie.

(Those of you who know the comics can probably guess what I thought they were going to do if I tell you that in the film, Eddie "Venom" Brock is her would-be love interest.)

But she's nothing more than hot n' sexy eye candy here. Peter Parker treats her that way while temporarily under the influence of the alien symbiote; but so does the movie. From her first scene to her last, Howard's costumes emphasize short skirts and plunging necklines.

No, you won't normally hear me complaining about things like this.



But I do like to see just a little bit more from women characters (and I don't mean it that way). As it is, Gwen and her father join Eddie Brock as characters who easily could've-and probably should've-been cut.

But if they were going to use her (and use is the word), I still think it's perverse that the people casting these movies cast a blonde as the redhead Mary Jane, and a redhead as the blonde Gwen Stacy.

Especially since there was someone available who is naturally blonde, looks as much like Gwen as Howard does, is just as sexy and a better actress; one who could at least use the work and the money: Kristen Bell.

Like most movies of this type, Spider-Man 3 shows the marks of the Hollywood production schedule treadmill. In the end, perhaps the best, or at least the kindest thing I can say is this: It's hard not to think that with time for one more rewrite or more time in the editing room, more of the problems could have been solved.