Man, what a let down. I didn’t actually expect this movie to be great, since the reviews had been so mixed. But considering it was from the same people that gave us Spider-Man 2 I thought it would be, at the very least, good. And it wasn’t.

The main problem with Spider-Man 3 is that it has three different villains, each with a fairly intricate and separate storyline. Sure, Raimi tries to connect them all together, but it doesn’t really work, and in the end none of the three stories gets the time they need to be developed. The film would be a lot better if it focused on only one or two villains. Venom and the black suit specifically needed a film for themselves.

Also, I’m no longer sure Sam Raimi was the right guy to bring Venom to life. He is a great director, and he obviously loves and cares about the classic villains, such as the Green Goblin and Sandman. But he doesn’t seem to understand Venom or what his appeal is.

I really, really like Venom, but in this film I found Sandman much more interesting than him. That was mostly because Sandman’s origin and personality were pretty well handled, while the whole black suit/Venom storyline was rushed and badly written. As a matter of fact, the whole movie seems to take a nosedive once the black suit is introduced. This was a big surprise to me, since I have been looking forward to seeing this story appear on film since the first Spider-Man.

There are other flaws in the movie, such as the over reliance on coincidences and the seemly irrational way in which some characters act. But I think even those are in great part caused by the too many villains/storylines issue, which doesn’t really leave enough time to give good explanations to why some things happen.

All of that is not to say that Spider-Man 3 doesn’t have some qualities. The effects and action scenes specifically are amazing, and top what we have seen in the series so far. The scene where we see the birth of Sandman is not only a great visual effects feat, but also very good storytelling. And I could name many other parts that, by themselves, work very well.

But still, on the whole the movie is a big step down from the previous installments, and because of that it leaves a bitter aftertaste. Let’s hope Spider-Man 4 returns the series to some of its previous glory.