craigmcn

I would love to tell you that the third installment in the Spiderman franchise is fantastic and lives up to all expectations, but that would not be true. It’s packed with 3 bad guys, 2 love interests and an excess of storylines. Unfortunately, I didn’t feel that any part of the story was really well-told.

There was Sandman, the new Green Goblin and Venom, as well as the conflicts with Eddie Brock, J. Jonah Jameson and Harry Osborn. True, Eddie and Harry are sort of Venom and Green Goblin, but that only makes the story more convoluted. Then there’s the unfulfilled relationships with Mary Jane Watson and Gwen Stacy. Toss in the flirtations with Betty Brant and Ursula Ditkovich and we’re knee-deep in romantic subplots.

As I mentioned, none of the stories are well-developed and it’s really a shame. The song-and-dance numbers were ridiculous. The story about Flint Marko killing Ben Parker is a little hard to believe and goes entirely nowhere. As does the story of Marko’s sick daughter. The Harry Osborn/Green Goblin and the MJ Watson stories go as far nowhere as they went in Spiderman 2. The Gwen Stacy story is entirely out of context. The only story that kind of worked was the Eddie Brock/Venom story, but it just sort of came and went.

All in all, it was a fun, action-packed adventure, but there were just too many different storylines that none of them were very effective. However, Bruce Campbell‘s cameo was HI-larious!

5 out of 10 saltines. Sorry, dudes, this one’s really a renter.