Tobey Maguire is back as Peter Parker and Spider-Man, but, in “Spider-Man 3,” he’s fighting too many villains and experiencing one of the lowest cinematic moments for the character. Spider-Man takes on the Sandman, the Venom symbiote turning him into the black suit Spider-Man, Venom once it takes over Eddie Brock and his former best friend turned worst enemy in Harry Osborne as the second version of the Green Goblin. That’s a lot to cram into a superhero movie during the early 2000s.

This film is the perfect example of cramming too much into a film. Sam Raimi, famously, wanted to hold off on the black suit Spider-Man and Venom story until “Spider-Man 4,” but Sony Pictures, recognizing the popularity of the Venom character, forced it into “Spider-Man 3.” It backfired tremendously as the Venom storyline feels forced into a movie where it doesn’t belong, because that’s exactly what happened. Also, the less said about emo-Peter Parker and that awful dance scene, the better.

The forced Venom storyline also hurt the other two villains in this film. Harry’s turn as Green Goblin should’ve been enough to carry its own film, but even if Sony didn’t feel like that was enough, it could’ve been paired with the Sandman and still worked. In the end, the Green Goblin and the Sandman both felt like afterthoughts for the Venom story.

This film’s failure is highlighted more by the success of “Spider-Man: No Way Home.” This film only had three villains chewing up screen time, that one had five. Still, this one is a chaotic mess while “No Way Home” is, arguably, the best film of Marvel’s Phase 4. It seems like the best way for Sony to make the live action Spider-verse work is to let Marvel do the work.

Add in the fact that both Tobey Maguire and Thomas Haden Church returned for “No Way Home,” as a version of Peter Parker/Spider-Man and the Sandman, respectively; and both were allowed to have a better turn at these characters. This should’ve been a good film that set up another sequel. Instead it was a bad film that resulted in two reboots, Marvel and Sony working together and eventually the returns of some of the actors but not all. I wish Sam Raimi would’ve been trusted to make his own film without studio interference. But hey, at least, the Tom Holland films are good.

Rating: 1.5 stars

What did you think of “Spider-Man 3?”

Jeremy Brown

Jeremy has been a big Disney fan since he was a kid growing up during the Disney Renaissance. One day he hopes to go to every Disney Park in the world.

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