Could this be the end of your friendly, neighborhood Spider-Man? The third of the big-screen "Spider-Man" movies not only completes a story arc, it marks the first real misstep for the franchise. Even boosted by an abundance of villains and a mountain of money for special effects, this heavily laden contraption doesn't soar to the storytelling heights of the previous two movies.
Ever since the comic-book character debuted in 1962, Spider-Man has been a distinctive species of superhero. Instead of being an heir or an alien, his alter-ego was a nerdy teenager with girl problems. But in "Spider-Man 3," Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire) is a college student and part-time photographer who is happily coupled with aspiring actress Mary Jane Watson (Kirsten Dunst), and the crime-fighting Spidey is the toast of Manhattan.
So life is good. In the logic of comic books, that means a turn to the Dark Side is inevitable. Yet the engine that sets this reversal in motion is a creaky contrivance: a meteorite that happens to land near Peter and oozes black tendrils that entwine him with bad vibes.
Peter's subsequent behavior neglecting Mary Jane, acting like a disco demon for classmate Gwen Stacy (Bryce Dallas Howard) is supposed to be a disturbing glimpse into his character flaws. But Maguire is so goofy-eyed that it never quite constitutes "the battle within." Instead, his real battles are with three adversaries: former friend Harry Osborn (James Franco), who blames Spider-Man for killing his mad-scientist father and rides a sort of flying skateboard to get revenge; rival shutterbug Eddie Brock, who is transformed into a toothy menace when he is touched by a drop of the black goo; and escaped criminal Flint Marko (Thomas Haden Church), who gets doused with an equally meaningless plot accelerator a particle beam and becomes the massive, marauding Sandman.
The Sandman scenes are among the most impressive in this technically proficient film, and the character is given a potentially poignant back story that involves his sick daughter and Peter's murdered uncle. Notwithstanding a cute scene in which Peter enlists suave maitre d' Bruce Campbell to help him propose to Mary Jane, director Sam Raimi's juggling of the comedy and the action is unusually flat-footed. During the high-flying fights and rescues, neither of the damsels seems believably frightened, and comical cutaways to bystanders two of whom are Raimi's own children linger too long.
The same can be said for the whole movie. Some of the individual threads are dazzling, but "Spider-Man 3" tries to weave together so many slippery elements that the web becomes a wet blanket.
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