The Spider-Man trilogy raised the bar for Super-hero movies with the third installment in the series. The FX are noteworthy and the continuity between the movies helped build a great storyline but what made me appreciate this series was the quality of the story and the distinctive theme of each film.
The first movie was based on the Spider-Man credo, "With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility." The second showed the importance of heroes and how even the average person can make a difference. The third film sets the hero against the greatest threat - himself, the hero's psyche corrupted by the Great Power.
While staying true to the mythos that define the main characters, the third movie does something the comics haven't done in a long time - resolve a relationship or two. At the same time the movie shows the difference between Spider-Man and most others 'heroes' who are actually anti-heroes appealing to the audience's craving for violence and vengeance. We realize that sometimes evil must be defeated not by fisticuffs but with the truth, and understanding. I hope I'm not reading too much into the political overtones.
And still, we have plenty of action and fights that a blockbuster of this magnitude needs, and what the audience expects. Plenty of special effects are needed to bring the Sandman and Venom to life - and luckily since this is the third in the series, the producers have little problem bringing those villains to the screen with a worthy budget. Some of the acting does suffer because of the FX, but the director, Raimi, wisely takes his time to let the plot play out and not rush from one significant scene to the next. That said, there was one plot twist in the middle of the movie that I thought really un-necessary and needlessly prolonged the movie - I don't want to give away too much but it has to do with Mary-Jane's willingness to face the future, dangerous as it may be, at the end of the last movie. Yet, in this one, she seems to have lost a bit of her spine - yes, she had reason to doubt Peter but that shouldn't have stopped her from warning him of the major danger coming his way.
While this film marks the end of the trilogy, I hope Rami, Maguire and Dunst reunite for another set of films, to bring us, first of all, a good story and then a good adventure. We need at least one of these kind of movies every summer.
