Finally Finished Spider-Man 3

Last year, I received Spider-Man 3, Batman Begins and Superman Returns for Christmas. This was from my brother, who couldn't believe that I hadn't already seen any of these films.

Then they sat, unwatched for a few months. I started watching Spider-Man 3, and wound up finishing it after a few months. I'd watched it in, maybe, 3 40-minute intervals.

I'd heard a lot of things about it. That it was too busy and that there was too much going on.

Now that I've seen it, I see that this opinion has definite validity. Green Goblin. Venom. Sandman. All in the same movie? Plus Curtis Connors, the man who would be the Lizard?

Sheesh. There was a lot going on. Some of it was cool and interesting. But mostly, I thought that this movie didn't have the same type of heart that the first two Spidey movies had. It just seemed like they were making it and then...moving on.

The fight scene at the end was pretty cool, but I was again turned off by Spider-Man being in a situation where he was having the snot beaten out of him. I'm not sure why Marvel seems to like this. Venom alone is an overmatch for him. Sandman is a tough foe foe him to handle. Together, it seems sensible to assume they'd finally win.

Enter the moping, misguided Harry Osborn. Finally the truth comes out. I remember in the comics, when Norman Osborn died, Spider-Man didn't remove Osborn's Green Goblin costume. Harry did. Spider-Man didn't care if the world - or Harry - knew what a monster Norman Osborn was. I liked that better.

I didn't like the stupid Harry hates Spider-Man undercurrent that started early in Spider-Man 2. It got boring pretty quick. It was a nice solution when they had the butler set Harry straight. But that reckoning was long overdue.

Then Harry further redeemed his mopey-ass self by flying into action and helping Spider-Man defeat Sandman and Venom. Of course, just like Terminator 2, it would have been cool if this scene had been approached from the vantage point that you didn't know Harry/Arnie was going to be a good guy in that particular scene.

You can imagine Peter's reaction when - as Venom restrains him, he's getting pummeled by the Sandman - and then Harry flies into view, with pumpkin bomb at the ready. And then...wow! He blows up Sandman and Peter and Harry fight side-by-side.

It's too bad Harry died at the end. I actually liked that version of Harry and would have liked to have seen him in Spider-Man 4.

So, overall, while I thought the film was too busy and used up too many cool villains in one shot, I liked it. It wasn't great - certainly not compared to the first Spider-Man movie - but it was good. Better than Daredevil. Better than Batman Returns.

And I am now eager to see what Spider-Man 4 will bring. What more can a comic book fan ask for?