Spider-Man 3 Reviews
Seacoast Newspapers (NH/Maine)
Pick two storylines, maybe, with one main villain. (I vote for Sandman, since the daughter angle is heart-tugging and complicates Spidey's moral code.)
Full Review
| Original Score: 2.5/4
Top CriticRaimi's everything-including-the-kitchen-sink third film robs the Spider-Man movie myth of its lightness. He has taken something heartfelt and witty and reduced it into just another comic-book movie.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/5
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
... cobbled together, with too many story lines shooting out in different directions before wrapping around and bowing up neatly as a parable about the power of forgiveness at the end.
Full Review
| Original Score: 79/100
Too many villains, too many pale plot strands, too many romantic misunderstandings, too many conversations, too many street crowds looking high into the air and shouting "oooh!" this way, then swiveling and shouting "aaah!" that way.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2/4
One has to consider that the film's problems -- and they are numerous -- may be the product of the franchise's runaway popularity.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2/4
After two epic successes that deserved their success, the latest installment swings between intense action sequences and unaccountably flat dramatic interludes.
Arizona Daily Star
Mean Spider-Man wrecks city streets for no reason, makes sarcastic remarks, interpretive dances and is actually pretty funny. You'd want to hang out with Mean Spider-Man and talk over beers about what a tool Nice Spider-Man is.
Full Review
| Original Score: 1.5/4
EDGE Boston
Dunst sings, Maguire stagnates, the script sags, and goo from outer space takes center stage. Here's what else is wrong with 'Spiderman 3.'
Full Review
| Original Score: C
CinePassion
Another third installment, another arrested adolescent gone wild
Cinematical
... Watching Spider-Man 3, as my hopes took on the taste of ashes in my mouth, I felt the sad, gloomy pall that falls across any piece of entertainment when passionate innovation is replaced by profitable repetition.
Full Review
| Original Score: 1/4
Film Journal International
Raimi and company have woven more graceful patterns in the past; this one simply doesn't cohere.
FEARnet
The first film in the series I'd choose to describe as "sloppy," and given the money and talent behind these flicks, that's one serious disappointment.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2.5/5
It's as if director Sam Raimi felt he had to give us more of everything, and in the process lost sight of what made the first two films so enjoyable.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2/4
St. Paul Pioneer Press
What's left is about as thrilling as walking into a cobweb.
Full Review
| Original Score: 1/4
Lessons of Darkness
A hollow shell of a saga devoid of both thrilling action and rousing passion.
Full Review
| Original Score: C
Movie Reviews in Croatian
A disappointment. Spidey keeps his mask off and weeps. Everyone cries. I hated the silly monolith sad sack Sandman. Did Dunst's contract stipulate she sing two songs?
Reno News and Review
It's as if director Raimi ingested a ton of Spidey comics, chased them with some crappy romance novels, and barfed the whole discordant mess onto the screen.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2/4
At 141 minutes, this supe-opera is seriously overextended, with four distinct subplots and way too much hand-wringing over things like the heroine's singing career.
After the significant improvement of the second installment over the first, new entry reps a roughly equivalent dip in quality and enjoyment, with Spidey now giving off the faint odor of running on fumes.
Aesthetically and conceptually wrung out, fizzled rather than fizzy, this latest installment in the spider-bites-boy adventure story shoots high, swings low and every so often hits the sweet spot, but mostly just plods and plods along.
| Original Score: 2/5
