Things that could have been better:

•No musical numbers. Now I love me some James Brown. But the attempt to recreate the “Rain drops keep falling on my head” moment from Spidey 2, just didn’t work here at all. The dance scene in the jazz club made what could have been a more serious moment, feel silly instead.

•Missed opportunity with Sandman. I love the Sandman in the comics and casting Thomas Hayden Church was a brilliant call, he even resembles Flint Marko. Underutilizing him as the film’s villain is just such a waste. There are so many cool things that could have been done with the Sandman. In the early comic books he was one of first villains to give Peter a serious shellacking. I’m sure if he were used more effectively he would have made a serious antagonist for Peter all by himself. A shame the opportunity was squandered.

•Gwen Stacey. I mean this was Peter Parkers first love. To this day her death is one of the most powerful stories in comic history. To have her appear simply as a tool of jealousy seemed rather pointless. If they didn’t want to use Gwen correctly, why use her at all? Couldn’t they have chosen another female from the comics as a foil for Mary Jane? Perhaps introducing Felicia Hardy would have worked better here.

There are worse superhero films. Blade 3, Jonah Hex, Green Lantern and X-Men: The last stands all come to mind. Yet, there is no denying that Spider-Man 3 is the weakest of the trilogy and earned its place among the list of not so great super-hero films. I guess it’s like the old adage goes, “two out of three ain’t bad”.

I give Spider-Man 3 a 2 stars out of 5.