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.
MovieWeb
April 26, 2011
Spiderman 3 is best described as a Mexican soap opera with mind-blowing special effects.
Spider-Man 3 probably would have been better as two focused 80-minute films. The ambitious, overstuffed, and complicated 139-minute one that we have isn't as well-proportioned as its predecessor, but it's full of canny insights and bits that ring true.
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.
This is at least two movies crammed into one, and the seams are splitting; three villains, two love interests and a partridge in a pear tree means that Spider-Man has to fight for attention in his own film.
The breeziness that was so refreshing in the other episodes has been largely replaced by the kind of misery and moping that we can get from any old superhero.
After two epic successes that deserved their success, the latest installment swings between intense action sequences and unaccountably flat dramatic interludes.
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.
