First out of the box is Spiderman 3. It is by no means the best of the three, but this is certainly very enjoyable, and it shows that Raimi has stayed largely true to his vision of Spiderman. This is long (135 minutes), and even more talky than its predecessors. There is endless discussion of doing the right thing, of always having a choice, of being true to oneself, and saintly Aunt May is finally beginning to grate on me. Both Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst are too whinny and self-absorbed to really enjoy watching (unlike both the earlier movies). Maguire has become the Frodo Baggins of this franchise: he sucks the life out of it whenever he is out of costume.
But the movie succeeds because of the villains: they are all wonderful, and there is enough ambivalence and complexity about their characters that they never become cartoonish (if one can say that as a positive thing about a movie based on a comic book). James Franco returns in the Green Goblin role, and does a great job of managing his conflicting impulses. There is a great moment when he winks at Peter Parker and his entire face changes. He becomes the spine of the movie. Then Thomas Haden Church portrays Sandman, and again every scene with him conveys a tragic sense of despair. Finally we have Topher Grace as photographer and slime villain. He mostly provides comic relief, but he is so much more lifelike than Maguire that he steals every scene that they are in together.
The action sequences are astonishing, and worth whatever the CGI budget was. An aerial chase with the Goblin is particularly good. Finally, Raimi’s old pal from the Evil Dead franchise, Bruce Campbell, has a hysterical scene as a French maitre d’. It is played strictly for laughs, and I strongly recommend that you try to watch it in a French movie theater to see how the French react.