Spiderman 3

I am usually skeptical about sequels. They usually get worse as they go on. Without saying too much about this, I point to Xmen 3 as a perfect example. The dialogue becomes cheap and the action becomes stupidly over-the-top. Spiderman 3 completely took me by surprise. I enjoyed nearly every minute of it. The humorous parts had me laughing, the dangerous villains had me on the edge of my seat, and the parts that make you jump made me - well, jump.

In my mind, what makes the movie great is that its main focus isn't necessarily on the action and the beating up of bad guys. There is a lot of attention given to the characters and their own personal stories and emotions. I found myself caring more about the characters' relationships with one another (good or bad) than I did about the ensuing good vs. evil physical bouts.

The acting was pretty solid from what I could tell. Tobey Maguire (peter parker) still has some of those odd (blank) expressions but he did some things in this film that I thought was a lot of fun to watch. Topher Grace was surprising and I was able to detach him from his character from That 70s Show - which was imperative for the role he played in S3.

About the movie itself. This movie doesn't take itself too seriously. There are a lot of jokes and other humor and some outright silliness. I find this quite appropriate considering (what I believe to be) the nature of the Spiderman comic. This movie also contains probably the most popular villains. You will almost cheer when you see him in action. And of course there are the great action scenes filled with people getting beat in a way that makes you flinch a bit.

The movie isn't perfect by any means. I am only going to give it 4 out of 5 tpacs and there are three reasons that I won't give it a better score. I will just make mention of them so as not to spoil anything for those who haven't seen it. If you have seen it, you'll know exactly what I'm talking about. And here are the movies weakest points (things that made me shake my head)

1. The piano - I think I actually said "oh come on" out loud in the theater.

2. Emo - The concept was a good one, but the execution was poorly done and downright cheesy.

3. The American Flag - I simply placed my forehead into my palm and sighed.

So there you have it - my humble review. I saw this movie on an IMAX screen and it was amazing. I would recommend doing this if there is one in your area. Next movie in the IMAX is Harry Potter. I'm beyond excited.