Spiderman 3

The key word here, people, is development. Ask any actor in a major established role, and they'll tell you they love exploring different sides. It's an interview soundbite that's become so clichéd you expect it as a matter of course. "I loved the script," they'll tell you, "because it enabled me to do something very different with the character. It lets you see a different side of him, and it was really interesting to explore that." So when the writers of Spiderman 3 plunged into the Marvel canon and found the saga of an alien parasite that bonds with Spiderman, taking over his personality and making him an enemy to himself and everyone around him, they must have thought their ship had come in. (It's a meteorite, actually, but you see where I'm going with this.)

While the symbiotic life form brings out the arrogant and aggressive side of our young web-slinger, the point that Spiderman 3 tries to make is that the darkness isn't generated from scratch. Right from the outset, it's clear that this is a very different Spiderman: the opening voiceover makes it clear that things have greatly improved for Peter Parker since we last saw him. His public approval ratings are through the roof, he's managing to hold down a job and a college career, and he's getting laid regularly. Long before the black sticky goo makes its presence known you can sense that this is not going to end well: Peter / Spiderman is so used to being New York City's hero that he's got just a little bit cocky with it. Pride cometh before a fall, they say, and if there's one thing you can say about Spiderman it's that he spends a lot of his time in very high places.

Things aren't helped by the arrival of Flint Marko, who has a personal connection with the Parker family history that leaves Peter thirsting for revenge - again suggesting that the alien was no more than a catalyst, and that his aggression was simply buried underneath all that "with great power comes great responsibility" mumbo jumbo. Unfortunately, getting to Marko is made more complicated by the fact that he's just become a walking sandpit (following a scene in a particle physics lab that makes absolutely no sense whatsoever). Marko's character is fleshed out somewhat by the fact that he's robbing banks to raise money to heal his sick daughter. Someone should have told him that he'd make far more cash by becoming a permanent fixture in the world's most exciting children's adventure playground.

Sandman looks great, and obviously ate up most of the effects budget, but he's not the only villain on the scene: also back is Harry Osborn, destined to take up his father's mantle as the Green Goblin (well, the Hobgoblin if you want to be pedantic about it), but having difficulty in doing so. His scenes with Peter and Mary and the fractured love triangle that exists between them have the effect of slowing the film, but they do at least add some character. While it's slightly embarrassing to watch him dancing round his kitchen to the sounds of Chubby Checker, it lends events an unexpected joy, however brief.

Providing support to the ballad of Peter and Mary are Topher Grace as slick (but obnoxious) photographer Eddie Brock, who poses a threat to Peter in various areas of his life, and Rosemary Harris, as wonderful as ever in the role of silver-haired Aunt May (now pushing eighty, Harris is still able act pretty much everyone else off the screen). Bryce Dallas Howard steps into proceedings as Gwen Stacy - a name that should cause alarm bells to ring in the heads of anyone who's ever ready the comics, although here her role is reduced to that of a slightly vacuous blonde. Also back is J. Jonah Jameson, quintessentially blustering (but now suffering from high blood pressure) and chief player in what is probably the film's funniest scene. Less welcome is the presence of Bruce Campbell, elevated from obnoxious doorman in Spiderman 2 to extended cameo as an irritating maitre d', in a restaurant skit that is played predominantly for laughs without actually getting very many.

There are three villains vying for attention here, and - much like Batman and Robin before it - Spiderman 3 suffers as a result of too much going on. Certain characters grate very quickly and others, you wish, really could have been explored more thoroughly. I'd have liked to have seen a little more of Flint Marko's family: what was the problem with his daughter? How long had she been ill? What was his backstory? How did he escape from jail? And so on, but these scenes have been left on the editing room floor (although they'll probably turn up on the DVD) for the sake of more images of swirling sand. Now, I like swirling sand as much as the next person, but sometimes you want a little meat on your bones instead of simple visual trickery.

The meat in this instance comes predominantly with an exploration of Peter Parker and his Inner Darkness. The Inner Darkness makes him more substantial and less whiny and is the most interesting part of the film, with Peter taking on something resembling a Jekyll and Hyde persona, locking the black suit in a Pandora's Box (all right, suitcase) as if he's afraid of it. There are actually some interesting parallels at work with the Superman series as well, in that the first films in both series had the job of establishing characters and love interests and villains, while the second saw their protagonists seemingly overcome with self-doubt before making the decision (albeit temporarily) to throw in the towel. Similarly the third installments see both Metropolis' caped wonder and Manhattan's friendly neighbourhood Spiderman battle with the worst sides of themselves. If things keep going in this manner, Spiderman 4 is presumably going to be an absolute turkey.

In this instance, Peter's dark side is personified by his adoption of a stylish all-black wardrobe, an embarrassing John Travolta swagger (the scene where he struts through Manhattan is like Stayin' Alive, only even worse) and a down-combed floppy fringe. (Most evil twins have beards; Peter Parker has floppy hair.) He also becomes incredibly self-confident - an ebullient sequence in a jazz club left me with a raised eyebrow, although perhaps it's because I was trying to deal with the fact that out on the street, he'd just said "You'll really dig this joint," before adding almost as an afterthought, "You're lookin' fine, babe". Great. One brush with a symbiotic life form from a crashed meteorite, and he's in a fifties beat movie.

While the action sequences are as slick and professional as ever, the film could do with some serious trimming - much like Peter's fringe, actually - and it drags particularly during the supposedly emotionally harrowing scenes. One particular encounter (don't worry, you'll know it when you see it) contained the worst dialogue outside of a Star Wars movie, with performances to match - it reads and plays like something that's been written by a seven-year-old, and it's impossible to believe that this wasn't sandwiched in there, perhaps as a result of some sort of grotesque Blue Peter competition (write a scene for the new Spiderman movie and get a five-year apprenticeship with George Lucas). Part of it is Maguire's fault - he can do nerdy teenager very well, and he does angsty youth quite brilliantly, and his scenes with Aunt May are touching, but give him a serious love interest (which is most of this film) and he just looks uncomfortable.

The overall effect of Spiderman 3, sadly, is that of unbalance. An awfully long time is spent on exploring the relationship between Peter and Mary and Harry, and there are numerous lingering shots of Spiderman sitting on top of buildings staring out at the New York skyline. But while Raimi's sense of angst is as strong as it ever was, his ability to whip up a storm during the action scenes somehow doesn't mix well with the sense of pathos - something that didn't happen in the previous two installments, where the emotional intensity added to the joy of the CGI chase sequences. You're left with a film that's almost as confused about the true nature of its identity as Peter Parker himself. If the first two films were about an outsider who is granted tremendous power and still finds himself brandished an outsider, the third is about dealing with the consequences of fame, and taking the people you love for granted.

The problem is that having reached this goal, Raimi doesn't know what to do with it, and you're left with a movie that is not only mildly schizophrenic but somehow less than the sum of its parts. Raimi's clear sense of patriotism and pride in the American people was exemplified by the bridge scene in the first film (when the New Yorkers rush to Spiderman's aid) and the understated, beautifully filmed segment in the train carriage in part two. The best he can come up with here is to have Spiderman swing through the skyline amidst the roar of the crowd and stop for just a moment by an American flag, before swinging off again. It's a money shot, pure and simple, and it jars with the movie's theme of darkness and rage.

For all its faults, the film remains (for the most part) a thrilling ride - slick, stylish, with customary swoops and some clever angular shots. Even if the emotional resonance isn't what it once was, it's hard not to feel a rush of burning adrenaline when Spiderman executes a perfect left hand turn in the middle of an airborne chase and goes surging through a series of blind alleys in one of the seedier parts of Manhattan. Similarly, it's difficult not to wince whenever he clunks into an iron bar or goes flying into a wall - you find yourself remembering that he's still a human being, albeit a mutated one. The central problem here is that of simple comparison: it was always going to be difficult for anything to live up to the nearly flawless Spiderman 2, which remains not only the strongest in the trilogy, but perhaps the best superhero movie ever.

Still, you can't help feeling that the adventures of the webbed wonder have now run their course, at least in this current incarnation. Part of the problem is Maguire, who has arguably done more or less all he can with the role (and who is now looking a little long in the tooth to be playing a nerdy twenty-year-old) - and that's before we get to the fact that they seem to be fast running out of Marvel supervillains to exploit. Given the film's guaranteed financial success, perhaps more offerings are inevitable. Still, it would be nice to think that the producers will, for once, adhere to the "leave them wanting more" philosophy of bowing out on a high (something that the team behind Only Fools and Horses would have done well to remember). It would be nice if we could remember Spiderman 3 as the flawed, but still worthy closing piece in an epic trilogy, rather than the moment at which the series began to go downhill.

(Sunday, 6th May 2007)