Perhaps I look at the Spider-Man series thru rose-tinted glasses but thus far, I've been damn impressed. All three movies have had definitive beginings that explain the hows and whys of what's about to happen. They each do this (albeit arguably) very well in my opinion. They also each end with the conclusion to the villains coupled with the "lessons" Parker has learned. All three lessons are very viable, interesting and come from the comics (albeit in different ways).

Seems like people will bitch either way, if there's too much story or too much action or too much explanation. I actually found SM3 to be a bit too short. I would have prefered more in the realm of Venom (more of a build up) but I understand why there wasn't.

But I say all of this with my wife claiming the movie was too long and boring (grrr), my friend saying it was alright but nothing too thrilling (argh) and my bro claiming it was just more of the same. Well wtf did you expect? I wanted more of the same. If you didn't like SM1 or SM2, why bother with SM3? I think SM3 falls in the category of too much hype and not enough pay off for a lot of people.

SM3 was very much like SM2. Although this one was probably my least favorite storywise. The story felt a bit rushed to me at times, and unncessarily lengthened in other aspects (Parker's "strolling" after he gets the black suit). But all in all it was still solid.

it was entertaining yes. As far as a quality film? far from it

the new villains had nearly random character development. Comedy was relied on too much to keep attention then dialog. There were too many themes of character interaction for any to be more then surface level. You have his relationship with MJ, his job, his school, almost random flashback to his uncle. It really needed to focus on just 1 or 2 of these and really develop them.

I think sam raimi did a good job directing, it needed a lot of work in the writing department.

and bruce campbell was very funny

I liked the movie. Was it the best one? No. But I did find emo spidey pretty funny. I was glad to know more about how Uncle Ben's murder came about. Venom didn't impress me much. Is that really how the dude becomes Venom in the comic book? Dumb.

But I think it was worth the $8.