Peter Parker as Spider Man is by default a wimpy character capable of performing heroic acts.  Tobey Maguire who portrays Spider Man fits the role perfectly with his wilted straight hair, very thin weak lips and small stature.  However, in this movie he gets the opportunity to put some oomph in his personality.

The movie starts with Spider Man having finally purged the city from criminal elements.  He is at the height of his popularity.  Peter, who is quite pleased with his accomplishments, plans to pop the question and ask Mary Jane Watson (Kirsten Dunst) to marry him.  Those of you with good memories may remember that at the end of the previous movie, he actually brushed her off.  Minor details, some may say!  But, things don’t turn out the way he had planned them.  Harry Osborn (James Franco) is still smarting from the death of his father who used to be the glider riding Goblin and is bent on seeking revenge.  He rides his father’s fiery glider and tries to assassinate Peter.  He fails and in the fall that follows loses his short tem memory temporarily, only remembering Peter and Mary Jane as his close friends. 

Meanwhile a meteor crashes in the city and a space traveling venomous alien gook is released from the burning amber. The malevolent alien attaches itself to Peter and changes his personality.  Peter becomes a more aggressive and definitely a more personable character.  He buys nice clothes and invites an attractive girl, Gwen Stacey played by Bryce Dallas Howard to a jazz club. However, because of the alien, he loses his temper and spoils the evening.  The scenes in the Jazz club are really interesting and show that the director, Sam Raimi, has the ability to put some pizzazz into his scenes.

There are more challenges ahead for Peter.  We find out that the man who really killed his uncle, Flint Marko played by Thomas Haden Church, has escaped from the prison.  While on the run, Flint falls into a particle accelerator which converts him into an indestructible Sandman.  Flint the Sandman starts robbing banks and armored cars to pay for his daughter’s operations!

To add to the complicated plot there is a third villain in the person of Eddie Brock played by Topher Grace.  Eddie is a wannabe photo journalist who stops at nothing to get Peter’s Job at the Daily Globe.  The malignant alien gook finds Eddie’s body and mind more hospitable and leaves Peter Parker’s body to infect Eddie’s and, in the process make him almost as powerful as the Spider Man. 

Finally, our old friend Harry regains his memory and tries to destroy Spider Man one more time. 

OK, so to sum up: we have Spider Man on one side. Then we have Harry who tries to kill spider man one more time and in the process loses part of his face, but eventually joins Spider Man in his battle against evil forces. On the other side, we have the monstrous Sandman and Ed Brock as the Venom.

The final battle scene is reminiscent of similar scenes in many other action movies such as Spider Man 1 and 2 and indeed various Superman and Batman movies.   The cars are flying through the air and the buildings are collapsing just missing the awed bystanders. The evil bad guys almost defeat the good guys, but in the end the forces of righteousness triumph and the planet is saved one more time!

The quality of acting in this movie is sometimes laughable.  J. K. Simmons looks really silly with his stupid wig.  After all, almost half of the world has seen him in Law and Order and/or the Closer with his shiny bald head.  He succeeds in acting just like a character out of a comic book.  Tobey Maguire does not know anything about acting so we will skip him, Thomas Haden Church only knows how look stoic and say “I am sorry, I am not a bad person.”  Kirsten Dunst is just a pretty face though not as pretty or versatile as Bryce Dallas Howard.  We do not know what acting school Topher Grace went to.  Pity they killed off James Franco’s character in this movie, he was good.   Sam Raimi directed this mediocre movie. 

The movie was way too long, over two hours and twenty minutes.  The story line was too weak and could not carry the movie for such a long time.  It could have been told in 90 minutes instead and it would have been more exciting.  Frankly, we almost fell sleep during the last twenty minutes of this movie. 

We would give this movie  .  It is not really a very good film, but as sheer entertainment it is probably worth the price of admission.