“Spider-Man 3” is an overstuffed structural mess with too many different subplots that don´t fit well together. It just doesn´t feel like one coherent movie. Each of those subplots could be very interesting if they were more fleshed out, but since the film doesn´t have the time to do them all justice, none of them reach their full potential. Especially Venom is a victim of this. One of Spider-Man´s most popular and iconic villains in the comics, yet in his silver screen debut, he is barely a character, has to share the spotlight, and feels kind of like an afterthought. Compared to Willem Dafoe´s Green Goblin and Alfred Molina´s Doc Ock, the villains of “Spider-Man 3” don´t leave a strong impression, though I have a soft spot for this version of Sandman. Another problem of the movie is that at several points it wanders too far into the territory of cheesy camp. The previous movies, silly as they were as well, definitely had a better balance of tones.

That being said, “Spider-Man 3” still has the Sam Raimi charm. Like in the first two films, the characters are the center and main focus of the story. I love how we see Peter grow up over the course of the trilogy, and how in every film he has do deal with more adult problems than the one before. This time, he has to learn that “getting the girl” is not the end goal and that a relationship takes effort, communication, understanding, and compromises. Furthermore, he has to deal with demons of the past, his strained friendship with Harry, his newfound fame and popularity, guilt, grief, and forgiveness. Sure, some emotional beats are executed too melodramatically but more often than not they hit the mark. Raimi takes Peter´s troubles seriously (excluding the tonally jarring though highly memeable Emo-Peter scenes) and the characters take precedence over spectacle. Which doesn´t mean that there aren´t some pretty cool action set pieces, there definitely are. Yet I´m more in love with the small-scale scenes, comedic or heartfelt, such as Bruce Campbell´s cameo, the J. Jonah Jameson scenes, Aunt May´s words of wisdom, the quiet intimate scenes between Peter and MJ, or the little moments with Mr. Ditkovitch and Ursula. Sam Raimi understands the emotional core of Spider-Man better than any live-action director who handled the character after him.

“Spider-Man 3” is more flawed than its two predecessors, but since it still has a beating heart, love for its characters, and empathy for normal people and their struggles, I can´t be too mad. It also helps that the score is an all-timer that triggers my nostalgia. And if you can look past the camp, silliness, and structural problems, there are several badass as well as moving moments to be found. I wish we would have gotten a fourth film.