"Everybody needs help sometimes Peter, even Spider-Man"
The final part of Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy finds Peter
Parker finally enjoying life. Things are going well for him; he’s top of his
class, closer than ever to MJ and still has time to fight crime as Spider-Man.
If anything Peter has become over arrogant with his all round success and this
comes back to bite him when an extra terrestrial parasite which amplifies the
characteristics of its host attaches itself to Peter and turns his Spidey suit
black. Now more cocky and arrogant than ever Peter has little time for MJ and
they drift apart. At the same time an escaped criminal accidentally ends up in
a particle accelerator filled with sand. The sand fuses with his body and turns
him into the Sandman – Spider-Man’s latest nemesis.
This is generally regarded to be the worst of the Raimi
Spider-Man films but personally I’d put it second, slightly ahead of Spider-Man While there is an enormous
amount wrong with the film, I actually think that the story is the strongest of
the three. I like how the film looks at Peter Parker’s psychological state and
how the alien parasite is able to effect how and who he is. His relationship
with Mary Jane becomes fractured after ending on a high in Spider-Man 2 and this creates plenty of drama and commotion. Add
this to Harry’s ever growing disdain for Spider-Man and you have the makings of
a decent plot. As a result of focussing more on Parker/Spider-Man’s turmoil,
the villain characters suffer a little and the Sandman’s back-story is only
briefly touched upon. Venom is only really seen in a few scenes as an arrogant
up and comer before becoming a super villain.
