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Note: This review contains several SPOILERS. Proceed at your own risk.

I'm still figuring out my feelings about Spider-Man 3. There's no question it has many effective moments; the action sequences are as spectacular as always, and certain elements of its story are compelling and poignant. But there are also a number of serious narrative missteps in this installment; and while it's not a bad movie at all, it falls short of its predecessors.

The plot: Spider-Man is now beloved by New Yorkers, and Peter Parker appears to be on track to achieve personal happiness as well; he plans to propose to Mary Jane, now starring in a Broadway musical. We see the opening number of this show from Peter's perspective in the front row, and it immediately raises a serious question: how the hell did she land a lead role on Broadway when her singing is so horrible? It comes as no surprise that MJ gets lousy reviews and is fired, though for some reason I missed (or maybe there was no reason) she neglects to tell Peter about it. Actually, there is an implied reason: she gets canned right before Spider-Man Day and doesn't want to ruin Peter's big moment when he swings into Central Park. It also sets up a crucial scene later in the film, but still makes no real narrative sense; it exists solely to facilitate a situation none of the characters could have foreseen, rather than naturally growing out of MJ's personality in any respect.

But enough digression. The plot gets more and more complicated with the arrival of Flint Marko, an escaped bank robber transformed into the Sandman when he stumbles into a particle physics experiment. Marko's saddled with a sappy backstory about a sick daughter he never gets to see, and he's also somehow connected to Uncle Ben's murder, meaning his plotline runs roughshod over the continuity of the first two films. I have no problems with movie adaptations of comics deviating from the source material, but ******** up the storyline you've created in the previous movies is another matter. (I won't spoil Marko's big speech near the end of the film, where he explains what really happened; but the less said about it, the better.) Eddie Brock, an ambitious freelance photographer, also causes problems for Peter; and soon, an alien symbiote that apparently hitched a ride on a passing meteorite attaches itself to Peter's body, granting him a spiffy new black suit and amplifying his aggression to the point where he can beat the s**t out of Sandman while barely breaking a sweat.

That's a lot of plot for one movie, and I haven't even mentioned Harry Osborn yet. He continues to try and avenge his father, gets knocked out cold, loses his memory and becomes friends with Peter again, and then regains his memory. Yeesh.

So far, I haven't said much good about Spider-Man 3, but there were a lot of aspects of the film I liked. That early fight between Spidey and Harry is fantastic, as is the climactic confrontation with Sandman and the now Venom-ized Brock (his transformation scene is pretty damn awesome too). I also found the love story between MJ and Peter, with all its complications and tribulations, to be one of the most successful aspects of the film. Their scenes together feel real, and there's something poignant in Peter's situation as a decent guy who wants to do what's best for his girlfriend, but manages to ******** things up even worse the harder he tries to help. It's easy to relate to this plotline, whereas the business with Marko wanting to help his daughter feels forced and unnecessary.

It's not just these two stories that feel as though they belong in separate movies; Sam Raimi seems to have lost his sense of tone, and so comic scenes and serious ones jar against each other at inopportune moments. For example, there's a lengthy sequence where Peter, under the influence of the symbiote, starts swaggering around town like he's the sexiest man alive. On its own, this scene is pretty funny; but since we soon get a moment of pure rage that concludes with Peter inadvertently hitting MJ, the balance feels off. Does the film want to play the symbiote for laughs or take its effects on Peter's soul seriously? It can't quite decide, and this continual shifting of tone weakens the overall effect. (The purely comic scenes with J. Jonah Jameson, on the other hand, are as great as always.)

And yet, I still liked it overall. It's just a disappointment compared to the first two installments. There's also one change from the comic book symbiote plot that did bug me, even though I said earlier I try to ignore such things: Peter takes off the suit a couple of times and stashes it in a trunk. In the comics, the suit morphed into his street clothes, reinforcing the idea of it becoming close to its host; and I didn't like how the filmmakers removed that element. Some things are best left unaltered.

Rating- 6/10