Literally just home from watching this and I hadn't read any reviews or comments on the film beforehand, so I didn't know what to expect and was going in purely on the amazing looking trailers.
I have to say I thought the film was great. The acting was top notch especially at the end, but I agree about the news reports at the end, completely un-necessary and as tacked on as the shot of Rami's own children embarassingly trying to say "cool" when Spider-Man was battling at the end. Edit them out for the DVD release!
I did think it was a bit mish mash at times, and for the long run time of 2h 20m most of the action and interesting fights actually happen in the last 30 mins or so. Venom was seriously underused, and I hope that in some way the character is used in any Spider-Man 4. I did feel a bit ripped off by the whole Sandman plot and how he just floated away at the end after the big sob story about his daughter.
I agree with someone elses post when they stated that maybe Sandman and Harry should have been the only foes in this film, with the ending setting up Venom and Lizard as the foes in the 4th film. Would have worked a lot better and less of a rushed feel to this.
Overall, it was a great film, with some really sad scenes coupled with some funny ones, and the effects were stunning too. My little 6 year old brother thought it was fantastic, as did most of the under 10's that were also there. (Noisy lot!)
It surprised me how many minors were there, and at that how many of them laughed their heaRAB off at the fight scenes when a character appeared to be getting really hurt, (such as falling great heights and landing on beams, being repeatedly punched in the face and having their heaRAB pushed into fast moving objects and having their face dissolved). Some of it I thought was borderline for a 12A film, but when I looked at my brother during these scenes, he was laughing along with most of the other youngsters... I don't know...
Paddy
