Spidey is the best comic-movie series ever, hands down. This was a great movie -- however, both movie-wise and comic-book wise, I feel it wasn't as good as number 2. They tried to cram too much into it, and as a result ended up REALLY forcing a few of the character points, such as Brock hating Parker, Harry having a change of heart, and the entire episode with "evil Peter." This movie should have featured Harry and Sandman, stretched those stories a bit (I really liked Sandman, btw), and then ended with the Bell-tower scene, and the creation of Venom. Essentially:
The Good:
All the returning characters
Sandman
Fantastic CGI
"Evil Peter" (despite the silly dance scene)
The Bad:
Venom (underdeveloped)
Forced humor
Choppy, implausible storyline (Too much too fast)
The strength of the first two movies was the slow paced, character driven realism (even though they were definitely still comic-ish). That is pretty much gone in #3 as a disjointed plot takes precedence over good character development. Don't get me wrong, they did some cool things with the characters, but didn't allow for good, steady, flowing development at all. I also think having the butler suddenly "reveal" that the last few years of Harry's life have been wrong was an utter failure in storytelling. That should have been a hugely defining moment in Harry's story, instead it was like "Hey, man, you've been wrong for years" and he's like "Oh, I guess I'll go help Pete, then, kthxbye!"
I've always thought the part of Mary Jane was terribly mis-cast when they picked Kirsten Dunst. This movie did nothing to change that.
Bruce Campbell RULES. The French accent is one of the hardest to do, but he did it well. Stan Lee had his biggest part in any Marvel movie to date, and I cheered it
The CGI was amazing... especially when Marko first becomes the Sandman. The only CGI gripe I have was making Sandman the "giant sand monster." Why is it when people make a big monster, it always moves slowly and sounds like a retarded gorilla?
Peter's transformation after wearing the black suit was cool, but I couldn't help but be reminded of this:
Could have done without Peter pointing at the ladies on the street like some nerdy white Shaft or something. His dancing scene was pretty silly, but it got the point across. We end up feeling sorry for Cheekbones McGee-- er, Mary Jane, and we're left literally wringing our hands, hoping he'll come to his senses and lose the black costume because he's being such an asshole.
Characters who suffered a little bit because of the time needed to develop the new villains included Aunt May, J. Jonah Jameson, and even Eddie Brock (pre-Venom). Aunt May's "engagement" scene early on was a really good one, though.
Speaking of Venom, if/when they bring him back, he needs to speak in first-person plural, like he did in the comics. "We," "us," etc...
Overall, it's still definitely worth seeing/owning, but I don't think the story matched up to the first two.