Not only was Spider-Man my favorite comic as a kid, the first two Spider-Man movies were amongst my top 50 favorite movies of all-time. So, I am very partial to the movies, but I think the third installment of the series was definitely a few cuts below the flicks that came before.

There were three problems with the movie if you ask me.

#1) The bad guy in the first movie was the Green Goblin. The villain in the second movie was Doc Octopus. But, for installment 3? They trotted out the Green Goblin "2.0," the Sandman, and Venom. Quite frankly, putting all three of them in there made the film seem a little too busy and rushed. That's why the movie would have been better served by having at most, only 2 bad guys.

#2) Seeing Peter Parker as a bad guy, even though it wasn't his fault, really rubbed me the wrong way. It was just sort of a sour note in the movie.

#3) Parts of the movie could have been written by Oprah because they were so feminized and soap opera-like. The ending of the final big fight scene, in particular, was extremely touchy-feely and unsatisfying.

#2 and #3 together kept the movie from feeling as....ah, honorable, as motivational, as much of a struggle and triumph of goodness over evil as the first two films.

Summary: Is this is a bad movie? No. If you enjoyed the first two movies, will you enjoy this one? I think so. But, the first two films were so outstanding that this one really seems like a letdown in comparison. So, thumbs up, but not way up.