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to explore the dark side of the franchise, a place this particular superhero franchise hasn't been yet. Like the previous films, Raimi has again mirrored Spiderman 3 off of the Christopher Reeve Superman pictures. While we saw Tobey Maguire giving up his powers in Spiderman 2 so he could live a normal life (ala Superman II), here we see the actor portray a dark version of Spidey, following a similar concept which drove the third Superman film. As with the previous Spiderman installments though, Raimi has managed to best the material he seems to be paying homage too.

In Spider-Man 3 a dark substance, which treats us to "Evil Dead"-like, first person point of view shots, turns our hero into the black suited Spider-Man, a far meaner version of the superhero. More aggressive and filled with uncontrollable power, this "symbiote" bonds itself to our hero, feeding on his anger. This makes not only for great internal conflict, but a beautiful contrast to the second Spider-Man picture. When Peter Parker was on top of the world after abandoning his powers in Spider-Man 2, we were treated to a wonderfully tongue-in-cheek montage of Maguire blissfully strutting down the New York streets. In Spider-Man 3, Maguire again gets to strut down the Gotham streets in another ingenious montage, but his newfound attitude gives the sequences a whole new, hilarious edge.

However it is the combination of these fantastic character and story nuances with the big budget, visual effects heavy action which have made the Spiderman films a success, and Raimi has once again hit the perfect balance and tone to not only make Peter Parker's latest adventure emotional, humorous and charming, but a visual thrill ride to boot. With stunning designs for new villains The Sandman (Thomas-Hayden Church) and Venom (Topher Grace), along with brilliant set pieces to host the action, Raimi has the opportunity to let his imagination run absolutely wild, making each exciting action sequence a blast to watch.

Disappointingly, with so much ground to cover in one film, Raimi had to use some narrative cheats to further the story. Rather than letting Spiderman discover the villains' diabolical plot, inevitably building towards the epic climax of the picture, we are brought up to narrative speed by news reporters. While this does speed the plot along, it comes across more as a campy cheat to skimp on celluloid.

Another minor gripe is the minimal screen time and underwhelming stature of Venom, perhaps the villain most hotly awaited by Spider-Man fans to grace the big screen. Despite Raimi's public acknowledgment of his dislike for the character, the director beautifully created escalating tension that builds towards the birth of Venom. The minimal screen time following the villain's climactic creation will likely underwhelm audiences. Luckily Topher Grace's performance is exceptional, bringing the perfect, cocky attitude toward the character, almost making the fact that he is far too small for the monstrous villain's size a moot point.

Tying a trilogy to a substantial and agreeable close is a difficult feat for any filmmaker. Luckily for Sam Raimi and company, keeping the same creative staff onboard for all three Spider-Man pictures helped create a strong narrative and thematic thread which let Spiderman 3 be the ultimate culmination of this particular story arc. While Spider-Man 2 is still the strongest entry into the franchise, the latest picture successfully cements the Spider-Man films as the best superhero trilogy ever produced.

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