It attaches itself to people and brings out the dark side of Spider-Man (he even gets a black suit) and turns Parker into a super- confident, strutting girl-chaser. It also affects Parker’s fellow photographer, Eddie Brock (Topher Grace), turning him into super- villain Venom, a character who can do everything that Spider-Man can. As if that were not enough, Parker’s one-time best friend, Harry (James Franco), who blames Spider-Man for the death of his father (aka the Green Goblin), turns himself into the New Goblin. And, of course, there are the usual romantic complications with Mary Jane. Reservations about comic book heroes for serious-minded filmgoers apart, Spider-Man 3 has all the right elements for a summer blockbuster movie. There are plenty of action scenes – albeit with computer-generated images in abundance – some cliff-hangers, a bit of humour and a strong storyline (or should that be lines?). Maguire certainly gets into his Spider-Man role in confident fashion and even Ms Dunst, despite having little to do, adds a pleasing presence. The personality changes, including a tougher Spider-Man, are interesting and eventually all the loose ends are suitably wrapped up by the end. That all suggests that this might be the end of the Spider-Man films, three being a nice round number. But reports from Hollywood suggest that we may not have seen the last of our spidery hero. | 
