Like its predecessors in the series, the inner ramblings of Peter Parker as he tries, somewhat desperately, to decide whether or not he wants to be a hero, indeed whether or not he wants to use his powers for good or ill, is probably the most interesting part of the film. Also like it's predecessors, it's hard to love Parker because of his frantic reactions to Mary Jane Watkins. It's been the stuff of high melodrama in every Spidey cartoon series I've seen over the course of the last thirty years, so it's to be expected, but it's pretty seriously tiresome.
But, the major failing of this series has been to increase its villain count along with the number of the film in the series. Not only that, the villains seem to be getting lamer. Doc Oc, in Spidey 2 was pretty brilliant. Compared to Alfred Molina's Oc, the Sandman, the new Green Goblin (or is it Green Goblin, Jr.?), and a chaotically neutral black organism from space actively corrupting the archetypical 98 pound weakling just don't cut it.
Basically there are too many conflicting stuffs going on. There's a lot of star-power thrown around, and I always love Aunt May in these movies. I want to meet that lady and be told she's my long-lost favorite aunt or something, although admittedly I say that about Helen Mirren and Paula Deen, too. Most of the other cast members seem to be phoning in their performances, holding out for bigger and better parts, maybe in something that isn't Spidey 4. This is fun to watch, but it really suffers for trying to get too much done with too much time already in the film's run time.
