Hollywood has a tendency to do things big. They take a winning formula and decide that hey, since those elements worked well together last time, why not futz with them and churn out something better? If for example, the last film cost $150 million to make, why not spend $250 million on the next one? If there was only one villain in the previous film, why not have three villains? And instead of just one love interest, how about two? More is better, right?

Wrong.

Before I begin, let me leave a brief message to the fanboys: Please save your venomous attacks. I was really looking forward to this film, as was my boyfriend, who is a Spider-Man fanboy himself. We enjoyed the first two films, especially the second, so we had high hopes for this one. We had a lot of trust that director Sam Raimi was going to continue his magic. Alas, it seems that Raimi has finally gone Hollywood.

Spider-Man 3 starts off on a different note than its predecessor. Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire) is finally living the good life. He's at the top of his class at college, he and his girlfriend, Broadway actress Mary Jane Watson (Kirsten Dunst) are madly in love and doing well, and best of all, the whole city loves Spider-Man.

However, Peter's rose-colored glasses prevent him from seeing the number of warning signs ahead of him. His ex-best friend Harry Osborn (James Franco) still blames Peter/Spider-Man for his father's (Willem Dafoe) death and plots revenge. Mary Jane isn't that successful an actress and also somewhat resents the attention Spider-Man receives. Meanwhile, more trouble comes his way, in the form of escaped convict Flint Marko (Thomas Haden Church), annoying rival photojournalist Eddie Brock (Topher Grace), and an alien symbiote. Sounds like a lot for Peter to handle, doesn't it? Well, it's a lot to handle for the audience as well.

First, the positives. The special effects were terrific. If you're wondering how they spent $250 million, I'm guessing that a good chunk of it went into the sand-related effects. They were admittedly amazing. The fights were also very cool. Although it was short and too near the beginning of the film, I liked Peter and Harry's alley fight. It was fast and brutal, especially when you consider that the two characters used to be best friends.