The Sandman story is rather weak, as it decides to retcon the killing of Peter Parker’s Uncle Ben, by making the Sandman — then Flint Marko (Thomas Haden Church) — the killer, although it then weakens that retconning with further retconning. The last action story is a continuation of the first two films’ feud between Peter Parker and Harry Osborn (James Franco) over the death of Harry’s father, Norman (Willem Dafoe), the original Green Goblin. This is the battle that has the most resonance to even first-time viewers of the franchise, because these actors already know each others’ expressions and tics.
But the film also depends on great minor characters and moments. As example, there are a number of hilarious scenes with J.K. Simmons (as Parker’s boss, Daily Bugle editor J. Jonah Jameson) — most especially when he is trying to choose between medicines and his secretary keeps buzzing him till he chooses the right one, and a scene where he pays $100 to a con artist little girl for her camera (to cover the film’s climactic battle between Spidey, the Goblin, Sandman, and Venom). After he buys the camera, he finds out it lacks film, and the urchins cackles that film for the camera costs extra. Other interesting performances come in a few scenes from James Cromwell and, especially, Bruce Campbell, a longtime Raimi colleague, in a funny scene at a French restaurant where Campbell plays a maître d’ — the third minor role he’s essayed in the trilogy — who attempts to help Parker when he wants to propose to Mary Jane.
Of the major players, James Franco’s Harry Osborn character is the most interesting, and shows the most growth in this film (and the trilogy). Dunst’s Mary Jane, despite being in imminent danger, is no wallflower, and shows that particularly frustrating female trait of not really knowing herself, nor where she is in life. This, however, allows Maguire’s Peter Parker to display a bit more brooding side, even before he gets caught up in the symbiote. Topher Grace’s Venom is good, but only enters the picture 75% of the way in, and Grace is perhaps the only villain in the trilogy who seems to enjoy his villainy (in a larger than life comic book sense).
Church’s Sandman, by contrast, is rather stiff and unemotive, although that character’s bulk of screen time is devoted to CGI work. His origin sequence, oddly, is more moving than any acting Church does (although, technically, it is Church acting into a computer program). The moment when the Sandman tries to reconstitute himself, falls over, then reaches for a locket with his ill daughter’s photo in it, only to have his fragile sand form dissipate about it, is quite devastating.
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