Sam Raimi's approach has been admirable. The director's continued attention to character-driven storylines not only increased the dramatic weight of the Spider-Man movies, but also increased the point and purpose of the pivotal action scenes that were so brilliantly realised.

While Spider-Man was a solid start, the first sequel instantly became one of the finest superhero movies yet made. Perhaps it was the success of Spidey's second outing that has heaped the pressure on the third. With expectations being so high, the fans are hoping Raimi has a few tricks up his sleeve in the purported final instalment.

We catch up with Peter Parker (Maguire) soon after we left him in a web with Mary-Jane (Dunst), and life appears to be good. Spidey is immensely popular, MJ has a starring role in a Broadway play and Peter is making ends meet selling his Spidey pics to the Daily Bugle.

Harry Osborn (James Franco), meanwhile, is still fuming about Spider-Man’s role in his father's death, and revenge is his only desire...

That, combined with the introduction of what appears to be two new bad guys (including Thomas Haden Church as a mournful-looking Flint Marko aka Sandman), sets up the second, and wonderfully unpredictable, act.

Rather than simply have Spidey battling the obvious enemies, Raimi has once again focused on Pete's personal struggles.

His relationship with MJ becomes fractured, a new connection to Harry leaves him on edge, and pressure from a work rival mean life for Peter Parker is anything but easy. Thus, the black oil, when it finally gets a hold of Parker, appears to him to be just the drug he needs.

The black suit is little more than a cocaine allegory, with almost too many - admittedly well handled - set pieces hammering the point home. Parker, although he becomes a bit of an ass, is far from nasty in the way, maybe, Superman became in Superman III. However, it's when the oil finds a new host that the film finds it's feet – and the best enemy so far conceived.

Yet, despite Venom being one of the most interesting, complex and quite frankly frightening enemies this Spider-Man has faced, the search for a child-friendly rating has left this sharp-toothed psychotic, well, toothless.

In fact, Venom doesn't actually hurt a soul for the majority of the movie (which is simply too long). Not to sustain interest – but because the need to fit the Sandman into the equation detracts from what could have been the ultimate good guy-bad guy face-off.

The 'too many bad guys' rule that Batman Returns et al proved has been ignored here, perhaps relying on the final act in which Raimi gives things a neat twist to mix the fighting up.

It seems that, had the Sandman and his backstory been reserved for a separate Spidey outing, and Venom allowed to eat brains as he did in the comic book, Spider-Man 3 would scale the heights of its predecessor.

A half decent Spider-Man movie, however, is worth ten X-Men 3s, and the action here is second to none. The effects are astounding, and the sequences, from the Peter Parker street-walk motifs to the fights themselves, are superbly and expertly realised.

Raimi's comedic touch raises plenty of laughs between the tense and occasionally dark peaks of interest, most notably Bruce Campbell's inevitable cameo, and a scene involving Parker, a telephone call and a plate of homemade cookies.

Save for some seriously ill-judged cutaways in the big finish – the shockingly awful news reporters all but undid three films' worth of work, as did Raimi's own children with their brief, yet pointless, cameos – Raimi is on top of his game with a nigh-on 3 hour Spider-fest.

It's just a shame he didn't trim it down to a two hour masterpiece.

Rich Phippen