Spider-Man 3

The dark side of Peter Parker is revealed in Spider-Man 3.
Beginning with a clever opening credits recap of the story so far, the film picks up with Peter (Tobey Maguire) and Mary Jane (Kirsten Dunst)where we left off a few years back. Only unbeknownst to them a meteor has crashed nearby unleashing an alien being onto the planet and the back of Peter's scooter.
Elsewhere, Harry (an excellent James Franco) plots his revenge against Peter and we meet Flint Marko (Thomas Haden Church) who is transformed into the Sandman.
There's a lot going on in Spider-Man 3. The action really takes off when the alien being attaches itself to the spider suit, turning it black and unleashing the dark side of Peter Parker.
As his college professor points out, the black stuff enhances the personality of its host and there are some very funny scenes of Peter and his new found confidence, particularly with the ladies. What we also see is a need for revenge against Marko, who it turns out was the man who killed Ben Parker in the first movie (though we didn't see him).
We meet two new characters in Eddie Brock (a fantastic Topher Grace), a hotshot photographer who is Peter's competition for a staff job at the bugle and Gwen Stacy (Bryce Dallas Howard) who is Mary Jane's competition for Peter's affections.
When the alien, known as Venom, attaches itself to someone seeking vengeance we really have an awesome bad guy.
Like I said, there's a lot going on here. It could have been half an hour longer no problems and hopefully there is a director's cut for DVD.
My problem in rating this is that it was better than Spider-Man 2 (which I gave 9/10) but it's not the best movie I've seen this year.
I still have to give it 9 out of 10. It was entertaining, extremely well made and tailor made for fans, like myself. If you like the first two this doesn't disappoint. Let's just see if they leave it at three. One thinks they might not - if they have to go to four, we need the primary cast and crew back or we don't need another.