By Rob. Walton

Spider-Man gets in touch with his dark side. Early in part three of writer-director Sam Raimi's exceptional superhero series, a viscid intergalactic gel bonds to hapless photographer Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire), a.k.a. Spider-Man. The tarry symbiote, we learn, amplifies the characteristics of its host, which, in Peter's case, turns out to be his latent aggression. With his on-again/off-again girlfriend Mary Jane (Kirsten Dunst) pulling away, rival shutterbug Eddie Brock (Topher Grace) jockeying for his job and his childhood friend Harry (James Franco), a.k.a. the New Goblin, hell-bent on killing him, it's only a matter of time before Spidey dons a black suit and -- to the delight of The Daily Bugle's scandalmongering editor J. Jonah Jameson (J.K. Simmons) -- uses some of his powers for self-promotion.

Spider-Man's primary nemesis this go-round is Sandman (Wings' Thomas Haden Church), an escaped convict who transforms himself into a hulking, menacing figure of sand to rob the banks of New York City. When Peter learns that Sandman was involved in his Uncle Ben's murder, he makes the battle personal, ignoring Aunt Sally's warning that "revenge is a poison." Spider-Man learns that lesson, literally, after Eddie gets his hands on Peter's space goo and transforms into toxic foe Venom.

If 2002's Spider-Man was the superhero's clunky puberty and the 2004 sequel was his struggling manhood, then Spider-Man 3 is his mid-life crisis. Decidedly darker than its two predecessors, it writhes in conflicting matters of guilt, betrayal, ego. To lighten things up, the movie goes almost overboard with its humorous interludes, giving it a crazy, bi-polar feel. At the height of his hubris, Peter struts down a Brooklyn street à la Tony Manero in Saturday Night Fever, winking and firing air-pistols at the foxy ladies. Later, Peter ends up at the jazz club where Mary Jane works with trophy date Gwen Stacy (Bryce Taylor Howard) on his arm and does an acrobatic Bob Fosse dance number to steal the spotlight from his ex and rub his new girlfriend in her face. As out of place as some of it may seem, it's still fun. It may be manic, but Spider-Man 3 ultimately works as a dramatic thrill ride.