First 'Spiderman 3' Review!

None of this, though, could spoil a film that amounts to a daft, highly polished couple of hours of fantasy fun. There is not enough of the super-villains and they are not nearly twisted enough. But then there never is and they never are.

 
There are digital effects galore to remind us that Sony is a high-tech company, particularly when a new super-villain, the Sandman, is transformed into a living sandstorm and pulverises bits of Manhattan.

 
And for reminders that Japan, the home of manga comics, is an increasingly powerful influence on Hollywood directors there is an unmistakable homage to the anime classic Akira.

 
Perhaps, more subtly, there are ample goodies aimed head-on at the female Japanese film-goer, the most important demographic in what has become the world’s second biggest box office. The hunk count is disproportionately high, the babe count oddly low.

 
At one point Tobey Maguire, who plays Peter Parker/Spider-Man, Thomas Haden Church, James Franco and Topher Grace square off in a four-way clash clearly designed to satisfy all tastes in hairstyle, physical build and jaw-line. The imperilled Kirsten Dunst, meanwhile, barely registers.