James (Schaffrillas)’s review published on Letterboxd:
Cycles between one of the most compelling, devastating portraits of a morally shaken hero ever put in a comic book movie, and some of the most batshit insane structural and narrative decisions the genre has ever seen. The resulting mixture is so tantalizing, so impossible to look away from, that it honestly confounds me whenever I try to pinpoint a legitimate critical score for it. There is simply nothing like Spider-Man 3. I go into it excited for its legendary comedic moments and find myself gripped by the relationship drama that operates on a level so foreign to the modern superhero blockbuster, because how many have the gall to intentionally depict their protagonist as this relentlessly unlikable? And when you finally feel like you have a grip on the story this film is trying to tell, it will always bombard you with some new wrinkle. A convenient bout of amnesia that lasts half the film, a sudden retcon of the protagonist's entire motivation for heroism dating back two entire films, a butler who suddenly decides it's time to reveal crucial information that would have changed the trajectory of the entire trilogy had he simply relayed it earlier.
And yet, so many baffling writing decisions are matched by some deeply bold swings that went misunderstood by audiences for far too long. There are plenty of valid reasons to find fault in this film, but Bully Maguire is not one of them. It remains what it always was; an entirely appropriate turn that suits his character and does not detract from the compelling portrait of a struggling relationship that buckles under the weight of a bloated, unchecked ego.
I could never deny that Spider-Man 3 is an absurdly flawed film, and yet, it sinks its hooks in me every time I give it a rewatch thanks in equal parts to its unrivaled chaotic energy and unexpectedly crushing human storyline at its center. It is a film that genuinely means the world to me; I will never get Peter forgiving Marko or embracing Mary Jane at the end out of my head. And even when the movie isn't good, it's incredible; there is not a single frame of this film that I do not enjoy.
