SPIDER-MAN 3: Dark and Disturbing For Kids, Still Good Viewing For Some Adults, Overall!!!

Another movie we wanted to see on the big screen, this, for me, long-awaited Summer movie is a mixed bag.
I always love Tobey Maguire in his movies, even a low-budget film he made early in his career, REVENGE OF THE RED BARON, co-starring Mickey Rooney (!!!) has a good performance from Tobey.
Aa usual, Tobey is earnest and believable as Peter Parker, Spidey's alter-ego, Rosemary Harris is lovely and genuine as Peter's Aunt May, and Kirsten Dunst does another nice turn as Peter;s girlfriend, Mary Jane Watson.
One of the best elements of this film is from the unlikely Thomas Haden Church as "The Sandman". Now, I saw Church in SIDEWAYS, and he was great in that, as a despicable womanizer, having an affair with a lovely young woman just before his wedding to another. Knowing him from the television series WINGS, and, later, from the series NED & STACEY, I had mostly written him off as an actor with little importance. I must say, that, after some obvious training and conditioning, he made an excellent super-villain, in a characterization that seems to come right out of the original issue number four of THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN, from MARVEL COMICS, in the early 1960's.
Church is really a villain we can "love to hate", as "The Sandman", and I wonder if he will appear again as this character, in a future FANTASTIC FOUR movie, as this villain does show up in FANTASTIC FOUR comic books.
Topher Grace, late of THAT 70's SHOW, is believable as "Venom", though I don't think he is actually ever named in the movie as "Venom", I just know it because I read comic books.
I must add, as regards the "Venom", and other sections of this movie, I think it is way too rough for younger children. A family that has young children, one that my wife and I are very close to, did let their under tens see the movie, but I'd say one would have to carefully consider if this option is safe, and base the decision on the personalities of their youngsters. Our friends have kids who are used to seeing strong adventure material, but not all kids can take a movie like SPIDER-MAN 3.
The ending of the film, which, though I did like it in many ways, is a little too pat, of coure, this is to set things up for the inevitable SPIDEY 4, I'll be in line, in the hopes that they may have Spidey meet "Kraven The Hunter" or "Mysterio", but I hope that some of the excessive violence that is in this one is not in the fourth, I can accept violence in comic book derived movies, the issue that I have with it, in the context of SPIDER-MAN 3, is that there is so much marketing, tied in to the selling of it, that is aimed at kids,like McDonald's Happy Meal Toys, and action figure toys at Target Stores, which underwrote the publishing expenses of a MARVEL COMICS SPIDER-MAN 3 "prequel" that many theaters have to give to patrons, well, it just kind of catches in my throat.
I do hope that Tobey, director Sam Raimi, and all others invlved creatively, as well as Harris, Dunst, et al, will be back in SPIDEY 4, I just do not want to see some of the graphic images displayed in future sequels so aggressively targeted at children for merchandising victims.