Spidey strikes again!

I did intend to post yesterday, but I made it home from "Spider-man 3" - screening at the IMAX Theatre at Darling Harbour - with only minutes to spare to change my shirt and go off to a work colleague's 40th birthday party.

If you liked "Spider-man" and "Spider-man 2", then there's plenty to enjoy about "Spider-man 3". I had a few reservations about seeing it in the IMAX format, because the trailer (a few weeks ago when I saw "300") was so busy, but we had excellent seats, right in the middle of the cinema, and the experience was quite impressive.

Topher Grace (of "That 70s Show") is a long-time TV favourite and I was intrigued how he'd go playing the bad guy (Venom) for a change. Thomas Haden Church (whom I knew from "George of the Jungle" and TV's "Ned and Stacey") was also fun to watch as Sandman, and the enigmatic Bryce Dallas Howard, as Gwen Stacy, was also an asset to this instalment.

I worried that a superhero movie with three villains was going to go the same way as the over-burdened "Batman and Robin" (with Batgirl!), where Mr Freeze, Poison Ivy and Bane fought each other relentlessly for screen time. But "Spider-man 3" seems to work well, and Venom, Sandman and the hand-me-down Green Goblin each contributed meaningful scenes to the whole, emulating those fast team-up partnerships that happen all the time in Marvel Comics.

You do perhaps need to leave your brain at the door for "Spider-man 3", and ignore the wacky coincidence of Peter Parker (as Spidey) rescuing his science lab partner from a modelling assignment in a skyscraper, at which her boyfriend, and Peter's rival, stands watching her fall while photographing her for the newspaper, while standing alongside her policeman father.

See, if I hadn't added that paragraph, you'd have believed me that this was a good movie. Go find out for yourself.