2007’s Spider-Man 3 concluded Sam Raimi’s trilogy, and was the final full film to have Tobey Maguire as his Peter Parker.

It once again featured a number of returning characters, most notably Mary Jane Watson, played by Kirsten Dunst, and Harry Osborn, played by James Franco, as well as a few new foes for Spidey to confront.

Peter Parker (Maguire) is finally in a place of comfort, with the city he calls home, NYC, finally behind him and calling him a hero.

Things feel good with MJ (Dunst) too, with Peter now thinking it’s a good time to propose.

But there’s always something to screw up his plans, with the arrival of a new villain in town, Flint Marko (Thomas Haden Church) AKA Sandman, who has a history with Peter, unbeknownst to him.

There’s also a small matter of some black ooze travelling in space in a meteorite, and landing in the park, where it manages to hitch a ride home with Peter. Little does Peter know, but it’s about to get really under his skin – literally.

This final entry in Raimi’s trilogy continues the many themes, and indeed threads, set out in the previous two films. It has an almost soap operatic feel to proceedings, with the continuing angst between Peter, Harry and MJ, that also sees Harry suffer amnesia, in true soap opera style, for a period of the film.

It also sees the arrival of Venom, who would resurface 11 years later with Tom Hardy in the titular role.

It’s probably the busiest of the trilogy, with Raimi juggling a fair amount throughout, and suffers a little because of it. Sandman is one of the weakest supervilllians Spidey has to face, but at least it puts an end to a particular story arc.

And the introduction of Venom is a curiosity too; it’s quite a difficult origin story to tell, what with being some kind of symbiotic material from space, which is probably why Raimi doesn’t even bother giving it any back story whatsoever. But by ignoring it, it’s a bit of a stretch by mainstream audiences to comprehend just exactly what Venom is.

The film also has a surprisingly melancholic ending, which you wouldn’t normally attribute to this kind of feel good superhero flick. The reason may well be down to the fact that a fourth instalment was planned, that would have no doubt picked up from where this one left off, but never materialised, with Peter Parker not returning to our screens until five years later, with the reboot The Amazing Spider-Man.

This means that there is a sense of unfinished business at the end of this entry, which sadly never gets resolved.

As Raimi attempts to do so much with it, it loses its way a little, making it the weakest in the trilogy. But that said, we do get to see a darker Peter Parker, who undergoes a transformation likened to the Lynx effect, which makes for amusing entertainment.

Still credit where credit’s due, without Raimi’s trilogy, it’s unlikely Spider-Man would have gone on to become the cinematic force that he has. And what an impressive web he weaved.