It was always going to be difficult to live up to the hype spun by the first two outings of your friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man. But Director Sam Raimi puts forward a bold effort, and it's absolutely brimming with plot.

First off there's baddy one, the Sandman, a surprisingly subdued Thomas Haden Church whose molecular structure gets sort of, er, well he's made out of sand basically.

Then there's baddy two, the new Goblin who emerged at the end of the last film. James Franco's brow furrows away as he harbours a mega grudge against his best mate, who he knows is a) Spider-Man, and b) responsible for his father's death. Not a healthy grudge that one.

And then there's baddy three, a black alien parasite that makes Spidey turn to his dark-side and later spawns Venom (fan-boys/girls were excited about that character coming into celluloid light.)

So three baddies, plus Spidey's battle with his own ego, plus difficulties with girlfriend MJ, and it all could equal busy mess. We saw it with X-Men 3, when the deluge of new characters meant nobody had time to really develop. So here's where it's hats off to Raimi, because not only does he give all baddies chance to hog the limelight and have their own background, and fit in various relationship woes, AND fit in Peter Parker's decline to meanness, he also manages to find the time for an extra long and hilarious Bruce Campbell cameo (from Raimi's cult Evil Dead series). At 140 minutes it's certainly impressive that there's never a real sense of urgency.

The action sequences are once again astounding. Spidey falls in slow-mo, gets thrown through buildings, and punched out of moving vehicles. The effects on Sandman are flabbergasting, Spidey literally kicking his legs from under him at times. There are definitely wow-moments, but there're genuinely funny moments too. And then there are some that teeter on the brink of silly (a peculiar dance number).

It's brave of Raimi to try something so obscure, and amusing to watch Peter Parker's bad side, complete with evil hair-do. But the silliness stretched a little too long at times, making enjoyment turn into bafflement. There's also a healthy spread of fight scenes, but not one that really shines out as being new and never-been-done.

Spider-Man 3 is a solid, exciting and smart start to the summer blockbuster season, but with a little too much of the silly, and a lacking of real wow-factor in the finale, it fails to exceed its predecessors.