‘Spider-Man 3’ spins a fun, familiar web

If “Spider-Man 2” is a movie about growing up and accepting compromise, “3” deals directly with recognizing the dark side in everyone. Even Spidey succumbs to the aliens, replacing his red suit with a black one and turning aggressive with his dance moves in a night club. Maguire’s gentle dorkiness disappears, and the actor seems to relish the opportunity to turn himself into a raging creature neither Gwen nor Mary Jane recognize.

Occasionally the darkness gets to be too much, especially when Spider-Man rescues Gwen from a Manhattan skyscraper that’s being gouged and gutted by a swinging crane. As desks slip and slide, sheets of glass plunge to the sidewalks below, and office workers scramble to avoid falling to their deaths, it’s impossible not to think of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11.

Fortunately, Raimi is a director who can’t stay dark for long. He has a great deal of fun with Peter’s pill-popping boss, played by J.K. Simmons, and a snooty maitre d’, played by Bruce Campbell, who survived Raimi’s “Evil Dead” movies to specialize in these roles. (In the previous “Spider-Man,” he was an equally obnoxious ticket taker who prevented Peter from attending Mary Jane’s play.)

“Spider-Man 3” is not free of sequelitis, that unfortunate disease that afflicts most follow-up films and makes them seem unnecessary. But it has its charms and surprises, including a finale that really does seem to wrap up everything and leave few opportunities for a fourth installment.

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