Peter Parker, with all his anxiety and naivete, wouldn’t look like much of a hero taken out of context, but his superhuman abilities, and most importantly his benevolence, are what make him one. Eddie Brock has half of those things—heightened strength and senses but not the altruism that’s necessary to go with it. He can’t do anything right and that’s completely intentional—he can’t keep his job, he can’t respect his girlfriend, and he can’t kill the Spider-Man. It’s fitting that the final foe of Raimi’s Peter Parker is essentially a high-school bully, because those bullies are the ones that Peter swore he’d be better than when he got his powers in the first place. Eddie Brock isn’t just a bad guy to beat up, he’s the bad guy that Peter has always been trying to overcome—he just didn’t know it. Their conflict is not and never was about who’s more threatening, but who is the better man. It’s true here, and it’s true with every great Spider-Man rivalry. Unfortunately, the movie isn’t four hours long and cannot reasonably develop any of these subplots the way they deserve, so they all just exist as great ideas with no room to breathe, resulting in an unrewarding finale.

The film is a mess and constantly disappointing, but Peter’s character work here is too good to ignore, his arc being more mature and just as effective as it was in the Spider-Man films that came before. If the first film is about a hero being born from a city’s collective fears and anxieties, and the second film is about Peter coming to understand what it means to be that hero, then Spider-Man 3 is about Peter forgetting what it means to be a person. The film takes place right when adulthood fully sets in for Peter—both in his job at the Daily Bugle and in his relationship with Mary Jane, who he realizes he cares about enough to marry. It’s fascinating to see how being Spider-Man for so long has made him forget that being a superhero is more than putting on a suit and fighting crime. He’s forgotten how to be vulnerable with the people he cares about, and that’s illustrated beautifully in his failing relationship with Mary Jane. A common complaint many have about the film is in its portrayal of MJ and how she’s presented with a lack of independence, relying too much on Peter for approval. I think that the series has this problem—a majority of the action set pieces begin with Mary Jane getting in imminent danger and screaming a lot before getting saved by Spider-Man. That is no different here—and happens, like, three times—but I disagree wholeheartedly that Mary Jane lacks independence. Her relationship with Peter is more serious, and while Mary Jane has trouble succeeding on Broadway, she’s searching for someone to confide in, and Peter is too busy being Spider-Man and not the person she needs. Their dynamic in Spider-Man 3 is built on their struggle to fully empathize with each other, and Peter coming to realize that he can’t be Spider-Man without friends and family that support him is an extraordinary thing to witness.