"Spider-Man 3" begins with Spider-Man, a.k.a. Peter Parker, surveying the crime-free paradise he has created in the big city. Not only do criminals fear him, but the public finally sees him as the hero he wants to be. To top it all off, Peter is about to propose to the girl of his dreams, Mary Jane Watson, aka M.J.

There's trouble in paradise, however. Peter is getting a big head from all the public adulation, and he is not able to properly comfort M.J. when she gets a bad review after her opening night on Broadway. Meanwhile, a new, cocky photographer, Eddie Brock, challenges Peter for a full-time job with the Daily Bugle. The cost of getting the job is to give crusty editor J. Jonah Jameson a negative photo of Spider-Man doing something bad!

Then, when Peter's relationship with M.J. starts to turn more and more sour, a new villain shows up, an escaped criminal named Flint Marko who gets caught in a particle physics experiment gone wrong to become the Sandman. The Sandman is a really cool-looking character who can change his shape into a battering ram or shifting sand particles, or float away as a sand storm.

(Column continues below)

As if Peter Parker and Spider-Man didn't have enough problems, Peter's old friend Harry takes up the Green Goblin mantle to get revenge for the death of his father, the first Green Goblin, who was killed during a fight with Spider-Man. And a meteor from outer space unleashes an intelligent alien monster of malevolent, black sticky goo that attaches itself to one of Peter's Spider-Man outfits. When Peter learns that the Sandman, Flint Marko, is really the one who killed Peter's beloved Uncle Ben in the first movie, the new black suit unleashes all of Peter's anger and hate. Thus, the greatest villain of all turns out to be Peter's, and our, own dark, sinful hearts.

The story builds from here into a thrilling finale where Peter learns the true meaning of love and the power of forgiveness. In the end, he finds a way to make things right again, but with a newfound level of maturity.

It's hard to juggle more than one major villain in a story, and this may be where "Spider-Man 3" suffers most. It gives the movie one or two too many sub-plots to handle. That said, of all the action movies with more than one major villain (see "Batman 2" and "3," for example), "Spider-Man 3" does the best, because it knows where it's headed and what it wants to say.

Thus, the final third of "Spider-Man 3" contains overt Christian references to Jesus Christ on the Cross, a Christian church and answered prayers. These combine to reinforce the movie's Christian themes of love, sacrifice, forgiveness, hope, compassion and faith. Consequently, despite a couple scary villains that are a little too much for younger children, "Spider-Man 3" has a very strong Christian worldview with very strong moral, biblical values. If Christians and families see only one action movie this year, "Spider-Man 3" is the one action movie they and other moviegoers may not want to miss.

Best of all, not only does "Spider-Man 3" extol Christian values like sacrifice, forgiveness and love in a setting that resonates with overt Christian metaphors and symbols, it also is a cinematic embodiment of Jesus Christ's statement in John 15:13, "Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends." This is a lesson that both Peter and M.J. learn in "Spider-Man 3." It is also what Jesus does for us on the Cross, so that His death may wash us free of sin and bring us closer to Him and His precious love and joy in the Kingdom of God and Heaven.

Special offer:

Order Ted Baehr's "MOVIEGUIDE?: The Family Guide to Movies & Entertainment" at WND's online store.

MOVIEGUIDE? is dedicated to redeeming the values of Hollywood by informing parents about today's movies and entertainment and by showing media executives and artists that family-friendly and even Christian-friendly movies do best at the box office year in and year out.