/> Starring Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst, James Franco
Directed by Sam Rami
Rating: ***

Chalk up an outright winner for this cosmic comic-book look at the way we look at a world of moral anarchy.

Yup, the plot hangs loose. But the characters, all familiar to those who have been following this kinetic series, hang together in one electrifying line of vibrant vision.

And yes, in the Hindi version, Peter Parker's editor-boss (J.K Simmons) is turned into a boorish Punjabi. And the French restaurateur when Parker wants to propose to his beloved transforms, into a Bengali waiter in the Hindi version.

But you know what? These appalling aberrations cannot hold back the unbridled energy, the swirling synthesis of spectacle and drama, and the gliding force behind the powers that activate such wondrous battles between Good and Evil...

Interestingly Good and Evil are often contained within the same characters. Spiderman gets into a black suit, acquires a randy swagger and becomes naughty in the second –half. Cute but representative of man and the moral choices he must exercize.

And Spiderman's fascinating buddy Harry Osborn (James Franco) is no walk-over either. He goes from vengeful flying demon to lobotomized lamb, and then again to a hefty heaving harridan before coming to a positive and noble end....Yes, this segment of the spidery web delivers a vital punch, giving us heartstopping moments and interludes of undeniable vitality.

Watch out for the Big Fights. The first major outburst happens when Parker battles Osborn for Mary Jane's wedding ring. The sundtrack shrieks and the visuals soar and roar like winged lions.

The technical team is wedded to the optical fireworks with no room for pauses and breathing spaces.

The drama of Good and Evil is by its very definition larger-than-life. In Spiderman 3, director Sam Raimi aims for sizer several times larger than life. The streets of New York are filled with over-sized goblins and gigantic comic-bok villains who seem to pay a tribute to all our favourite comic -book characters from Superman to King Kong.

The Sandman (Thomas Haden Church) is a specially appended acme of action. A bulky tribute to the spirit of brute force the Sandman romps through the streets of New York over-turning cars and morality with democratic velocity.

Ironically it's poor Spidey who for a while, gets confounded about the Good and the Bad. By the time he finds his level, so does the plot.

Bulging with enormous swings and strides, Spiderman is both endearing and exasperating. ...endearing for its devious blend of bustle and burlesque....and exasperating, because at the end of the long eloborate homage to computer-induced hi-jinks you know you were being taken for a ride.

But what a rolicking ride, made smooth and sinuous by the cool and confident actors who suspend our disbelief by pulling out all stops that segregate the world of the imagination from the realm of the everyday and the mundane.

This film, epic in every proportion, sweeps us into a domain of the devastatingly dishy.