Finally saw Spider-Man 3, which should almost definitely mark the end of the "franchise" as the film-makers insist on calling it. It cleverly refreshes the romantic troubles of Peter Parker and Mary Jane, and furnishes reasonable reasons for MJ's further imperillment, but any further films and these necessary tropes drawn from the comics are bound to look strained. There's also a lack of a distinctive central plot in this third insallment, and a sense that director Sam Raimi is scurrying to update us on the separate narrative strands; the subplot involving Thomas Haden Church as the Sandman is particularly inconclusive, although I will say that he has an excellent face for comics. Shame the Affleck-fronted Daredevil was such a turkey: the best possible way of moving the Spidey films on would have been a webhead/hornhead crossover.

A tip though: 11am on a bank holiday Monday is the best - possibly the only tolerable - time to see a movie in Leicester Square. You arrive just as the scum and detritus of Sunday night has been hosed off the all-but empty Square, and leave just as the tourist hordes descend. And the Odeon really is a great place to have a big-screen experience.