We've gotten a few teases, but Sony has pretty much kept footage of Venom under wraps. But today us Spider-Man fans get to finally see the villain in action, as a final trailer for Spider-Man 3 has been unveiled courtesy of Comcast. Not only do we get to see shots of Venom, we get a good peek at some scenes, including his origin and a some fight sequences between him and Spidey. I have to honestly admit that it is actually too much footage. I've been dying to see Topher Grace get covered in the gooey black costume for months, but now I feel like I've seen so much that I've lost some of my excitement about seeing the actual movie -- not that the trailer makes the movie look bad; it is just overly satisfying and doesn't leave much in the way of suspense.

The venom footage isn't even half of the excessive spoils of the trailer, either. There are plenty of plot points and visuals that may give too much away with the characters of Mary Jane and Harry/Green Goblin 2. I don't even want to go into these spoilers here, because I'd rather let you decide whether or not to watch the trailer. I'm sure a lot of you can wait two months to see Venom (and the rest.) I sure wish that I had. Right now I feel like I've seen an abridged version of the film from beginning to end. And yet, there is still no clear presentation of Bryce Dallas Howard as Gwen Stacy, which I think is kinda weird. Anyway, you should head over to Comcast's Spidey site regardless of your plans to watch the trailer because there is plenty of other goodies, like videos about the making of the film and about the history of the comic book.

I'll be the first to admit to being excited about Spider-Man 3, having been somewhat blown away by the trailers, the footage and the images released online thus far. But, there comes a point when you've seen enough -- and, with only a month and a half before the film is set to hit theaters, you'd rather keep your eyes closed and hope there's at least a few surprises that haven't been ruined yet. With that said, a new batch of Spidey 3 pics have arrived to keep the high going, just as last week's exclusive footage buzz is starting to wear off.

This time around, we're provided with a very cool pic that shows Venom choking Spider-Man from below. Though he's somewhat out of focus, you tell he means business. There's also an image of what looks to be an explosion occurring in the middle of the woods, as well as two nice shots of Gwen Stacy (Bryce Dallas Howard) looking all sexy and big-chested; unfortunately, the second shot also includes Eddie Brock (Topher Grace) kicking some weak game. Finally, we have a shot of Mary Jane (Kirsten Dunst) and Harry Osborn (James Franco) staring up at something (sinister?) heading in their direction, as Spider-Man balloons float nearby. If it were up to me, this would be the last set of images we see. While I congratulate the Spidey marketing team on practically handing us the entire film prior to its release, how about we leave the rest up to our wicked imaginations? Spider-Man 3 opens everywhere on May 4.

Yes, the title says it all -- a big batch of behind-the-scenes pics for Spider-Man 3 have surfaced over at AICN, who claim the images are from the Art of Spider-Man 3 book. Here's where you might say: "But Erik, we've seen pics, trailers and seven-minute clips -- what more can you show us that we haven't already had a taste of?" Well, would it help if I mention the name 'Venom?' The majority of the pics show us how those wizards over in the make-up department went about transforming Eddie Brock (Topher Grace) into Venom, followed by some concept art and models which show what Venom will look like once everything is complete. There's also a pretty cool Sandman panel consisting of Thomas Haden Church in several "magazine poses," as well as what appears to be some sort of model showing the Sandman transformation.

With Spider-Man 3 set to swing into U.S. theaters on May 4, Sony has bombarded us with plenty of Spidey coolness to whet our appetites. Sure, some of it has been authorized and some not, but we've seen enough to know what we're in store for. However, the same can't be said for another huge May release -- which also happens to be the third installment in a blockbuster franchise -- Pirates of the Caribbean: At Worlds End. Rumors surfaced recently that the reason why we haven't even seen a teaser yet (or a convincing set of stills) is because the pic is so far behind that its release date might need to be pushed back. It would be unheard of for Disney to push back the prime release date for, what could be, their biggest money-maker of the year -- but, that's what folks are saying. Now, before you Pirates fans begin freaking out, Cinematical spoke with a Disney rep yesterday, who said off-the-record that as far as they knew, the release date has not been moved and Pirates 3 will be released on May 25, as planned. Yet, that still doesn't answer our questions -- I mean, what gives? There's not even an official website yet?

Cinematical was invited to Sony Pictures on Saturday for a top-secret screening of several scenes from Spider-Man 3. Needless to say, they didn't have to ask me twice. I would have spent several days after I'd gotten the invitation building web-shooters if I needed to. Although Peter now uses organic webbing in the movies, so I'd have to try and genetically splice spider-DNA onto my own, which would have been too time-consuming. Thankfully, they weren't that demanding. OK, before we proceed any further, I should wave the giant spoiler alert flag. If you don't want to know anything about the plot of Spider-Man 3, then you should read no further. You especially don't want to find out from me that Aunt May is actually Galactus. Whoops. Sorry, but you've been warned. Just wait until you see a 300-foot tall May stomping on New York. It's not pretty. Although imagine the size of the cookies she could bake.

Anyhow, onto the screening and into the swanky Cary Grant theater. Sony, if you're not using that theater all the time, mind if we use it for movie watching and playing video games? OK -- here's what happened. Sam Raimi himself (dressed in his ever-present suit) came out and introduced the footage to us and called it a "super ... sneak .... preview ... scenelet." He told us the footage was brand-new, hadn't been seen outside of Sony, had a temporary score, and that some things had been shortened a bit for this preview. He then had to run off to do some audio recording with Stan Lee, who was next door, so we begrudgingly let him go. I mean, no one makes Stan "The Man" Lee wait, even if he does have yet another scene in this Spidey flick.

There's nothing like having a highly-anticipated film ruined for you long before the pic is even set to hit theaters. With that said, I must warn you that the following information contains monumental Spider-Man 3 spoilers. And when I say monumental, I'm talking about who will live, who will die -- to put it plainly -- how the film will end. If you're the type of person who doesn't want to know those things ahead of time, then by all means do not continue reading ... or click on the link that I'm about to share with you. Understand? Spoilers. Lots of them. You've been warned.

So, Brendon over at Film Ick says he's been provided with "lots of information" with regards to the super duper finale in Spider-Man 3. I won't go into too much detail here, but let's just say a major fight takes place at a construction site (I imagine because there are plenty of metal things to swing off of) and a number of different characters are involved: Spidey, Sandman, Eddie Brock as Venom, Mary Jane, Sandman's daughter and Harry Osborn. Brendon shovels out as many details as he can regarding the battle (some of it is speculation since his source only provided him with so much information), but all of it makes sense.

And, based on what goes down at that construction site, it certainly raises a lot of questions -- mainly, would a Spider-Man 4 even be worth it?

• The official blog for Hellboy: Blood and Iron has been updated with some new information about the direct-to-DVD animated flick. As always, it looks gorgeous and sounds exciting. Hellboy is such a great property that, to me, it does well in all mediums. Well, all appropriate mediums, anyway.
• Ghost Rider director Mark Steven Johnson dropped by the Superhero Hype boards to note AMC theaters will be playing a few minute "first look" at his Marvel flick with their PG-13 and R rated movies throughout December. Wonder what we'd have to do to get him commenting on one of our posts? Probably stop criticizing his film, for a start. Although in my defense, I continue to be really hopeful.
• IGN offers an interview with Frank Miller and Zach Snyder for your consideration. Naturally, it is all about 300, which we at Cinematical continue to lavish praise upon. This probably makes our scoffing at Ghost Rider seem even more mean by comparison.
• Sci Fi Wire talks to Lucy Lawless about her upcoming film The Darkroom. I'm not interested in such things, but if you are, you can check it out.
• If you missed the Spidey event of the year, a spoiler trailer was obtained displaying ... Venom. Check out our own Monika Bartyzel's coverage of the piece.