I read GS's review, and decided to rent it just to find out how bad it really was. I came out pleasantly surprised.
I looked for everything that GS complained about, and could only find one thing wrong - The Kingpin boss battle. I never found anything as ridiculously boring as this boss battle. It is, as they described, a dodge-then-hit 10 minute slog. Thankfully I never have to do it again.
While playing through S3, I looked for the framerate problem. I could not find it. I climbed the empire state building, looking around all the while for a framerate problem. Could not find one, at all. I went to times square at night just to see if the lighting caused a hitch. Nothing. Nothing wrong either in the indoor levels.
The combat, while you CAN button mash your way through, is quite satisfying if you want to do all these cool spidey-typical moves (which I did).
One other thing that was embarassing about S3 was the voice acting. It was so lame I could not help but laugh. His jokes still suck as well.
I have to say as well, the graphics have improved significantly from Spiderman 2's (which is exactly what you should expect). It was a great relief to find Spidey's movements extremely fluid, and the civilians weren't so excruciating to look at anymore.
Overall my money was well spent providing an entertaining superhero flick fit to occupy me for a long time.