Tobey Maguire on Spider-Man 3: I kind of liked it

Tobey Maguire may be his own harshest critic.

Photo: Tobey Maguire on Spider-Man 3: I kind of liked it

After Maguire got his first viewing of the latest installment of the Spider-Man series, at its worldwide premiere in Tokyo, the 31-year-old actor/tormented superhero had this to say:

"I don't know, I kind of liked it."

Maguire, in Tokyo with co-star Kirsten Dunst and director Sam Raimi, got his first look at the final cut of the blockbuster Monday after taking to the red carpet for a gala opening ahead of the movie's release to general audiences around the world early next month.

"I feel like we really got into some new territory for Peter Parker," Maguire told a news conference Tuesday. "I really enjoyed it."

In this latest film, Maguire's Peter Parker is juggling his photography job, schoolwork, love life and superherodom. Then he gains fresh powers when his blue-and-red Spidey costume turns black and his dark side asserts itself, leaving him tangled in an inner struggle just as two new villains, Sandman (Thomas Haden Church) and Venom (Topher Grace), turn up.

Parker also has the enmity of his former best friend, Harry Osborn (James Franco), to deal with.

In the first Spider-Man, Parker was to blame for the death of his friend's father, who also happened to be the Green Goblin, an evil genius.

Dunst, who had just turned 17 when the first Spider-Man began filming - it was released in 2002, followed by a sequel in 2005 - was more enthusiastic about Spidey the third.

"We've all grown up together. I'm so proud of everyone," she said. "It's so hard to be good in these movies, but I think everyone did phenomenal."

Both have been coy about whether Spider-Man will return yet again.

"I feel like this film is kind of a natural conclusion to a lot of stuff that's happened in the first two movies," Maguire said before arriving here. "It kind of feels like a natural trilogy," he said.

He added that he's open to donning the Spider-Man suit again "if a story presents itself, if we come up with something we feel deserves to be told."

"I'm not going to make them just because they've been successful," Maguire said.

Dunst on Tuesday caught herself calling Spider-Man 3 "the last" Spider-Man, but quickly corrected herself to say that it was the "third."

The movie, from Sony Pictures Entertainment and Columbia Pictures, opens to general audiences May 1 in Japan and May 4 globally.