Bryce Dallas Howard: 5 Awesome Performances & 5 That Sucked

3. Spider-Man 3 (2007)

There hasn't been a single good Spider-Man film since the second one in 2004, so you know Howard is clearly not onto a good thing here. Still, her performance as the sexy lab-love interest Gwen Stacey disappoints even though there is nothing particularly awful about Howard in the role. Mary Jane (Kirsten Dunst) is an extremely irritating, helpless character who is always demanding more from her boyfriend Peter Parker/ Spider-Man (Toby Maguire). So it is surprising that with so little competition Howard doesn't really offer a strong competition. There's just not a huge amount of chemistry between Parker and Stacey; how much of that is Howard's fault is hard to say, but this can hardly be considered stellar stuff. Her performances have improved since, but at this stage in her career Howard seemed to be in danger of fading into the background; a decent actress, but not obviously marked out for great things.