A fresh crop of faces including a new director was the way to go.

Expect more turd to pile up.

Maybe it was the stars and director being bored with the material by the third round… or the studio mandated inclusion of Venom (a worthless and dull character that’s nothing more than an immature fanboy’s dream: Spidey with bigger muscles and fangs – yay!)…. Or the fact that structurally the third film tried to hard to duplicate the structure of the first (which the second film was guilty of as well but handled far better)…. Or the fact that there was some terrible retcon that needlessly and horribly altered the origin of the character in a way that completely robbed him of his identity…. Or even the obvious drop in quality of how the action scenes are realized (ever notice how the cran scene just…ends?).

To me, a big part of the problem was the supreme love-of-his-life focus Raimi put on Mary Jane in the first film — that film ends with both characters knowing they absolutely and without question love the other and you can’t indefinitely sustain a romance like because the conflict you create to keep them apart inevitably begins to feel forced. And there’s nothing more forced in Spider-Man 3 than all the MJ drama.

Regardless of the reason, the movie was a terrible way to end the series. I’m a believer that Spider-Man is not a role easily recast at this point without a ground-up reboot which could only be accomplished after enough time has passed that audience’s have officially closed the book on the Raimi/Maguire films. So, rather than wait and possibly miss the window on what’s left of the superhero craze, it looks like Raimi has convinced at least his main star to come back for a proper sendoff.

Now if he can come up with a solid story, a decent villain and popcorn action scenes that dazzle once more, maybe we can all forget about that little dark detour the franchise took.

Dunst is getting too much flak for MJ. She was ok in the role and it was just the writing that made her look so bad, but I’d be all for having Peter’s love interest be someone else.

I wanna have the next villian kill both MJ and Gwen

I think we can all agree that the Lizard most definitely offers a good physical fight. It would be nice to see Spidey fight a villain he’s scared to death of (Venom should’ve been that villain but anyway…). Problem is the Lizard has zero personality. Is Connors/Lizard strong enough to stand as the single main villain?

I don’t see a possible Kraven’s Last Hunt type storyline with Lizard replacing Vermin mainly because that was a Kraven story. The 4th movie should focus mainly on the Lizard. Not to mention a dude in a furry leopart print jacket and loincloth would look absolutely ridiculous on screen.

I guess you could have sort of a Lizard bounty which brings out different villains/factions wanting to capture it or kill it. Electro, Shocker, Sin-Eater? could be guys going after the prize. Although I think Electro should be the big villain in the 5th movie.

I hope we never see the Vulture in a movie, I’ve always found him to be one of the lamer villains, a geriatric flying around in a cancer causing flight harness (and yet he’s still not dead).

No to Carnage, he’s not dark…just stupid. Carnage barely registers as a one dimensional character.

About Brant again…Elizabeth Banks…oh yeah…

Spidey 3 was a disappointment considering how universally well received the first two were but it was by no means horrible. Venom was handled badly and MJ & Pete had some crappy character moments but Harry’s GG arc was handled well and the action was good overall. This movie made a crapload of money so I don’t think it killed the franchise at all. Was there ever a fear of a reboot? Obviously not and it’s no surprise there will be more Spidey movies.

I don’t get the Dunst bashing either, I never had a problem with her. If anything it’s probably the writers who didn’t quite have a handle on MJ’s character. You can’t kill MJ but I think it’s ok to shuffle her off temporarily (they’ve done that in the current comics anyway).

Personally, I’d like to see more of the Bugle staff involved, particular Robbie and Betty. Having MJ move away would allow for a possible Peter, Betty, Gwen triangle…(toss in Ned Leeds to make a square??). I’d say have a bit less May and more Robbie as he’s always been somewhat of a surrogate father figure for Peter. Let’s see Pete be a photographer trying to help a Bugle journalist break a story.

More in my next post…