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Don't Worry, Sam Raimi Also Thought 'Spider-Man 3' Was Terrible

by Ethan Anderton
December 31, 2014
Source: Nerdist

If you're one of those people who hated Spider-Man 3 and have been patiently waiting for director Sam Raimi to admit that the final chapter of his webslinging trilogy is terrible, then we have good news. Raimi was speaking with Nerdist (via Pajiba) on their podcast, and when the host said "I don’t think that ‘bad’ is the right word,” Raimi quickly countered with "Awful!" But thankfully, he actually went into further detail about what didn't work with the third film. Unfortunately, he doesn't specifically mention the absolutely ridiculous jazz montage and club sequence, but he recognizes the biggest problems in the movie. Read on!

Here's what Raimi had to say about Spider-Man 3:

"I tried to make it work, but I didn’t really believe in all the characters. So that couldn’t be hidden from people who loved Spider-Man. If the director doesn’t love something, it’s wrong of them to make it when so many other people love it. I think [raising the stakes] was the thinking going into it, and I think that's what doomed us. I should've just stuck with the characters and the relationships and progressed them to the next step and not tried to top the bar. I think that was my mistake."

It's always nice to hear a director recognize when something didn't work. We've long known that Raimi wasn't a fan of using Venom, but the studio basically forced him to use the character, because they knew that's what fans really wanted. Unfortunately, what they get is a lame, rushed version of the iconic comic book villain, and it just ruins its effect in the movie. What's really a bummer is that Topher Grace was a pretty decent casting choice to counter Tobey Maguire's Spider-Man, but the character was just done so poorly that it didn't matter. Anyway, Raimi's Spider-Man franchise has fared better than the reboot franchise, so that's good. But will Sony Pictures force Venom into The Amazing Spider-Man 3? We'll see.

Find more posts: Marvel, Movie News

16 Comments

When I see Topher Grace, all I think is "There's Topher Grace. Why is Topher Grace in this movie?" "He has a wonky eye. I can't stand it."

redtie on Dec 31, 2014

"Spider-Man 3" would have been a completely different movie if Venom had not been in it. The symbiote would not have been needed and Peter Parker would not have become an evil version of himself. Eddie Brock also would not have even been included as a character. The story would have been more focused on the relationship between the two characters which is what was always important in "Spider-Man" and "Spider-Man 2".

JLC31383 on Dec 31, 2014

Spider-Man 2 was too focused on relationships between characters, that's what made it a little exhausting.

Tuomas Lassila on Jan 1, 2015

I never had a problem with "Spider-Man 3"- but I have just tried to figure out ways it could have been different after hearing other people complaining about it. I am now just trying to point out that most of the plot had to be changed in order to include Venom. His origin story always involves Peter Parker being the host for the symbiote first- and then it picks Eddie Brock later. It would have required two films to use Venom in order for him to be done properly.

JLC31383 on Jan 1, 2015

So Anderton, instead of writing an article for example about the first promotional banner for Ant-Man which gives us the first official look at the films villain Yellowjacket, or about the new promotional artwork for Avengers: Age Of Ultron and character bios for Vision and Ultron which reveal a lot of super interesting information about the two characters, you're more interested to thrashtalk one of the most underrated superhero movies ever all over again? Slightly dissapointing.

Tuomas Lassila on Jan 1, 2015

Is Raimi still using that lousy VFX Supervisor, Scott Stokdyk, that no artist respects? And is he using Chris Batty and Jeff Lynch who have zero originality? No wonder his movies have been sucking of late.

Solder On! on Jan 1, 2015

The Nerdist is a great podcast.

SkyNet300 on Jan 1, 2015

And yes Spider-Man 3 was awful garbage.....but then again I didn't like the other two either lol. Power Ranger movies to me

SkyNet300 on Jan 1, 2015

I just listened to this, and yeah, I was chuckling at how some news sites were going to twist up what Raimi said. I mean sure he did infer that the films were probably not good, but at least they allowed him to do what he wants now.

DAVIDPD on Jan 1, 2015

Based on the awful remake/reboot movies, I would say the studio morons should have kept their noses out of Spiderman 3. Even the least creative bean counter in the studio must have realized that Raimi obviously gave them box office gold when they let him do it his way. You wanna look at how brilliant these studio execs were? Just take a quick look at what similar franchises - Avengers and X Men - have managed to do in the same time period where Spiderman gave us the same origin story in 2 out of 4 movies! Creativity fail!

bumboclot on Jan 1, 2015

The only reason he's "admitting it" is because he finally wants all of the neckbeards to quit bothering him about it.

txJM on Jan 1, 2015

Raimi was the first director in a long time that loved and respected the source material and it showed. Kevin Feige at the time was assistant to Avi Arad. Feige is now the Showrunner aka director of all Marvel films. Raimi became very successful, but he wasn't able to maintain it as evidenced by Spider-Man 3. He's got a limited bag of tricks. His films are quite sappy and dull stitched by the same zany gags that run through all his films. Now he's pretty much shut out of super hero films.

Jabba on Jan 2, 2015

Wait I'm the only one who liked it?

OfficialJab on Jan 2, 2015

I think Raimi is trying to say he couldnt do what he wanted, he was forced by sony producers to include and exclude what the wanted, he did not like the plot but he had to accept.

X-Instituto on Mar 30, 2015

By the way, Raimi's Spiderman 2? Is not even touchable by Guardians of the Galaxy and Guardians/Winter Soldier are 2 of Marvels finest.

ragethorn on Jan 2, 2015

It was much better then the the amazing spiderman 2, now that sucked really bad. I think that raimi should continue on the franchise and so erasing all of the mistakes about those reboots. Also to forget about the thing that happened in spiderman 3, which I think it was not so a bad movie. Except that Peter turning evil, that was the worst part.

JUAN B DEHAES GARCIA on Jan 5, 2015

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