Curious timing considering leaked email conversations between Sam Raimi and Sony brass about the new “Amazing Spider-Man” films— no, he’s not taking over or returning to the franchise, but they were picking his brain and asking for advice on what to do with the troubled series. However, Raimi was recently asked about his own bungled “Spider-Man 3,” the critically reviled entry in the series that was criticized for featuring too many villains.
“It’s a movie that just didn’t work very well,” he admitted to Nerdist (via Pajiba). "I messed up with that third Spider-Man. People hated me for years. They still hate me for it."
“I tried to make it work, but I didn’t really believe in all the characters," he continued, "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."
Raimi’s comments echo sentiments he said before about not believing in the villain of Venom and suggesting that character was foisted on him and the screenplay by the studio—it’s really no wonder he bailed on “Spider-Man 4” when Sony kept tweaking the screenplay. The podcast host says, “I don’t think that ‘bad’ is the right word,” to describe “Spider-Man 3” and Raimi counters with “Awful!” OK, now we know how he really feels, and/or he’s being as modest and humble as possible.
Raimi evidently wasn’t a huge fan of “Oz The Great And Powerful” either. When the podcast host tries to compliment him on the movie, he mumbled dismissively, "I did the best I could." Makes sense that he won’t direct the sequel then. Considering we totally agree with his thoughts on his own film, we appreciate the candor. What do you think?