“Spiderman 3”: Why Venom’s Film Debut Was A Flop?

When Sam Raimi was hired by Sony Pictures to direct the first major appearance of Spider-Man On the big screen, little did the filmmaker know that he was about to change the history of the superhero genre.

Although preceded by such popular films as “Blade” (1999) and “X-Men” (2000), Raimi’s film not only showed his mastery of his camera work – previously seen in “Evil Dead 2” – by featuring viewers faithfully the dizzying method of transportation of the arachnid hero, but also managed to encapsulate the complicated emotional life of his alter-ego Peter Parker, played by Tobey Maguire, and his internal conflict between his wishes and the responsibility imposed on him by his powers.

Almost universally adored by critics, including an unusual stamp of approval by director Martin Scorsese in 2003, the film was succeeded by “Spider-Man 2” in 2004, a sequel that built on the foundations of its predecessor to create a story. about heroism and its price. To date it is considered by some to be the best superhero movie of all time.

“The movie shows what’s wrong with the other superhero movies”Wrote prominent critic Robert Ebert. “They focus on superpowers and leave out the humans behind them”.

That is why expectations were high when the third part of the franchise was announced, even more so when it became known that this film will also recreate one of the famous Spider-Man sagas by introducing the symbiotes and the popular character Venom, in this time played by the actor Topher Grace.

But these hopes were soon destroyed. While the film was successful at the box office, raising close to US $ 895 million worldwide -the second best performance of Spider-Man to date-, for the critics and the public the reception could not be more different. If the two movies are 90% and 93% ‘fresh’ on the Rotten Tomatoes review aggregator, “Spider-Man 3” only comes in at 63%.

And while Sony was initially willing to continue the story with a fourth and fifth installment under the same director and cast, in 2010, after three years of difficult pre-production, it was announced that the studio had abandoned these plans to restart the franchise instead. with “The Amazing Spider-Man” (2012), this time directed by Marc Webb and starring Andrew Garfield. Years later, this and its sequel were replaced by the Spider-Man films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe that are now current.

While the exact circumstances that precipitated the end of Sam Raimi’s time with Spider-Man have not been disclosed to date, the filmmaker revealed in a 2013 Vulture interview that his departure from the project was “amicable and undramatic.”

As revealed, these had to do with his discontent with “Spider-Man 3” and the difficulty of closing the hypothetical tetralogy at the top. “But I couldn’t come up with the script on time, due to my own flaws, and I said to Sony, ‘I don’t want to make a movie that’s not great, so I think we shouldn’t do it. Go ahead with your reboot, which you were already planning anyway ‘“Said the director.

The question of this note is why “Spider-Man 3” failed when its predecessors did so well with the same cast and director. Although the value of a film is somewhat subjective, in the case of this film the criticism seems to focus on a few points, the main one of which is that the film has too many villains.

As Raimi has hinted, his initial intention was to focus on the classic Flint Marko / Sandman villain, this time played by actor Haden Church, but the studio asked that a redemption arc be also added for the character of Harry Osborn (James Franco) and that Venom (Grace) also be included in the story, with the intention to see if a spin-off could be done.

That Marko was originally the main villain of the film makes sense considering that it is he who has the most interesting relationship with Peter Parker in the film, where it is revealed that he was the true author of the murder of Uncle Ben, the main one. superhero motivation.

These interventions by Sony and Columbia Pictures were hinted at by Raimi himself in an interview with Empire in 2009:, revealed.

On the inclusion of Venom, the filmmaker was a little less outspoken, stating: “I don’t even want to comment on Venom, because I know he’s a great character and all the fans love him. I never want to say anything bad about a well-loved character because it usually turns out that I’m the one who doesn’t understand what makes him great.”

In an interview with Nerdist in 2014, Raimi seems to open up a bit more about his disagreement with the imposition of some characters and seems to admit that he did not give the project the deserved effort. “It’s a movie that just didn’t work out very well“, he pointed. “I tried to make it work, but I didn’t really believe in all the characters, and that can’t be hidden from the people who love Spider-Man. If the director does not love something, it is wrong for him to do it when there are so many people who love him.”

Other complaints about the film, such as its penchant for including melodramatic situations, are harder to blame on studio interference. Perhaps the best example was the symbiote-influenced version of Spider-Man, nicknamed in some corners of the internet as ‘Emo Peter Parker’ for the resemblance of his apparent preference for this move.

Despite its poor reception, the film continues to make waves 14 years after its premiere, not only for being the first appearance of the now protagonist of his own Venom franchise, played by Tom Hardy, or for the famous’ memes’ of ‘Bully Maguire ‘, showing Tobey Maguire’s version of Peter Parker intimidating different heroes and villains.

Its consequences also penetrated deeply into Raimi himself, who for years refused to make any more superhero movies. It was precisely the failure of “Spider-Man 3” that almost led to his refusing to direct the sequel to “Doctor Strange,” as he revealed to Collider in late September.

“I didn’t know if I could face it again because it was so horrible to have been the director of ‘Spider-Man 3’. The internet was already churning and people who didn’t like that movie had no qualms telling me. So it was hard to faceRaimi pointed to Collider. “But then I found out that there was a vacancy for ‘Doctor Strange 2’ (…) And I thought ‘I wonder if I can still do it’. They are very demanding, that kind of film. And I felt like ‘that was reason enough (to try)’”.

Those interested in seeing “Spider-Man 3” can find it in the HBO Max catalog, while “Venom” is available on Netflix. Its sequel, entitled “Venom: Let There Be Carnage” opens in Peru on October 7.