Spider-Man 3 'didn't work' says director Sam Raimi

Sam Raimi has admitted he “messed up plenty” on Spider-Man 3, Tobey Maguire’s final turn as the masked superhero which failed to gain traction with critics in 2007.

Raimi, who has previously blamed studio Sony for the disappointing end to his reign as Spider-Man director, told the Nerdist podcast he “didn’t believe in all the characters” on the third instalment, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

“Each and every one of those Spider-Man movies were pretty damn challenging,” said the film-maker of this three-movie stint. “I messed up plenty with the third Spider-Man, so people hated me for years – they still hate me for it. It’s a movie that just didn’t work very well.” He also said there was too much focus on topping the previous two films, which was “not good for us”.

Spider-Man 3 was considered a major let-down by critics, thanks to a convoluted storyline featuring multiple villains and the ill-judged decision to temporarily retool Maguire as a moody, swaggering “emo” Peter Parker. But Raimi told Empire magazine in 2009 that he “didn’t really have creative control” over the film.

View image in fullscreen

“The best way for me to move forward on films, I realise … and this was a lesson I had to learn for myself … is that I’ve gotta be the singular voice that makes the creative choices on the film,” he said. “I love Spider-Man so much that I’d like to continue telling Spider-Man stories, but only under those circumstances where I think I can honour him. I don’t think I can honour him any other way.”

Sony ultimately decided to reboot the comic saga four years ago with (500) Days of Summer director Marc Webb in charge of the cameras and Britain’s Andrew Garfield as Spider-Man, despite the $890m financial success of Spider-Man 3. But the new iteration has also now hit difficulties, with rumours suggesting the studio may introduce its third masked wallcrawler in under a decade after this year’s The Amazing Spider-Man 2 received lukewarm reviews and failed to carry all before it at the box office.