Spider-Man 3 is often lambasted as one of the worst Spider-Man movies of the Sam Raimi trilogy partly due to the rushed inclusion of Venom. It turns out Raimi himself still doesn't understand Venom and has never seen Tom Hardy's version of the anti-hero.
In an interview with Uproxx, Raimi lamented that he didn't really get Venom and found the character quite difficult:
"It was really more just that I didn’t understand the character that well. It wasn’t close to my heart. The best thing I like about Stan Lee and Steve Ditko’s Spider-Man is that they made relatable characters that I understand. Even if they were confused, like Norman Osborn, they still have goodness in their heart. They want them to do the right thing, or Peter Parker. Or even J. Jonah Jameson has goodness in his heart. When I read about Venom, which I hadn’t read as a kid, I had to catch up on it when they wanted him to be in the movie. I didn’t recognize enough humanity within that character to be able to identify with him properly. That’s really what it boils down to."
Raimi famously didn't want to include Venom in Spider-Man 3, but caved due to pressure from then-Marvel Studios President Avi Arad. Speaking with Collider in 2007:
"But when we were done [writing the script], Avi Arad, my partner and the former president of Marvel at the time, said to me, Sam, you're so, you're not paying attention to the fans enough. You need to think about them. You've made two movies now with your favorite villains, and now you're about to make another one with your favorite villains. The fans love Venom, he is the fan favorite. All Spider-Man readers love Venom, and even though you came from '70s Spiderman, this is what the kids are thinking about. Please incorporate Venom, listen to the fans now. And so that's really where I, I realized okay, maybe I don't have the whole Spider-Man universe in my head, I need to learn a little bit more about Spider-Man and maybe incorporate this villain to make some of the real diehard fans of Spider-Man finally happy."
Unfortunately, despite Raimi's efforts to include Venom in the movie, critics and fans decried the lack of character development that was afforded Sandman and Harry Osbourne's Green Goblin.
Since then, Tom Hardy's portrayal of the famous symbiote in both Venom and Venom: Let There Be Carnage has brought a bit of redemption to the character (as far as the box office is concerned). In the same interview, Raimi said he had not yet seen Tom Hardy's Venom movies, which have found success as a kind of screwball comedy featuring Eddie Brock and The Symbiote.
"That makes sense. I’m glad they were able to make a success out of that," Raimi responded after the premise was described to him.
After being away from superhero movies, Raimi is continuing the multiverse shinanigans with Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. This sequel to Strange's previous solo film has the former Sorceror Supreme face off against Karl Mordo and Scarlet Witch.
Catch up on Doctor Strange's story here and read about how Rick & Morty "trained" one Multiverse of Madness writer.
David Matthews is a freelance writer at IGN.
No comments:
Post a Comment