'Spidey 4' No More

I'm assuming you may not have heard the news yet but here it is: Sam Raimi and Tobey Maguire are no longer associated with the next Spider-Man movie. Details at the link:

http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=24380

I'm not comfortable with this move.

Despite people's concerns and comments on the first two Spider-Man films, they were generally well received and made a boatload of cash. The third movie was less well received. Interviews seem to point the blame at Sony for that drop off. From what Raimi has said, his plan was for Spidey 3 to have Sandman and Vulture in the film. Replacing Vulture with Venom was the studio's idea as 'everyone' wants to see Venom. In interviews from the time of the original movie, Sam paints a picture of himself as a big Spidey fan as a kid. His connection with the character seems to go up to 1980 or so. Venom doesn't appear until the very late 1980s. It makes sense then that he would gravitate to villains he is familiar with from his youth. While the overall Venom storyarc is similar to the comics, the details are weird and the storyarc doesn't feel part of the rest of the movie. They don't click together well.

Reportedly Sam wanted to use his Vulture ideas in the fourth movie and Sony wanted any villain except Vulture. They also wanted Black Cat, another character that pops up for the first time in the 80s, as well. Within a week of that information getting out, Sam was off the movie.

Now, if all of the above is true, or at least mostly true, I'm concerned. The first two films seem to be more Sam's vision and, again apart from the details, they work quite well. Once Sony starts expressing their opinions more obviously, there are more issues. I'm uncomfortable with what Sony will accomplish all on their own.

This is not to say that this next movie can't be good. Perhaps they'll get a director and a story together that both does what Sony wants and still tells a good Spider-Man story. Perhaps the characters will be cast 'better' this time around. Perhaps they'll reboot the series and perhaps not.

Based on 'Spider-Man 3', I'm just not expecting an improvement in things.