Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 3 isn’t a great movie, but it might not be as bad as the internet has led everyone to believe over the course of the last 13 years. Obviously, it’s nowhere close to sitting on the same pedestal as the first two installments, and it’s got a whole lot of major problems. But there’s some good stuff in there.
Let’s not forget that the director had one arm tied behind his back after Sony made the call to shoehorn Venom into a plot that was already at its bursting point with Peter and Mary Jane’s will-they-won’t-they, the introduction of Gwen Stacy, Harry Osborn following in his father’s footsteps, and Sandman’s arc being tied to Uncle Ben for whatever reason. Although that still doesn’t excuse the godawful dancing sequences.
In a new interview with Collider, Raimi admitted that he never thought he’d direct another superhero movie for the rest of his days, before the lure of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness became too irresistible to turn down.
“I didn’t know that I could face it again because it was so awful, having been the director of Spider-Man 3. The internet was getting revved up and people disliked that movie and they sure let me know about it. So, it was difficult to take back on. But then, I found out that there was an opening on Doctor Strange 2. My agent called me and said, ‘They’re looking for a director at Marvel for this movie and your name came up. Would you be interested?’. And I thought, ‘I wonder if I could still do it’. They’re really demanding, those types of pictures.
And I felt, ‘Well, that’s reason enough’. I’ve always really liked the character of Doctor Strange. He was not my favorite, but he was right up there with the favorites. I loved the first movie, I thought Scott Derrickson did a wonderful job, an incredible job. So, I said, ‘Yeah’. They left the character in a great place. I didn’t think I would be doing another superhero movie. it just happened.”
The Marvel Cinematic Universe is much more open to creative collaboration than Sony, with everyone involved in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness teasing that Raimi is bringing his full visual and stylistic arsenal to the Sorcerer Supreme’s sequel. A reinvigorated director tackling a concept with boundless possibilities makes it one of Phase Four’s most hotly anticipated installments, and there’s less than six months to go until we see it for ourselves.