Was
Superman Returns really that bad? I thought it was refreshing to see a portrayal of Superman that wasn't so overtly campy.
But anyway, it was too bad that Spider-Man 3 was such an atrociously bad movie... how many times did Green Goblin Jr. have to "die?" And why keep the Venom character in this movie? He could have been saved for a future movie.
Story I heard was that Sam Raimi and Sony were fighting over creative control. Raimi wanted the "classic" Spider-man with villains like Doc Ock, the Goblin and Sandman. Sony wanted the new school characters like Venom. Supposedly, Venom was forced on Raimi in 3, and for 4 he wanted to use the Lizard and the Vulture, while Sony was pushing for another of the new school villains, Carnage. Raimi gave the reason for pulling out as not being able to meet Sony's deadline to finish the movie. Another rumor was that Sony didn't want the Lizard because they wanted a villain with a human face, although the Lizard appears to be the villain in the reboot. That's one problem with a lot of comic book heros and villains. Because their faces are covered by masks, they become difficult to portray in movies. That's the reason Spider-man always gets part of his mask blown off in fight scenes.
The Venom and Carnage characters are both Symbiotes, opportunistic parasites that take over other people. The Carnage character is particularly disturbing, as his comic backstory has him killing his grandmother, torturing dogs and a bunch of other stuff. After the Watchmen, many comics became dark, dark, dark. I think Raimi preferred the simpler, less nihilistic premises of the earlier comics, while Sony wanted to try and grab younger audiences with the newer characters.
Supposedly in the reboot, they're taking Peter Parker back to high school. In the comics, Parker was uber-nerd. Flash Thompson wasn't a thug, he was the school jock, but still tormented Parker, who after he became Spidey, only pretended to be afraid of him.