First, a “bad” Peter Parker is disco-ing down the street and singing? Okay, get rid of that. There is good and there is evil. Evil doesn’t jaunt down a street like a bad Travolta imitation. Why not just throw Barney in there as the big, bad evil. Makes as much sense as what SM3 showed with Parker/Venom. Drop the wacko ideas about how good guys can be bad. Good guys are haunted by their decisions, struggle with what they are doing, and eventually, be the hero because no one else can. Take some notes from the Dark Knight character.

Second, evil is always evil. Look at the movies that made it big: Dark Knight and Iron Man. Did you see the bad guys turn good at any point? Sit up and pay attention Hollywood! Turning bad guys good will only lose your viewing audience. Pick a villain and stick with it. Quit with the idea that you can show a “human” or “good” side to the bad guys. They’re villains for a reason.

Third, stick with previous movie continuities. You’ve built up the relationship between Parker and Mary Jane. Only to try to destroy it in SM3?!? Who’s bright idea was that? Fire them. You completely disregarded Gwen Stacy in the first two movies and went with Mary Jane. Stick with that. I know people in Hollywood change partners every day, but you’re a minority.

Keep to the comic book continuity as much as possible. There’s a reason the Spider Man comic is still around after all these years. Disregarding that brings failure (first Hulk movie *cough* *cough*).

Erase Spider Man 3 from history. Learn from that failure. Yeah, the only reason it did well was because it was hyped from the first two. The horrid failure of SM3 will probably keep quite a few people at home when SM4 opens. Make SM4 worth coming out to see.

Amazing Spider-man became the worst comic I had ever had the misfortune to read. OH, and Harry’s alive again. They did all that and never intended to do an actual ‘Everyone finds out who Spider-man is’ story. They just gave up and decided to end it by having Peter Parker become the biggest jerk ever.

I was watching Spider-man 3 while this was going on and sure I had issues with it, but it doesn’t come close to how bad the comic is now. Oh, now he’s not married and nobody knows he’s spider-man, now… maybe not even him. They (I won’t say Q they may be) killed that damn character. What a great character he was.

In the third movie Jonah was just a joke, constantly humiliated, and made to see that the Daily Bugle wasn’t the top newspaper in the city, or the second, or the third – in fact it was just a rag. Meanwhile Spider-Man was getting honors like a parade.

To work right, and to be as funny as he should be, Jonah must have real power to abuse. That’s the edge that makes his being irresponsible count. If he and everybody else knows it doesn’t natter what he does, he’s not funny, or not as funny as he should be – and Peter isn’t as hounded and abused as he should be.

So give Jonah some clout. Have him come into money and buy an important television station if that’s what it takes. And have him get away with selling some flat lies that cause Peter serious distress.

And yeah, Doctor Conners is the obvious choice. But the actor who played him last time, Dylan Baker, isn’t a big name and they may want that for a blockbuster-in-waiting like Spidey 4.

One other thing that irritates me about all three of the movies: Mary Jane Watson was an absolute knockout in the comics. So how did Kursten Dunst get the role?

~ Dagnabbit, geekily

Will be interesting if the franchise goes all “Dark Knight” on us … more morbid, more philosophical. It’s not why Spidey worked, and it would be a mistake.