10 Lessons Sony Must Learn Before The Amazing Spider-Man 3

10. A Villain We Care About (Or Understand) Is Essential

What arguably allowed for Spider-Man 2 to thrive as what is arguably the best superhero movie ever made (and without a doubt the greatest Spider-Man movie of all)? Its villain. The reason that Spider-Man 2 resonated with audiences to such a degree stemmed from the fact that we could empathise with bad guy Dr. Octavius, who starts out as a man trying to do some genuine good, and turned "evil" as a result of a tragedy (his beloved wife his killed and he's super angry about it). Cut to The Amazing Spider-Man, and we've got the Lizard, whose motivations - as Dr. Curt Connors - were muddled to begin with: we didn't like him much when he was human, so we're not emotionally invested in his story arc. Same goes for Electro in The Amazing Spider-Man 2: he was so underdeveloped, that it was hard to care about anything he said or did. A villain that we care about - or can at least understand - is an essential element.