10 Movies Totally Ruined By Fan Service

7. Spider-Man 3

It would be fair to call Sam Raimi's first two Spider-Man movies "crowd-pleasing," in the sense that Raimi knew what audiences wanted and enthusiastically delivered it.

But during pre-production on the third film, Raimi's desire to feature The Vulture as the primary villain, to be played by Ben Kingsley, were vetoed by producer Avi Arad.

Instead, Arad insisted that the film feature fan favourite antagonist Venom as a major fixture, despite Raimi himself being no fan of the supervillain, citing what he perceived as his "lack of humanity."

But because Arad knew that putting Venom in a Spider-Man movie would produce a gangbusters box office regardless of the director's enthusiasm, he stood firm.

And as everyone knows, the result was a Spider-Man 3 that fell far from the high bar set by its predecessors.

Overstuffed and undercooked, the film's biggest failure was nevertheless its widely-reviled treatment of Venom (Topher Grace), whose arc was rushed to the finish line because Arad couldn't see anything past the easy dollar signs.

It certainly put butts in seats, with Spider-Man 3 grossing an insane $890.9 million, but Raimi eventually opted not to return for a fourth film, taking Tobey Maguire with him.

Say what you will about the Tom Hardy-led Venom solo movie, but it at least captured the essence of the character better than this movie, and actually gave him plenty of room to breathe.