15 Perfect Superhero Casting Choices Wasted On Terrible Comic Book Movies
6. Thomas Haden Church As Sandman - Spider-Man 3
Marvel Studios
To call Spider-Man 3 'terrible' might be being harsh on Sam Raimi's ill-fated threequel, but compared to Spider-Man and Spider-Man 2, it was an obvious disappointment.
Despite its flaws, however, Spider-Man 3 wasn't without its positives. It contains a great cameo from the late Stan Lee, some nifty special effects - memes aplenty - and even some decent performances.
Yes, despite all the protests regarding emo Peter, Topher Grace and amnesiac Harry, there are a few actors who do genuinely great work in Spider-Man 3; one of them is Thomas Haden Church, who played iconic Spidey villain Sandman in the film, and manages to persevere despite a needless retcon and a plot filled to bursting-point with villains.
Church looked and acted the part, and it's no surprise that Spider-Man 3's best scenes revolve around him.
WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well.
In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.
