7. Watch Out For Villain Overload
Back to that point about the villains for a second: Spider-Man 3 made a fatal mistake of throwing us two and a half villains, one for us (Venom), one for the director (Sandman), and one for fun (Harry the Goblin. No, he wasn't Hobgoblin. He didn't even wear the mask). So you've got one mostly built villain, one in-process villain, and one villain just thrown in because the fans wanted him so bad, all running around a movie where the hero was starting to fall apart himself. By the end of Spider-Man 3, only Harry Osborne seemed poised to walk away for the better, and then he went and got himself killed. Drama! The Amazing Spider-Man 2 looks to be possibly working its way towards the same fate as not only does Peter have two (possibly three) villains to deal with, but he also has two love interests to compete with, and the villain from the first film is still alive too. With so many balls in the air, it'll be amazing if Peter Parker even gets to be Peter Parker in this movie. The two keys to a successful Spider-Man movie are balancing Peter Parker with Spider-Man, and balancing Spider-Man with his villains. By balancing Peter Parker and Spider-Man, you're giving equal time to both personas and thus heightening the drama and the similarities between the two. With balancing Spider-Man and his villains, we see what Spider-Man could have been (most literally with Venom) if he wasn't the good, honest, science geek with a heart of Platinum we all know and love. Throw too many villains in the story, and you're going to have an uneven mess of story... just like Spider-Man 3.