The Spectacular Spider-Man: 11 Biggest Mistakes It Needs To Avoid

3. Relentlessly Sympathetic Villains

One of the most consistently tedious elements of the Spider-Man movies has been how practically every significant villain has a tragic back story of some kind which makes them sympathetic, the most common being a dedicated scientist who ends up overrun by the very thing they created, as in the case of Green Goblin (Willem Dafoe), Doc Ock (Alfred Molina) and Lizard (Rhys Ifans). Then there's Sandman, who has the whole sick daughter sob story, Venom and Electro, both of whom were the result of a freak accident, while Franco's New Goblin was driven by understandable revenge and DeHaan's Green Goblin was a necessity to keep his illness at bay. In fact, the only semi-significant, card-carrying villain in all five movies so far has been Rhino, though that's almost certainly because his part has simply been an extended cameo and nothing more. A new Spider-Man film would do well to introduce a more insidious villain who can't be pawned off with simple excuses, because isn't an evil character that's evil "just because" so much more threatening than a poor sap?