The problem with Raimi's Spider-Man is that there are no clear goals, and no clear motivations for either the protagonist or the antagonist. Let's look at the movie from Peter Parker's perspective:
Start of movie: Spends the first 45 minutes pining for Mary Jane, but not having the courage to ask her out, or even talk to anyone for advice. That is literally his only goal, and he's not even very motivated towards achieving it, or else he would be more willing to approach her.
30 minutes: Conclude he needs a car to impress Mary Jane. He basis this entirely on the fact that Flash has a car, so he needs one too. He also yells at Uncle Ben and the wrestling manager for hassling him.
45 minutes: Uncle Ben dies. Peter finally has a motivation!"
50 minutes: Well, that ended quick. Peter spontaneously decided to start fighting crime. But there's no real driving force for this decision. He's not actually trying to achieve anything with this. He starts fighting crime because the audience paid $8 to see Spider-Man, so he had better put on his costume post haste.
60 minutes: Peter starts selling pictures, because he needs the money. But he turns down a job at Oscorp, despite needing the money. Off note: How did Peter already have his camera in place before he even shows up at the crime scene?
65 minutes: Peter meets the Green Goblin for the first time. He does not seem very concerned after the Green Goblin leaves, however, because his main priority is apparently to angst about how Harry is dating MJ and to grin with glee because MJ likes Spider-Man.
74 minutes: The Green Goblin attacks Spider-Man. Again, Spider-Man doesn't seem very concerned with the Green Goblin when the Goblin disappears. Instead, you see him self-loathing because the city hates him now, and you see him taking time out of his day to stalk MJ. "I took too buses and a cab to get to this neighborhood." Because apparently congratulating MJ after her audition is more important than hunting the Green Goblin.
84 minutes: Burning building. Peter is injured, but again, he doesn't show much sign of concern.
91 minutes: Peter realizes that the Green Goblin knows his identity! But instead of trying to chase down the Green Goblin, he seems more concerned with MJ's relationship with Spider-Man.
100 minutes: Peter realizes that MJ is in danger! Oh no! Finally, he has to act and chase down the Green Goblin!
110 minutes: The Green Goblin is dead.
So there you have it. Spider-Man doesn't show any actual concern for the Green Goblin when the Green Goblin is away until the 91 minute mark. He doesn't actually bother taking any action against the Green Goblin (in this case, making a phone call) until the 100 minute mark. That means that the movie contains roughly 10 minutes where the hero is motivated to go out of his way to chase down the villain.
In TASM. Garfield talks to Gwen for advice, then consults a local Lizard expert for advice. After realizing that the Lizard expert is the likely suspect, he warns the police and investigates the sewer systems to hunt the Lizard down. Meanwhile, Tobey spends all his time moping because the city doesn't like him anymore and stalking Mary Jane ("I took two busses and a cab just to see you at your audition, because it's easier than just calling!"). He doesn't bother asking around with anyone for leads on the Green Goblin. Remember, not only does he have connections at the newspaper, but he's also family friends with Norman Osborn, and he even had Norman over for Thanksgiving. How hard would it be for Peter to call up Norman and say, "Wow, that incident at the parade was really scary. I'm worried about your safety. Do you know why that Goblin fellow tried to attack you?" But he doesn't, because the Goblin is a weak villain and no one really sees him as a priority.
Now look at the movie from Norman's perspective:
15 minutes: Becomes the Green Goblin
50 minutes: Kills his competitors.
63 minutes: Fired from the board.
66 minutes: Kills the board.
75 minutes: Asks Spider-Man to team up with him. Never says for what.
84 minutes: Asks Spider-Man again. Angry when Spider-Man turns him down.
90 minutes: Announces that he "must teach Spider-Man loss and suffering."
91 minutes: Has chance to teach Spider-Man loss and suffering by killing Aunt May. Does not.
102 minutes: Wants to prove that Spider-Man is actually selfish
104 minutes: Knocks Spider-Man off in order to force Spider-Man to lose his grip on MJ/Kids. Shouts "It's time to die!" Has perfect opportunity to kill Spider-Man and/or teach Spider-Man the meaning of loss and suffering. Spider-Man is completely helpless. All the Goblin has to is fly towards Spider-Man, through a pumpkin bomb, fire his guns, fire his missiles, fire his energy weapons, etc. But apparently he can't, because people are throwing bottles at him or something. Apparently, there are two things that can stop the Goblin: Spider-Man, and bottles.
105 minutes: Waits until the boat slowly floats beneath Spider-Man, and then tries to kidnap Spider-Man again after everyone is safe and Spider-Man is free to fight him again.
110 minutes: Dies.
The Green Goblin kills everyone he wanted to kill at the 66 minute mark, and has no clear goals for the rest of the movie. He's basically a video game character at that point. He shows up at arbitrary moments to give the hero someone to fight, but there's no real story or motivation behind his actions. He goes from "recruit spider man" to "kill spider-man" to "torture Spider-Man" to "discredit Spider-Man" to "kill Spider-Man" to "Ow, those bottles really hurt!" to "Okay, I'm dead now."
The goal is supposed to be the destination, the motivation is what you expect when you get there. "My motivation is cake, my goal is to get to the bakery." Along the way, you may have detours and obstacles and character growth. Sometimes, you realize you can get better cake somewhere else. And sometimes, you reach the bakery and you realize that the journey was more important than the cake itself. Sometimes, the cake is a lie. But the journey to cake gives the story structure. The problem with the Green Goblin is that there's no structure. He arbitrarily changes his mind on where he wants to go, from one scene to the next.
If the Goblin truly believes that Spider-Man is the only person who can stop him, then he has absolutely no reason to risk keeping Spider-Man alive, since he'll already be invincible if Spider-Man is dead. Especially since Norman is already paranoid about betrayal, and he has zero reason to believe that Spider-Man won't turn on him. OTOH, if the Goblin has a goal that would be impossible to achieve without Spider-Man's help, then why is he so quick to try to kill Spider-Man, thus making his future goals impossible? And why doesn't he put more effort into giving Spider-Man something that Spider-Man wants?
Raimi did the same thing in Spider-Man 2. Doctor Octopus kidnaps Mary Jane because he needs Peter to help him, and then he tries to murder Peter 10 seconds later, despite the fact that he needs Peter alive. Again, these are video game villains, who exist purely to annoy the hero. But their actions don't make any sense in the context of the character. They just do evil things for the sake of being evil.
So here's a challenge: Can anyone explain what the Green Goblin's motivation is without relying on circular reasoning, and without simply saying "he's insane!" Insanity is a character trait, not a motivation. Here are some examples of circular reasonings from the last thread:
1) "The Green Goblin's goal is to make things go his way."
2) "The Green Goblin's goal is to get what he wants."
3) "The Green Goblin's goal is to kill people who get in the way of his goal (of killing people who get in the way of his goal)
4) "The Green Goblin's goal is to kill Spider-Man because Spider-Man is the only person who can get in the way of his goal of killing Spider-Man."
5) "The Green Goblin goal is to recruit Spider-Man to help him achieve his goal (of killing Spider-Man)."
6) "The Green Goblin's goal is to kill Spider-Man except when he chooses not to."
7) "The Green Goblin is power hungry, and his goal is to have the power which he needs to achieve his goals."
---------
Ironically, Norman Osborn is more effective as a villain in TASM than he did in the 2002 version, despite only being a background character. Norman engineered the death of Peter's parents, which guarantees emotional impact in the sequels, and which is the main driving force for Peter throughout the movie.
His motivation in the context of the movie is very clear: He's dying, and he can't wait for a cure. This, in turn, forces Curt to use the serum on himself before it's ready for testing, which in turn drives the rest of the story. Also, there's a good chance that Norman will kill Gwen in the sequel, which will further his impact on Peter.
