People who give Raimi a free pass on Spider-Man 3 are either ignorant or stupid. Raimi wrote Spider-man 3. He wrote the entire script for Spider-Man 3. He did not write the scripts for Spider-Man 1 or 2, but he and his brother wrote the whole thing for Spider-Man 3. He also produced Spider-Man 3. Which means it was his decision on what to put into the script. Usually people writing a script for a film have to put whatever the producer tells them to put into it. Since Raimi was the producer and writer, he pretty much could put anything he wanted into the movie.
Raimi is to blame three fold for how bad the movie was. Emo Peter? That was all Raimi. Dancing emo Peter? That was all Raimi. Sandman being Uncle Ben's killer? Yup, still Raimi. Venom being miscast and written nothing like his comic book counter part? All Raimi.
The only thing Avi did was say "Hey, Spidey fans love Venom. He seems to be a favorite. Put him in the third movie ok." Raimi is the one that had him in the movie for 10 minutes and had him take his mask off every chance he could. Raimi is the one who wrote a script with an Eddie Brock that was NOTHING like the Eddie Brock from the comics. Directors are given scripts and have to do the best they can with what the script says. Raimi on the other hand got to write the entire thing himself! Even writers who write a script are told by the producers who needs to be in the movie. For example Batman Begins was produced by
Larry J. Franco .... producer (as Larry Franco)
Benjamin Melniker .... executive producer
Lorne Orleans .... producer (IMAX version)
Charles Roven .... producer
Emma Thomas .... producer
Those people told David Goyer and Nolan what had to be in the script. They told them who they wanted in the script and where the story should go. Then David Goyer and Christopher Nolan sat down and wrote a script around what the producers wanted. They didn't get to pick the villains. They have to do the best they can with Ras and Scarecrow. And they did an amazing job.
All Avi said was "do Venom, people love Venom." It was Raimi who then wrote Venom into an already terrible script. Raimi could have written a good Venom script. Who could have cast a better Eddie Brock. He could have directed Topher Grace better so that we didn't end up with one of the worst villain in a long time. All Avi did was tell him what is completely true. We fans love Venom. I still want Venom. And I hope whomever is in charge of villains in this new franchise is saying "we need Venom" because Raimi screwed it up last time.
Blaming Avi Arad for the crappy Venom we got in Spider-Man 3 is like blaming a manager of a pizza place that tells his cook to order plenty of pepperoni for the store because people love pepperoni. But instead of ordering the good pepperoni the cook orders the worst pepperoni possible, doesn't store it right so it goes bad, and then only puts like 2 pieces of pepperoni on the pizza when it's being made.
All Avi did was say "do venom. People love Venom" And we do. We love Venom. He is the biggest comic villain right next to the Joker. Raimi is the guy who gave us the horrible SM3 version. He cast him, wrote him, and directed him. He's a freaken awesome character, good for Avi for making Raimi use him. Shame on Raimi for making him suck.