I rented Spiderman 2 last weekend and it holds up pretty well, I think. It's got a lot of goofy science-talk, improbabilities, and Overly-Earnest Dialogue, but that gives it a very comic-book feel.

Anyway, I thought this article on Spiderman 3 was interesting, if weird.

am Raimi told SCI FI Wire that he and his brother Ivan are still in the earliest stages of writing Spider-Man 3. "We've finished a 50-page document and now I'm working with my storyboard artist to work out some of the visuals," Raimi said in an interview while promoting the DVD release of Spider-Man 2. "And I'm about to start working with Alvin Sargent [who received the "Screenplay by" credit on Spider-Man 2] on the first draft of the screenplay."

Raimi noted that he's still toying around with different possibilities for a chief villain or villains to duke it out with Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire), a.k.a. Spider-Man, in the second sequel. "I actually haven't figured it out just yet," he said. "I'm trying to determine Peter Parker's journey as a human being, what it is that he'll be learning on this next adventure, as a kid growing up, what life lessons [he'll experience]. Once I know what that is, I'm going to try to develop obstacles in his path, like any dramatic writer would do. And out of those conflicts will come the drama. Either he'll be able to overcome these conflicts or he won't. But once I know his journey, and therefore the conflicts that are in his path, I'll choose that villain that best represents those conflicts. That's the way in which I've been approaching this, and I'm still not quite there in determining the villain." Spider-Man 2 arrives Nov. 30 on DVD, while Spider-Man 3 is set for release on May 4, 2007.

Okay, first of all, you've got a 50-page document and you're starting to work on visuals, and you don't know who the villain(s) is/are?

Second of all, Spiderman 2 ended with Harry Osborn finding his dad's mask and weapons for the Green Goblin. It also included a bit part by one-armed Dr. Curt Conners, who in the comics mixes his DNA with a lizard's to grow his arm back and becomes...well, The Lizard. And you don't know who the villain(s) is/are for Spiderman 3?

Now, I'm all for the focus on character and emotional development as a core strategy in developing the new movie...but I'm just not buying that they don't know who the new villains are going to be.