Being a fan of the movie you really can't tell other why they don't like it. I don't think you were even close to the reasons. At least not for me or anyone I have met that didn't like the movie.
My reasons are one that it was more cheesy and lame than the first two.
Two there was simply to much going on that they never really told a complete story. Every thing was so cluttered and at times it seemed like the actors them selves didn't know where it was all going.
Three the whole Sand Man is the one who killed Ben out of no where was idiotic.
Four Venom was treated like trash and was absolutely useless in the move I'm not sure how anyone at marvel could approve that treatment of one of the popular characters. I'm not a fan of Gambit, but at least the X movies never put him in so he could be screwed up. Venoms character barely resembled the one from the comics in fact aside from being black and being called Venom I can't think of anything else really.
Five I didn't think the move dragged or was to slow at all just the opposite I thought it was to rushed and there wasn't really any time to explore any of the stories to full potential.
Six The butler just happened to know everything and save the day by telling Harry finally.
Wow. Another "list" full of things (some valid, some small and asinine) that you didn't like.
I wasn't trying to explain why people didn't like this movie based on this movie. I know there are lots of reasons. I was wondering why a lot of people hate things about this movie that were prevalant in the last two. Or how almost instantly many turned their back on the
whole thing. I mean now a lot of people are wanting Raimi, Maguire and co to stay as far away from this franchise as possible. Even though without them, one could argue the franchise wouldn't even exist.
You saying that the film is cheesier and lamer than the other two is a matter of subjective opinion. I know a lot of people who thought the first two movies were just as cheesy. I know a lot of people who thought this movie was more heartfelt and dealt with actual real relationship and emotional problems too. These are mostly girls I know though, or generally older viewers.
And yet there are a lot of people who did think that movie dragged. So many people go on and on about how MJ was boring and ate up too much time. About how the love story detracted from the "development" of newer lesser characters like Venom and Sandman. I actually share your oppinion and think that the story was too rushed, but trust me, that is not a general consensus. Take Transformers for example everyone praised (at least initially) that movie and compared it's so called superiority relentlessly against Spider-man 3 despite it being having even less development and more plot holes. A movie like this needs to fly by, it makes you want to see it again and it helps obscure plot problems which lets face it, all superhero/comic adaptations of this nature will have simply based on the seemingly impossible task of cutting down decades worth of material. Look at the Hulk, that movie tried to take itself too seriously and wound up boring everyone. These movies are supposed to be fun.
But the problem wasn't that they tried to cram too much in. The problem was that all the different characters and plot lines were only thematically connected and not in a focused and tight narrative manner. But even the first two had similar problems, the second one usually kept Ock in the background. Peter never seemed to care about him unless they were actually occuping the same space.
People are always easier on first enstallments. For some reason by time we get to the third the problems of the first two are usally more apparent (yet still remembered more fondly) and so the third usually doesn't hold up against the two predessessors. It happens all the time and is currently happening with Indy 4. of course there are those who think that sometimes the second installments are the black sheep, whether for better or worse.
and I'm sorry but the fact that the biggest paragraph in your post is all about how you think Venom was mistreated seems to tell me that you are just another whiney Venom fan.
Which actually
proves one of my points.
People complained and clammored for Venom so much that they finally got him and now do nothing but ***** about it. Avi Arad saw dollar signs and really that is how he got his huge opening weekend. I can sympathise, truly, since I've been burned by mistreatment of a favorite character. But I also can't help but laugh at the irony. Fans should be careful what they wish for sometimes. I mean on the subject of Gambit, as you say, so many fans are now thanking their lucky stars that he was spared from being crapped on in The Last Stand.