Either way, it was very ignorant for Sam Raimi to say he became a fan of Venom because if he couldn't even get the symbiote storyline right, what makes him think he can justify by using Venom in ANY way? If he got the symbiote story itself wrong, there is no way he can show the viewers he means well by anything he did with Venom, even if that means Venom had a very good shot of killing Spidey, right up there with Green Goblin.
Now, I believe he did film the GOOD scenes right from the novelization, but still...the whole "symbiote making Peter into a doofus" is just too silly and something I did not want to see with the symbiote. I wanted to see all hell rage and anger, not Peter flinging his hair and dancing all the time
But, it happened, and Raimi proved that he lost his mojo after only making two films. Too bad he didn't stop at two though; it would have been different to not go for a trilogy, but at least he would've kept all* of his fans.
* = I'm not saying Raimi lost his entire fanbase, lol, but I am saying that he lost some of his fans by making a horrible Spider-Man film after two amazing installments in 1 and 2...and, as I mentioned, after doing GG and Doc Ock, the two best villains in Spidey's rogue gallery, maybe he should've just called it quits.