From what I have read and heard from Toby on Howard Stern, the cast would probably come back if Sam Rami comes back but Sam wants to move on. Think about it...for the last six years all Sam Rami has done is Spiderman. There is no question that it is a huge moneymaker for everyone but I think creatively Sam wants to do different things. Toby said last week that this franchise is too important to the studio so the movies will still be made with or without him. My feeling is that as long as they get Toby back they will be fine. The introduced Gwen Stacy so they can do without Kirsten for a movie and there are a lot of talented directors out there.

 Personally I would love to see the Death of Gwen Stacy plot line for the next movie then perhaps follow it up with the wedding to MJ for the movie after. Electro would be a cool villian to see on screen, there is also a rumor about a Black Cat script out there in the event that Kirsten doesn't come back. If you don't know, Black Cat is a hot "Cat Burglar" type villian who Spiderman falls for and dates for a while in the comic after she becomes a hero. So there are lots of options.

 As for this movie, the best of the three I think. The most actual acting from everyone, Emo Parker is pretty fun, plenty of action and a good story that was true to the comic for the most part. 

i saw it last night. i personally didnt like the whole venom thing... the introduction of the alien costume was weak. i thought they could have spent a bit more time gettting into that then all the time they spent on the dramatical bs.

anyways, other than that it was rad.

Reports say that Rami really did not want to put Venom in the film but it was forced on him by the studio. Because of that, he tried to make light of the symbiote's effect on peter as a wink / nod to the audience that it was short lived and not the crux of the film. Hence why it's intertwined with comedy and done tongue in cheek. Problem is that makes Venom all that less compelling. Not to mention Venom is only actually fleshed out for like 10 freaking minutes. Atleast they gave him his big mouth and teeth. No long nasty tongue though.

Because of all this extra shit in there the story arcs really don't develop as well as they could. You kinda care about Sandman ( who by the way really didn't shape shift as much as I would have liked ), Venom / Eddy Brock is touched on and weak at best, and the story you care the most about because of the past 2 films ( Harry / Goblin ) gets shafted.

The butler is a freakin forensic scientist and knew what the wound came from?!?! just happened to tell Harry right then?!?!? It was such a cheesy way to move the plot along right there. Same thing with the random alley meeting 2 second fight between Venom and Sandman.

Irritating but not as awful as X3 blowing the Phoenix story line

As with X3, Alien 3, Return of the Jedi, Terminator 3 and the Last Crusade... I enjoyed the hell out of it, but felt like it was the weakest of the trilogy.

Problem was this was more than 1 movie's worth of a storyline. The black suit needed its own movie, and they could have made that work VERY nicely with the whole Peter-has-to-fight-his-best-friend plot. Venom needed his own damn movie. Period. If Raimi didn't want to do a Venom movie, then they should have waited, and devoted ALL of #4 to it.

But they did a pretty f%#king fantastic job w/ both Sandman & Venom. An EXCELLENT use of CGI, in both cases.