With a certain DC crossover movie coming out recently, with mixed to negative reviews, I decided to give my thoughts on it. This isn't a full review, but I really wanted to talk about one major problem I had with it. It's a problem many superhero movies, both Marvel and DC, suffer from. I call it Spiderman 3 syndrome, named after the third film in the Sam Raimi Spiderman Trilogy. I'm sure I'm not the first person to coin the phrase, but you may be wondering what exactly Spiderman 3 syndrome is, and why it's named after the movie in the first place. Allow me to explain.

Spiderman 3 syndrome has a certain number of symptoms. If the movie in question has many of these symptoms, it most likely suffers from Spiderman 3 syndrome. First of all, obviously, the film must be a superhero movie, and most likely a sequel of some sort. Second, the film must introduce multiple characters included in the original source material who have not been included previously in the film series. Third, the film must try and fail to develop most to all of the introduced characters. Bonus points if the character introduced is a fan favourite, and ends up upsetting the fans of the character.

So let's recap:
-Sequel
-Multiple new characters
-Development fail
-(Bonus) Fan favourite misrepresentation

All these symptoms are present in Spiderman 3, which is why the syndrome is named after the film. The film is the third in the series (sequel), it introduces three new villains, as well as Gwen Stacy and Eddie Brock (multiple new characters), the development of Sandman and Venom is rushed and not focused on for most of the film (development fail), and for bonus points, Venom, a character people had wanted to see in film for some time, only appears near the end, and has his mask off for the most part (fan favourite misrepresentation).

Keep in mind, there are ways to avoid Spiderman 3 syndrome. The Avengers avoided the problem by introducing most of the main characters in previous films. They didn't need to be developed because their development was already taken care of. Guardians of the Galaxy had many characters, but had no previous movies to develop them. Instead, they used a lot of exposition (very well, I might ad). Since most DC movies focus on a single protagonist, there aren't many examples on the DC side. Dark Knight Rises suffered from mild Spiderman 3 syndrome, as it completely misrepresented Bane and much of Catwoman's development was rushed.

Here are a list of other superhero films who do suffer from Spiderman 3 syndrome, both Marvel and DC.
-Amazing Spiderman 2
-X Men Origins: Wolverine
-Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice

Thankfully, to my knowledge, there aren't many films that suffer from the syndrome. However, with the Suicide Squad and Justice League movies coming out, I'm predicting we may see the syndrome pop up again. And with a new Spiderman reboot on the way as well, we'll see if the trend continues. Let's hope not.

Are there any other superhero movies that suffer from Spiderman 3 syndrome? Leave another example in the comments if you know of one.