The one thing that is wrong in the movie is not even the director's fault - Venom. Venom is in the movie because Sony wanted toys, Sony wanted money, so Raimi had to put a Venom in the movie despite his reasonable arguments that he's not so big on the character.
Other than that, every character feels exactly the same, every character gets an arc, Green Goblin's probably one of the best villains in superhero movie gives that his motivations have been built throughout 2 movies, Sandman is well tied to Peter and makes a great villain and a character on his own. This still feels like a Spider-Man sequel. We also see the fall of a hero - we see the way Peter segues into a bully, someone he hated, someone he never wanted to be, and then him coming back to his senses. The way his 'bully' side was shown was absolutely perfect - it was a parody. It was humiliating and embarrassing, and that is because Peter Parker doesn't know how to be cool. He's not a cool kid, so he fails miserably at trying to be that.
Take Venom out of the movie and it's a solid sequel.