Re: Of the 4 Spider-Man films made so far,what 2 are your favorite and
Of the 4 films, the first two Raimi films remain my favorites. Why?
-Spider-Man: Up until that point I had never seen anything like that film. I thought it captured Spider-Man's suit, the characters, his universe almost perfectly. Sure there were changes as there will be in a live-action adaptation of any comic book material, but I thought the Raimi films got so much right. I got caught up in Peter's yearning for Mary Jane, that one great youthful crush, and how he ultimately had to reject her in order to protect her. And Uncle Ben's death moved me in a way that Amazing Spider-Man's Uncle Ben death scene didn't and it really hammered home the idea of great power and great responsibility. And I really liked Willem Dafoe as the Goblin. I think he got the madness right, and added just a hint of concern for Harry beneath it. Aunt May and JJJ were also solid.
-Spider-Man 2: I don't like this one as much as the first and I never quite got the critical praise. However I think it storywise it was a very organic follow on to the first film and I thought Alfred Molina made for a good Doc Ock, even though his ultimate plan didn't make much sense, and I still don't get how you can douse a sun in a harbor. But the action pieces were big and well done and for the most part I enjoyed where the film took all of the characters. Unfortunately some of the campiness of Spider-Man 3 first reared its head in this film, with the overlong "Raindrops" sequence.
As for Amazing Spider-Man, I liked it, but didn't love it. I'll go see sequels but I wasn't bowled over by either Garfield or Stone. However it is my third favorite film.
Distant fourth is Spider-Man 3. Let's start with the positives, I did like the black suit. I also liked some of the bad Peter bits and him as Spider-Man in the black suit. I thought Sandman was perfectly cast. But that's about it. I didn't like the too coincidental way the symbiote just dropped out of the sky near Spider-Man, I thought the bad Peter bit went on too long, Gwen Stacy was wasted, Topher Grace shouldn't have been in this film (and the idea of creating a dark reflection of Peter just didn't work in part because his Eddie Brock was so poorly developed), Venom was wasted, hated the Sandman killing Uncle Ben retcon, also didn't like Peter just letting Sandman go at the end.
