With "Spider-Man: Homecoming" now out in theaters, I thought it would be interesting to go back and rank the last five "Spider-Man" films, starting with what I felt was the worst and ending up at what I believe to be the best of the bunch.
'The Amazing Spiderman 2'
Admittedly I wasn’t looking forward to this one. Jamie Foxx stars as Electro, the pathetic supervillain who falls into a vat of whatever and is now out to get revenge. The script here is poorly written and most of the moments feel cheap and undeserved. Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone have a solid on-screen chemistry and the special effects shine in scenes where we see ripples in Spider-Man’s costume as he dives and swings through skyscrapers but they are the only real amazing thing about this movie.
'Spider-Man 3'
Yes, while it may not be high up on my favorites, I still own this one on Blu-Ray. This is, unfortunately, the Spider-Man film that had the most potential to be an epic, at least in the hearts of most comic book geeks. Remember the reveal of Spider-Man cloaked in the symbiote and Venom’s screeches echoing throughout the church bell tower? Of course you do. Now "Spider-Man 3" features, coincidentally, 3 villains who all are jockeying each other for screen time. Another contrivance is that the plot travels in too many directions to make it cohesive or remarkable. The films plot dilemmas result from the script being cluttered with too many villains and subplots. Even so, the film's emotional scenes are pure and earned.
In the end, "Spider-Man 3" is a fixable film and I never really viewed this movie as terrible, I just never thought of it as that special either.
'The Amazing Spider-Man'
There weren't fans of the "Spider-Man" franchise necessarily petitioning for a reboot around the time this film was announced. "The Amazing Spider-Man" gives us a the same origin story that we're already familiar with.
The differences between "The Amazing Spider-Man" and the original "Spider-Man" trilogy come in the performances. In the lead, Andrew Garfield plays Peter Parker as more of an outsider who mulls over his parents presumed death, skateboards from place to place, all the while being a chemistry and physics enthusiast. A highlight in the film for me was the stunning point-of-view shots of Spidey swinging through New York City.
Other than a few changes there just isn’t much new ground covered in this installment. Emma Stone plays Gwen Stacy and brings a down-to-earth, accepting quality to her. There’s an intimacy between the two leads that show them to have a genuine chemistry as their relationship flows smoothly from scene to scene which mainly keep this movie from falling flat.
Then there were two
After wrestling with my nostalgia for a little, I'm going to place both "Spider-Man" and "Spider-Man 2" at the number one spot. The former being a fun introduction that still manages to have heart and the latter delving deeper into the emotional psyche of its characters but still providing edge-of-your-seat action sequences.
Its not that these films don't have their flaws, they are just spectacular at keeping the movie suspended at the perfect distance between drama and action, between Spider-Man the hero, and Peter Parker the struggling and misunderstood genius. As well as incorporating many revolutionary and iconic ideas, techniques, and special effects that hadn't been seen in superhero films before, the films also evolved a well-known comic book hero into a worldwide iconic character. Considering "Spider-Man: Homecoming" is now in theaters everywhere, hopefully it's even better.
