Which 4 movies stand out from the "Spider-Man" clan?
Though often burdening with a sense of regret, hindsight can occasionally present beauty that may have otherwise been obscured by a reality that no longer is.
For years, I've slammed "The Amazing Spider-Man" as soulless filmmaking by accountants with little regard for artistry, storytelling, or the legacy of the franchise that it was a part of and I still hold true to every word of that regarding the film that actually made it to worldwide theatrical release.
Watching a skateboarding, charismatic Peter Parker locked in a nonsensical will they/won't they relationship fighting a Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde Lizard Hitler in a grounded reality aping the creature of the night aesthetics of the dark and gritty "Batman Begins" continues to be one of the most painful things that I have ever watched a mainstream Hollywood studio put on screen with a 9 figure production budget.
Once removed from the context of being the most globally visible and mainstream representation of my favorite fictional character however, the compromised vision presented becomes less irritating and more tragic.
The decision to depict a Peter Parker that's noticeably more coarse, self obsessed, and less likable is a less of a mistake of poor characterization and more of a bold gambit that ultimately backfires but is nonetheless audacious.
Underneath the executive mandated pandering to perceived millennial stereotypes, Marc Webb struggled to tell a human story about a lost boy learning that being petty with power has consequences and the more he embraces the role of being the savior of his city, the more the city will reward him by helping him to grow into a better person.
As painfully compromised as that vision was, the dramatic gusto with which Webb attempts to tell it offers a glimpse of everything that I hope to one day get out of a live action Spider-Man movie.
The feature of the hour that inspired this list, "Far From Home" may still be fresh but my review more or less stands the same.
Whatever I may feel about the MCU's reduction of Peter Parker to the role of a wannabe striving to be like other heroes rather than pursue his own philosophy of heroism, when the movie is firing on all cylinders, it works like no other "Spider-Man" movie before it, selling a largely independent hero proactively pursuing an agenda that only becomes more and more compelling the more his clash with the antagonist preys on his own unchecked psychological insecurities.
Based around one of the flimsiest premises in "Spider-Man's" entire comic book history of recent years and banking on a blank slate publicity stunt of a character to produce the most potentially marketable "Spider-Man" product to date, everything about "Into the Spider-Verse" should have been an unmitigated disaster.
Yet miraculously, the cosmos chose to bring the dice roll of Sony Animation's gambit to land on positive results for everyone.
By injecting the numerous Spider-Men of alternate reality with legitimate characterization and personal arcs that their comic book counterparts seemed to evade, including a sympathetic Spider-Gwen and a compelling and relatable Miles Morales, "Into the Spider-Verse" manages to not only be a fun, gripping, and emotional love letter to everything Stan Lee and Steve Ditko set into motion with Amazing Fantasy #15 but legitimately break new ground visually where animation is concerned and, in the process, have ironically made a better launching platform for cinematic "Spider-Man" spin offs then "The Amazing Spider-Man 2" ever could by simply aiming to make a good movie first and foremost.
I don't think that it's the best "Spider-Man" movie ever made but it is the only "Spider-Man" movie to ever move me to tears.
Sam Raimi's Opus and perhaps the peak of the traditional superhero narrative as told on film to this very day.
If "Spider-Man" was the first draft of the winning formula for superhero movies that Nolan Feige and Fox studios would go on to perfect in the following decade, "Spider-Man 2" is that happy lightning in a bottle accident that we may spend a lifetime struggling to recreate to little success.
A nigh flawless character study of a superhero's struggles with self sacrifice, reverent of the most iconic tropes of the genre but unafraid to bend, deconstruct, and defy them at will for the better of a dramatic narrative that's as atmospherically and thematically gripping as it is visually compelling.
Building on the foundation that came before it while maintaining its own enthralling narrative, "Spider-Man 2" is a damn near perfect sequel and a masterclass on genre filmmaking that could only have been created at the time in which it was released.
I not only hold it to be one of the 3 best superhero movies of all time but a timeless blockbuster classic of its own genre akin to "Superman: The Movie."
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