Spider-Man 2

I never really noticed how much more introspective this one was compared to the first. It focused much more on thematic elements than action, which results in a much more mature and almost philosophical film (for a superhero movie at least). What makes this trilogy so great is that the entire thing is really just focused on showing the realities of Uncle Ben’s advice to Peter, that “with great power comes great responsibility,” and this movie does so by absolutely ruining Peter’s life. Like literally nothing can go right for the guy. My favorite example of this is the banquet for John Jameson. Not only does Peter find out that MJ is getting engaged and Harry slaps him repeatedly in public, even little things don’t go right. He’s always just a second away from grabbing the last drink or snack, people walk away right as he’s about to take pictures of them, and J Jonah is constantly harassing him about taking photos. It’s both sad and hilarious. That’s not to say that there isn’t great action in here as well though. The train sequence is one of the coolest action set pieces of all time, and the scene that follows with the citizens on the train is really well done too. You can also see Raimi’s horror roots in scenes like Doc Ock’s surgery and even in small things like a female bystander screaming and running straight up to the camera, it’s great. These films should be the template for all superhero movies imo.