Spider-Man 1/2 vs Amazing Spider-Man 1/2

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I just posted about this in the ASM2 spoiler thread lol.

Personally, I don't like Raimi's trilogy as much as other people. I don't consider SM2 the greatest comic book movie of all time or even close to it. I enjoyed 1 and 2 when they came out, but I always had a lot of problems with them, in particular I felt they were just one notch too far in to the camp category that I had a hard time getting over. I say that as a big Raimi fan. It just didn't quite click with me with Spider-Man. Also, though I thought Toby did a pretty good job as Parker, I don't think Spider-Man was as wise-cracking as he needed to be and when he did do it, it wasn't very good. There's lots of other stuff I won't bother to get in to as well, but to suffice to say, I enjoyed but didn't love Raimi's trilogy and I like them even less when I see them today.

Now Amazing Spider-Man I thought was just ok. It wasn't bad, but there was also a lot of dumb stuff in it, in particular the end (ie the crane swinging scene). Mostly it was the new actors that I felt elevated it. Garfield is ten times better than Maquire at this role and Emma Stone is ridiculously more likeable and fun to watch than Dunst was. ASM2 on the other hand, though flawed and somewhat bloated, I really enjoyed. It's still a bit campy at times but I'm fine with that, and Spider-Man is pitch perfect. It's easily my favorite out of any of the Spider-Man movies.

With all that said, it's hard to rank one of the sets against the other because they sort of tie for me. For Raimi's we're talking about two good but not great movies, and for Webb we're talking about one decent, and one great movie IMO. So I'm going to say it's a tie, with maybe a sliiiiight edge to Webb for making my personal favorite.
 
I feel that if Sony never made the Raimi films, and instead had released them at the time they released the Amazing Spiderman flicks (as in Spiderman 2 would now be in theatres), they'd be shat on from high heaven.
 
Gawge said:
Webb's are VASTLY better.

1) Spider-Man - Garfield is far better. Surely there is no contest here? The quips, the fun, the fights are infinitely more Spider-Man (and just plain more enjoyable).

2) Peter - Garfield's relationship with Stone is very impressive. Genuinely a great chemistry and both are great actors. Surely there is no way that anybody can argue that Peter/MJ in the Raimi films was in any way superior? MJ was dull, and a weird boring plot device, like she had no agency.

Those are the key elements of any Spider-Man film, and ASM does them far better. Objectively better. So much of Raimi's is really weird and hammy when you go back.

The villains are probably more of a mixed bag - but I don't think that it is necessarily a huge win to Raimi. That Green Goblin final fight in Raimi 1 was rather cheesy, and I think that Electro in ASM2 was superior to that. Doc Oc, fair enough beats the ASM films - but I really quite liked some aspects of Electro and Harry.
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Have yet to see ASM 2 but I share the sentiments of Peter/Spidey. Blows McGuire out of the water honestly. Does Garfield look less like a classical vest-wearing dork? Sure. But that particular trope is a bit less convincing nowadays. I liked the loner type they went with. And yes ASM's Spidey is FAR more witty and what I expected more of than what Rami provided.
 
TASM2 was definitely the funnest of the bunch though, I don't think I've laughed that much during a Spider-Man movie except SM3. It also has the best Spider-Man on-screen.
 
I like Garfield in the role a lot more than I thought I would. But he IS a bit too cool as Peter; just right as Spider-Man. What I mean is, I would've liked (in both universes) an awkward, nerdy Peter Parker who then comes out of his shell and is genuinely funny and charismatic when he puts on the suit. Kind of like all the charming people (not sarcasm) you meet in MMOs and message boards, but who couldn't look you in the eye if you met them in person.

Tobey Macguire is the awkward, nerdy, heartfelt Peter Parker to a tee, but he remains just as awkward as Spider-Man.

Andrew Garfield is cool and smooth as Parker AND Spider-Man.

I think I would've liked a Parker more in line with Tobey and Spidey more like Garfield.

As for their chemistry with their love interest, ASM wins that. And Emma Stone's Gwen is FAR better than Kirsten Dunst's MJ.

Franco's Harry destroys the new guy in my book.

So it's kind of a mixed bag overall up to this point, but here's the real issue to me: the narrative tone in the Raimi movies is PERFECT. They're so much fun. I personally love the "Raindrops keep falling on my head" montage. I even like the "Stayin Alive" sequence in SM3. Raimi's SM movies have so much... voice. And it matches Spider-Man as a franchise so well. They just remind me of the tone of some old Spider-Man era from the 80's or something. Kind of bleak at times, and cheesy fun other times, but so heartfelt all the way through.

The new ones from a writing and directing standpoint are SO damned bland. Just by the numbers superhero action movies.

So although I do like certain things about the new movies, I have to unequivocally say that I prefer the Raimi movies as a whole.
 
I need to rewatch Spider-Man 1, but my rankings are:

Spider-Man 2 >> TASM2 > Spider-Man 1 >>>>> TASM1

Tobey gets the hate, but he was a much better Peter Parker than Garfield. Garfield was a much better Spider-Man, but I feel that had more to do with the script and atmosphere than his actual acting ability.

EDIT: I pretty much agree 100% with the above post on all character evaluations lol
 
how is this even a question?

Spiderman 3 is better than the two amazing spiderman movies, let alone the GOAT superhero movie Spiderman 2

and Tobey is super underrated. never understood the hate he got; he brought super underrated comic chops to the role. he was perfectly cast as Peter (even if he wasn't as great in the suit as Spiderman)
 
Pagusas said:
I always hated Toby as peter. He's just a little emo bastard the whole time, someone you want to punch in the face.
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You know Peter Parker is a pretty "emo" character even in the comics, right?

amazing_spider-man_50wsk2f.jpg


Besides, Garfield's Parker spends more time crying in ASM2 than Tobey does in the entire Raimi trilogy, with a face infinitely more punchable.
 
Raimi's films work a lot better as films, I think.

But I have a soft spot for Amazing 2, if only for the fact that I like Andrew Garfield's portrayal of the character a whole lot more than Maguire's.

I was never as high on the original Spidey films as many were, and I'm not down on the new ones as much as many are, either. I can see the positives in both.

They need to bring back J.K. Simmons. That much is for certain.
 
Anth0ny said:
Besides, Garfield's Parker spends more time crying in ASM2 than Tobey does in the entire Raimi trilogy, with a face infinitely more punchable.
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That's impossible. Garfield looks like he's about to burst into tears almost through the entirety of the Raimi trilogy. Face infinitely more punchable.
 
Heshinsi said:
I feel that if Sony never made the Raimi films, and instead had released them at the time they released the Amazing Spiderman flicks (as in Spiderman 2 would now be in theatres), they'd be shat on from high heaven.
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Comics are serious business. Was watching Spider-man 1 the other day and damn its like an old comic book in terms of silliness and i have no problem with it. Campy =/= bad.
 
Forget 3 existed for a second.

Harry's story arc in 1 and 2 is brilliant. Its not over the top and doesn't take away from the main story. He's included in the story in a way that makes sense. By the end of the movie i can understand why he believes he needs revenge on Peter/Spider-man.

Harry in AS2 is rushed. While Dane plays the character well, i feel as if we don't know a whole lot about him.

The Villains in Raimi movies are better. Lizard was Terrible. Electro was meh.

AS1 and AS2 have a better Spider-man, But there Peter could use some work. I don't feel as if he's that smart. Which he should be.

Fuck Peters Parents. We don't need that info.
 
Rewatched Spider-Man recently, and man oh man has that movie aged terribly. Cheesy beyond belief, and not in the good Raimi-trademarked way. Spider-Man 2 still holds up well, except when
Ock carries Mary Jane away from that cafe. That looked ridiculous.

ASM1 kept me entertained, and I do think Garfield's Peter Parker is much better than McGuire's take. Haven't seen the new one yet, but according to my friend who hypes up everything to the point where the movie is ruined for me before it's over, it's the best Spider-Man movie yet!!!!
 
Those Doctor Octopus fights were better than anything in TASM movies IMO. One thing I think TASM movies excel at is the Spidey sense scenes; those were incredible.
 
jtb said:
how is this even a question?

Spiderman 3 is better than the two amazing spiderman movies, let alone the GOAT superhero movie Spiderman 2

and Tobey is super underrated. never understood the hate he got; he brought super underrated comic chops to the role. he was perfectly cast as Peter (even if he wasn't as great in the suit as Spiderman)
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You're crazy. Like rush you to a hospital, and lock you into a mental ward crazy. If I knew where you were, I'd actually call the ambulance to come get you. That's how crazy you are.
 
Toa TAK said:
Really?

So, no proper character development, lack of a good story with consequences, and unnecessary characters and sub-plots are what makes these movies objectively better?
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....you can keep a straight face and say that about the first 3 spider man films? I'd dare say the only believable relationships and characters in all the films are Garfield and Stone. Everyone else feels flat and fake.
 
I gotta say, I like the first 2 Rami movies better. ASM just feels too manufactured, like suits designed it from top to bottom using pie charts and graphs showing the latest consumer trends rather than a passionate team of people who love making movies.
 
Heshinsi said:
I can't go back to watching the original Spiderman movies without cringing hard. Plus I really don't like Toby McGuire, and I think Kristen Dunst as Mary Jane is an offence to all things pure in this world.
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This man gets it.

I think everyone saying Raimi's Spider-Man's movies were better either haven't seen them in a very long time or have rose colored glasses because of how cool they were when they first released.

McGuire is a terrible Peter Parker, and Kirsten Dunst isn't a good actress. Webb's series has way more heart than Raimi's version ever hoped to have. The chemistry between Garfield and Stone is so good.
 
In short.

Raimi films:
+ Better plot
+ Better villains
+ JK Simmons
- Too campy
- Spidey doesn't act very much like Spidey
- Campy as holy fuck

Webb films:
+ Better cast
+ Spidey acts like Spidey
+ Garfield + Stone > Tobey + Dunst
- No JK Simmons (yet)
- Weaker plot
- Peter is maybe too cool to be a 'nerd'
 
I think Raimi's are significantly better, especially after seeing ASM 2. I enjoyed ASM 1, and felt the tone of Spider-Man as a character was good with all the quips and nonsense, but it felt like being released only ten years after Raimi's first one, that Webb had to change or avoid focusing on parts of the story/character that he may otherwise had spent more time on. Uncle Ben's death in ASM 1 felt so insignificant compared to how it was handled in Raimi's movie, and I think that's how it felt the whole way through. It was hard for me to separate my ideas about Spider-Man on film in the Raimi movies while watching Webb's, especially considering how and why this trilogy came to be anyway.

Despite the complaints, I did enjoy ASM 1, but ASM 2 was very disappointing. It felt so overstuffed with weird sub-plots, and I thought the introduction of Harry Osborn was done so poorly.

And Spider-Man 2 still kicks all kinds of ass. I just re-watched it after seeing ASM 2, and it is great. It's what I've always loved about the character with the inner struggle and trying to balance everything while letting people down. That part of the character has always been so relatable.
 
raimis were better, but i liked spidey better in asm. his quips are spot on, the way he fights in close quarters is fantastic and spidey sense stuff is cheesy but cool.
 
They haven't even shown Jameson in the new ones yet, right? They don't even want to try and compete with Simmons. He was fucking perfect.
 
Sephzilla said:
I haven't seen ASM2 yet so I can't judge. However, just going off of ASM1, even though I think ASM1's script/story is pretty weak what made up for it (IMO) was that Webb's version really acted a lot more like Spidey than Raimi's version ever did.



This is a much more legit discussion
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Burton Bat destroys Nolan bat
 
Aesthet1c said:
I think everyone saying Raimi's Spider-Man's movies were better either haven't seen them in a very long time or have rose colored glasses because of how cool they were when they first released.
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Nope. ASM2 is the worst Spider-Man film in existence (Makes Spider-Man 3 look great somehow), and the first one is pretty much pointless.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nL8hVXSDmNM

I get more from this scene than the entire "new" series.
 
The "1/2" is throwing me off so much for some reason. I keep thinking of the .5 editions lol. "1&2" would've been better.

Anyways, SM2 over all.
 
Let's see

Better Peter: Draw
Better Spider-Man: Webb
Better love interest: Webb
Better Ben: Webb
Better May: Webb
Better Norman: Raimi
Better Goblin: Webb
Better Harry: Raimi
Better other villains: Raimi
Better romance: Webb

ASM/ASM2 take the overwhelming majority of categories for me.
 
Spiderman 2 is one of the best super hero movies. So there's no contest. Garfield is a better spiderman but a far worse Peter Parker.
 
Pagusas said:
....you can keep a straight face and say that about the first 3 spider man films? I'd dare say the only believable relationships and characters in all the films are Garfield and Stone. Everyone else feels flat and fake.
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Believable/better/hotter actors aside, the story arcs and character motivations are completely fucked to oblivion in the ASM movies. Villains in both ASM movies were driven by complete nonsense.

Just rewatched the first ASM movie yesterday, apparently because I hate myself and I just wanted to confirm that it was as bad as I remembered.


Sephzilla said:
In short.

Raimi films:
+ Better plot
+ Better villains
+ JK Simmons
- Too campy
- Spidey doesn't act very much like Spidey
- Campy as holy fuck

Webb films:
+ Better cast
+ Spidey acts like Spidey
+ Garfield + Stone > Tobey + Dunst
- No JK Simmons (yet)
- Weaker plot
- Peter is maybe too cool to be a 'nerd'
Click to expand...

Pretty much, except that campy is not a negative for Raimi, and to say Webb's films have a weaker plot and villains is like saying a meteoric crater is a pot hole.
 
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