hehe,
my favorite Spider-Man movie is part 2, actually about 20 minutes before TJ's 5:11 post I had actually got done watching it for like the 5th time. The Dark Knight was on again on tv, but I was like you know what, i feel like watching Spider-Man 2.
As far as characters go, i think its the best character exploration of the series. I can relate to Peter Parker a lot, he's intelligent, but that doesn't mean everything goes well for him. His social skills are a wreck and this keeps him from opportunity. I can relate to how Peter feels when he hangs out with Harry, I get a similar feeling when I hang out with my friend Rick, because I banged his sister. Alfred Molina is great as Doctor Octopus. I have to be honest, I was always a Venom fan, and in any other incarnation I had never really cared much for Doc Ock as a character. However, this one brings him to life. He is a tragic, and lost person with nothing to live for, he just sort of wanders around in a fugue state attempting to maintain his dead dreams. Mary Jane is looking for a hero in her personal life, she knows she can't be with Spider-Man so she goes for the astronaut. She is suspicious of Peter's activity, and in the back of her mind she thinks Peter could be Spider-Man, but it is a hard thing to swallow, because Peter is a fucking doofus, he's Spider-man..seriously? Peter also deals with the duality of his personality, on one hand he's the man as Spider-Man, but his life sucks otherwise. Aunt May's house is being foreclosed and it's too bad she doesn't put a gypsy curse on the bank manager for not giving her a loan. There is a great Evil Dead scene in the movie. It helps to be familiar with both Darkman and the Evil Dead series for this movies, because otherwise you might miss some magical bits. A lot of people hate Maguire as Peter/Spiderman, but I think he's perfect. He fits the awkward nerdy side of Peter, and at the same time pulls out some of the stronger bits. Another thing people hate is that the mask gets taken off a few times, I really don't mind this. Your aware who Spider-Man is, sure some people may see who he looks like, but know one who actually knows Peter besides Mary Jane sees his face, so good luck on the police sketches that their not telling anyone about anyways. Doc Ock dies too, so he's no consequence. Although, in real life a train camera would catch his face, although in real life there are no above ground trains in New York. I could go on forever, there is so much depth.
Spiderman 3, is my least favorite of the movies, and many blame Raimi, but apparently Raimi just wanted to make it about Sandman, which were some of the best bits of the movie, apparently Sony forced venom in due to his popularity. Too much **** happened at once and it hurt the movie. The movie was nowhere near as bad as Batman and Robin or Batman Forever though. The series could have been salvaged, although in the long run they would have to reboot Venom because they screwed him up so badly. If I were to do a new one, Lizard would definitely be the next villain, I'd rather do several movies with one villain than one movie with several villains.
ah Venom, if only you were set up with a two movie arch you could have been better