5. Spider-Man (2002)
Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man marked the true beginnings of modern superhero cinema. It established trends and tropes that are now staples of the genre, bringing the source material to life in a way that simply hadn’t been achieved with quite so much success before. Watching it back over two decades later highlights just how good 2002’s Spider-Man really is – it simply holds up remarkably well.
There’s so much to love about Spider-Man. From Willem Dafoe’s Jekyll-and-Hyde performance as Norman Osborn/Green Goblin to costume designs and fight choreography, Spider-Man is so expertly crafted. There’s very little not to like about the first entry in Raimi’s trilogy because there’s so very much that it gets right.
In fact, perhaps the only thing that goes against the movie is that it just doesn’t carry the same weight in a genre that now finds itself oversaturated. Many of the scenes that once seemed epic simply don’t feel so big after decades of huge superhero moments, and elements that once seemed groundbreaking now seem a little trite. Even so, 2002’s Spider-Man remains one of the best examples of how to make a competent superhero movie, which is especially impressive considering it was one of the first to do it in the modern era.