The Amazing Spider-Man movies managed to mess up just about everything that makes Spider-Man such a great read. Peter Parker is obnoxious, arrogant, and never feels like he has that classic Peter Parker bad luck which makes Peter the underdog we all root for. He is more wrapped up in the legacy of his boring parents than he is in Uncle Ben, and that is a big bastardization of who Peter Parker is. His Spider-Man is painfully unfunny with 90% of the quips being annoying and cringe worthy(Yo yo yo the boys in blue are here, A god named sparkles, Just don't call me late for dinner etc....*puke*).
The villains are god awful. Between the Goomba Lizard, the painfully cheesy and pointless Electro, Butthead on meth Goblin, and "Rhino", Marc Webb and Co. cannot do a good villain to save their life. I hate, hate, HATE how they bastardized the Goblin storyline.
The deaths of both Stacys were also ruined. In the comics Peter was responsible for Captain Stacy's by using an untested webbing formula against Doc Ock which resulted in Ock's tentacles going out of control and knocking a chimney off a roof crushing Captain Stacy. That was the epic tragedy of his death and the massive guilt Peter had to carry from that. It was like the flip side of Uncle Ben's death. This time Peter did act against the bad guy and a father figure still died. His dying words to Peter in the comics were to be good to Gwen and look after her. In TASM he was killed in the line of duty through no fault of Peter's, so there's no guilt there for Peter to feel towards his death, and he was telling Peter to stay away from Gwen as he was dying. A cold final moment between him and Peter.
With Gwen's death they missed the whole point of it, and why it was so tragic for Peter beyond him just losing someone he loved. Peter is once again blameless here because Gwen was there against his wishes and hammered it home to the audience that she was there by her own choice.
The Gwen and Peter relationship is far too syrupy and sweet. The only bit of drama that's added to it is that promise Peter makes and breaks within 5 minutes to Captain Stacy. The only thing that keeps any interest is the chemistry they have. The relationship itself is dull. And I again hate how cocky Peter is with her. Especially when he just casually revealed he was Spider-Man by webbing Gwen's ass and pulling her in to kiss her. Peter of the comics was far more reserved and cautious about revealing his identity to anyone. There's just no charm or likability to Garfield's Peter. He often acts like he's god's gift around Gwen.
Maguire's Peter is the classic true Peter Parker. He struggles with many personal problems. Keeping up with school work, paying bills, friendships etc all because of being Spider-Man. He is an interesting and likable Peter Parker because his life is a drama because of juggling both lives, and he is not an unpleasant jerk about it. Give me a Peter Parker who racks himself with guilt over his Uncle's death, who turns to his Uncle in his mind when he has to make tough decisions to quit. Who delivers genuine emotion when he confesses to Aunt May about his role in Ben's death. That's a real conflicted flawed person, not Garfield's Peter. He couldn't do scenes like this. He's not got the emotional depth or character for it. Maguire's Spider-Man is the personification of the true Spider-Man character. He didn't need to be shouting off quips every 30 seconds because that is not what defines who Spider-Man really is.
Every single one of Raimi's villains are well done, and in Venom's case even better than the comic book counterpart. The comic book Venom had the stupidest of reasons for hating Spider-Man. The movie actually improved Venom over the comic book version. In the comics Eddie Brock hates Spider-Man because Eddie published a news story about Sin Eater's identity that turned out to be false when Spidey caught the real Sin Eater. He got fired and his life went to crap, and he blames Spidey for that. All Spidey did was catch a serial killer. He didn't even know Eddie from Adam. They never met. Spidey was not an obstacle to Eddie writing a good honest news story.
In SM-3 Raimi made an actual connection between Peter and Eddie, and he gave him real reasons to hate him. Peter exposed Eddie's fraud, roughed him up and humiliated him, and dated the girl Eddie was infatuated with.
The Goblin story was superbly done. Norman and Harry Osborn were well developed three dimensional characters, and in Harry's case he had a proper friendship with Peter, and not some sloppy rushed 2 minute cheesy scene talking about mirrors and combs and skipping stones. Doc Ock was magnificent, and so true to the comics in so many ways, in spite of the redemption at the end;
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The action scenes are magnificent, some of the finest of any comic book movie, and many people believe no CBM action sequence has topped the train fight of SM-2 and I agree.
MJ, aside from SM-3, was well done, and their relationship very well handled. There was proper depth there. MJ was not just a Miss perfect like TASM's Gwen. MJ was a real person with flaws and issues.
The supporting cast of Raimi's movies, especially Jonah and Aunt May, trump every supporting character in the TASM movies, who are all on the whole bland and forgettable, and in Captain Stacy's case nothing but a nagging jerk.
Raimi's movies have surpassed the TASM series in every conceivable area. The only true constant positive of the TASM movies is Stone's Gwen.
Making up for your girlfriend for missing such important moment as her speech makes him horny? And it wasn't a hard battle unlike with the Electro one,he clearly was having fun doing his job.
