1. Spider-Man 2 (9/10) -- Great story based on the comics (Spidey: No More, Doc Ock's origin) that had both the goofy fun of 1960s comics and some restraint that Raimi would lose on his third outing. It also was character driven, focused on its main cast like they were the neurotic New Yorkers of a Woody Allen movie and improved on the action, pacing and villain characterization of the first film. Still has hands down, inarguably the best fight scenes in any Spidey, or even superhero, film to date (bank/building scene and especially the train/bell-tower sequence).
2. Spider-Man (8/10) -- A near-perfectly told origin film. It got almost every single detail of Spidey's origin right and told it in a snappy, time-efficent way that was always fun and engrossing. The second half suffers from the villain being underdeveloped, as well as having a crappy costume, but his personal relationship with Peter/Spidey makes it work and it flows well with some great iconic moments still in the film like the upside down kiss, the death of GG, and the final swing.
3. The Amazing Spider-Man (7.5/10) -- Essentially a remake of the 2002 Spidey film, it does some things much better (Peter/Spidey's characterization, development of the love interest, high school life, etc.) and some things much worse (death of Uncle Ben, thrust of the origin, overall pacing). While I love the Lizard, he's even more underdeveloped than the GG and the second half of the film is so poorly edited/strung-together it makes SM1's pace look like a masterpiece of editing. If you want to focus just on faithfulness of Peter/Spidey's character, I can see why you'd prefer this film. But as an overall movie, it is less iconic, well-put-together and as fun as the original.
4. Spider-Man 3 (6.5/10) -- Not as bad as the Internet makes it out to be. Critics had it mostly right in 2007, it is a very flawed and awkwardly told film. But it has enough heart and humanity that it works, because you like the characters and care what happens to them and it has enough sequences that do work (Harry's arc, Venom's birth, all the CGI-scenes with Sandman) that it somewhat makes up for its awful screenplay. Is it mediocre? Probably. But it's still fun and entertaining and not nearly the Batman & Robin/Wolverine/X3 POS fanboys make it out to be.
My rankings.
