 We now have three different Spider-Man sequels, all with very similar themes, but very different approaches. So you know what time it is. Pizza time. Let's get to the star himself, Peter Parker, aka Spider-Man. I personally like all three actor portrayals of him. I think Andrew Garfield nails down the playful cocky spirit of Spider-Man, while Toby has the whole Peter Parker down on his luck personality perfected. Tom Holland balances both sides very well with a nice blend of awkwardness mixed with heroic qualities. Our Mary Janes couldn't be any different, with Kirsten giving a very serious dramatic performance and easily her best in the trilogy, while Zendaya is played mostly for laughs and far from home. She has a very dead pan personality, a bit paranoid at times, who handles even the most intense situations pretty cash. The Amazing Spider-Man 2 has a lot of problems, and I'm underselling that statement. One of them, however, is not Gwen Stacy, played by Emma Stone. She's a sharp, quick-witted partner for Peter to bounce ideas and comedy off of, and carries pretty much every scene she's in. The Aunt May lineup is pretty solid all around, too. She's like a fine wine who actually de-ages throughout the course of the series, going from the lovely Rosemary Harris to the always terrific Sally Field. Far from home, Marissa Tome is no slouch either. But as with all things far from home, she too doesn't get much of an opportunity to spread her acting chops. It's mostly played for comedy. It would seem writer Chris McKenna constantly goes out of his way to avoid any sort of drama that's previously been handled by the other iterations. Harris will always be my favorite Aunt May, only because she gets that killer line. I believe there's a hero in all of us. I can't do it. I can't do it like she did. There are plenty of fantastic supporting roles in these films, too, such as Ned and his classmates, J. Jonah Jameson and the Daily Bugle staff, James Franco as Harry Osborn, and of course the Stan Lee cameos. Then there's the villains, who can really make or break a film. The Amazing Spider-Man 2 has two of them, and neither of them really work at all, and then there's kind of a third one thrown in here and there to remind us that Sony truly can screw up a film if it wants to. Jamie Foxx's electro just looks silly, and his character motivations match. Harry Osborn has shades of Spider-Man 3's Venom, showing up really late in the game and taken out just as quickly. Granted, he doesn't at least cause some never-ending pain for our hero, which is more than I can say about other villains. Jake Gyllenhaal's Quentin Beck, also known as Mysterio, was probably one of the worst-kept secrets in recent MCU history. I mean, who really thought this guy was going to be good? Gyllenhaal always delivers, and here is no exception. Playing an X-stark worker in the most disgruntled of ways. His Titan creatures were well designed, too, but never really much of a threat. Spider-Man 2's Dr. Octavius, however, has everything go in his way. A brilliant scientist who lost his wife and his mind in the process, taken over by his very creation. Teaming up with Harry for the revenge angle worked incredibly well, too. Nothing feels rushed or out of place here, and that's thanks to a script that takes its time to build up. We'll talk more about that here in round two. Story. Spider-Man Dose, the amazing Spider-Man 2 and Far From Home, may be very different films, but they do have one theme running through all. And that's love. Sam Raimi shows us Peter Parker at his lowest point. He's failing at everything. From the simplest tasks to delivering a pizza or making an eight o'clock play, he has lost his balance, his confidence, and ultimately his spider abilities. I find this to be the most compelling aspect of the film, as everyone can relate to falling down at one point or another, and not entirely sure how to pick oneself back up. Doc Ock's arc also follows the love story angle, albeit in a tragic way, as he accidentally kills his soulmate and his life's work during a press event gone horribly wrong. So the next time you botch a PowerPoint presentation in front of your peers, just remember it could be far worse. And also, maybe don't use PowerPoint. That's on you. Mark Webb's amazing Spider-Man 2 goes for the tragic route also. Parker attempts to keep his word with Gwen Stacy's dead father by staying away from her. That proves to be easier said than done, as Emma Stone is a lovely national treasure who's not easily avoided. Or should she be? He's haunted throughout this picture by the ghost of Stacy's past, which causes him to make some slip-ups from time to time until he finally decides to embrace their relationship. Turns out, the old man was right, as it wasn't much longer before Gwen Stacy snaps her neck harder than Superman did to Zod. This leads to what will surely be a final dramatic chapter for the amazing Spider-Man franchise. Someone out there is still waiting for the third film. Max Dillon is the main antagonist in this movie. He works for Oscorp, met Spider-Man once, fell into an electric eel cage, became a blue man group member, and then hated Spidey for not remembering his name. So naturally, everybody needs to die. He teams up with Harry eventually, who has a disease that makes him overact as the film progresses, and the rest, as they say, is terrible. Far from home picks up after the events of The Avengers Endgame, so the stakes couldn't be lower. Director John Watts knows this and doesn't even pretend there's anything remotely threatening happening in this flick. The story has a very light tone to it all, cracking even more jokes than its predecessor homecoming. Complete with a student made in Memorum for Tony Stark. Peter is already sick of the superhero shtick and wants some well-earned time off. He opts to leave the suit back home with Aunt May and Happy, as he joins his fellow classmates on an out-of-state Euro trip, but he quickly finds out there's no running away from your responsibilities. Mainly because Sam Jackson's Nick Fury is controlling the class destinations, strategically placing them in the line of danger. More like Dick Fury, if you ask me. Peter is informed that there is a supposed multiverse that's making its way into his, consisting of giant earth-destroying creatures and a Dr. Strange-esque superhero to help guide what's left of shield. Parker may be in the mission physically, but his mind is elsewhere, specifically on MJ, who he was hoping to tell how he feels during this big trip. Ultimately, he figures out Mysterio's nefarious ruse, saves the day, gets the girl, and becomes the next Iron Man. While one of these Spider-Man movies is perhaps not like the other when it comes to story, production is an entirely different bag. It's really easy to knock on the amazing Spider-Man, too. That was a statement. From its sloppy handling of its villains or the cliched use of ghost mentors, but I will never make fun of it from a visual standpoint. It really does have good action moments, and the use of slow motion here is stunning, to say the least. This, playing along with the sort of dubstep beats that drop when Electro is on screen and the GoPro-esque shots of Spider-Man swinging are some of the best on screen. Plus, that suit is something pretty special. Its musical score as a whole still pales in comparison to what came before, and some of the villain design is just downright atrocious. At the very least, this movie is the equivalent of a dumb cartoon most kids can enjoy. Spider-Man 2 is a lot of things to a lot of people. A sappy drama. A silly, intentional, campy comedy. A tragic horror story with the dash of Evil Dead sprinkled in. I think it contains all those features and more, and I'm perfectly happy with that. These are all shown in the way Raimi frames the picture, sometimes choosing aggressive zoom-ins that are meant to lighten the darker mood of the scene unfolding. Other times, he'll hold a shot for an extended period of time while Toby does a bit of improvisational humor. The Spider Cam is there again for those hero shots of our protagonist as he swings through the city, making us feel like we are up there with him and his thoughts. The effects are of course not as seamless as that of, say, Far From Home, but the less reliance on CGI helps the smaller moments seem real and tangible. Then there's the score by Danny Elfman, which I think far and wide surpasses the others, even the classic score that's used in Homecoming and Far From Home. And speaking of Far From Home, it's another MCU movie which means it has a ton of CGI, a lot of laughs, and a whole lot of budget. 160 million, to be exact. I wouldn't say it was all necessary either, all things considered. The giant Titan fights weren't exactly the most gripping battles to watch unfold, but the final fight against the drones did have some great web slinging action. That, in those few minutes of the mysterious mind-bending visions, were some of the coolest things in the franchise. The mid-credits scene was fun too, but it's more of a reminder to me why the Raimi films are held so highly. A big criticism many, including myself, have about the MCU Spider-Man is his powers, or lack thereof. Guy at one point starts to lose his spidey sense, but that means very little to the audience as he barely even used it in the past films. And since Tony Stark has gifted Peter all of his tech, Spider-Man's powers kind of lose their purpose on their own. Granted, this issue applies to plenty of characters in this universe now, and it's one of those things you have to just turn your brain off to, I guess? It is a pretty big logical hole, though, if you even think about it for a second. I mean, you got Black Widow, well, not anymore. But you got Hawkeye running around suitless, shooting arrows, when he could just as easily throw in a suit, fly around, and auto-aim on everything. I call my YouTube community, and they once again made me a proud parent. Here are the results. In Deader Than Gwen Stacy Last Place is the Amazing Spider-Man 2, with a less than amazing 5%. In second place is the middle-of-the-road trip adventure Iron Man Jr. Far From Home, with 33%. And in first place is Spider-Man 2 with 61% of the votes. This was the right call, and I do like Homecoming and Far From Home quite a bit, not so much Amazing Spider-Man 2. And you can call me biased if you'd like. It's the easy thing to do when someone likes something that you don't. But mark my words, someday when you're older, you will be on the receiving end of this as well. And also, this is more than just reviews, this is movie feuds. Like, I can imagine in 15 or 20 years when Hugh Jackman's been replaced and there are six more Wolverine movies, someone's going to say Logan's still the best Wolverine and a bunch of people are going to call him biased. It's probably going to be right.