The One Scene That Explains Everything Wrong With ‘The Amazing Spider-Man’

The release of Spider-Man: Homecoming has restarted an old debate: Which is better, Spider-Man or The Amazing Spider-Man?

Okay, so it’s not much of a debate, at least to us. We’re big fans of Sam Raimi’s original Spidey trilogy. Marc Webb’s two Amazing Spider-Man movies, not so much. To explain why, ScreenCrush editor Ryan Arey composed this video essay that puts two very similar scenes from each franchise — the subway fight between Spidey and Doc Ock in Spider-Man 2 and the brief skirmish with the Rhino at the very end of The Amazing Spider-Man 2 — side by side to explore why one ranks amongst the very best superhero sequences in movie history and the other is ... pretty much the opposite of that in every way.

In his analysis, Ryan compares the villains, their motivations, the shots, the geography, and even the way their respective crowds congregate. He also makes some harsh judgments about the bad parenting on display in Amazing Spider-Man 2. (He’s not wrong though; what the hell is that mom doing letting her kid watch a radioactive bug guy fight a walking tank? Get out of there lady! Run for your life!)

We’ve got lots more Spider-videos and video essays coming in the future. In the meantime, don’t forget to subscribe to the ScreenCrush YouTube channel to catch all our future episodes. And you can watch more of ScreenCrush’s videos below!