5. Spider-Man 2
After X-2 hit at the box office, Spider-Man 2 was the next comic book film to prove that these types of pictures could be grand and majestic, not simply silly and gratuitous. Though it gets a tad tiresome seeing another villain who is all-too sympathetic, Alfred Molina does a bang-up job playing Doc Ock, and the film makes considerable effort to develop Peter (Tobey Maguire) as a character, nagged by self-doubt as well as his personal commitments to Aunt May and Mary-Jane (Kirsten Dunst). Furthermore, we get to see Harry Osborne (James Franco) sliding ever closer towards the dark side as he mourns his father's demise. While the original was a firm foundation on which to build a franchise, the second film truly feels like a director hitting his stride. There are so many exhilarating scenes in this film - the subway fight and ensuing fallout is a classic of action cinema - that it easily bests the original, and even after two follow-ups (one sequel and one reboot), it remains the best of the series.