20 Greatest Moments From Spider-Man Movies

Though Spider-Man 3's Sandman (Thomas Hayden Church) feels underdeveloped due to the overstuffed script - and that awkward Uncle Ben retcon sure didn't help - the sequence in which he's transformed into his alter-ego is nothing short of visual poetry.

After escaped convict Flint Marko falls into a particle accelerator, his body is fused with the surrounding sand, giving him the ability to manipulate his mass with the properties of sand.

We see this for the first time in his unexpectedly beautiful "birthing" scene, where Marko's sandy form eventually assumes a human figure, and he struggles to grip his pendant containing a picture of his sick daughter.

For starters, the visual effects are outstanding and have aged incredibly well, and beyond that, it's clear that Raimi had a lot of passion for the character, imbuing him with a tragic quality that couldn't feel further from Raimi's dud treatment of Venom (Topher Grace), a character he didn't even want to include.