Great idea for a thread. I feel like it was made specifically for me!
The first Superman movie I saw when I was very young. I don't think I saw it when it was first in the theater, so it must have come back in the theater or been on TV or something? I have a stronger memory of part 2 (which I definitely saw in the theater and enjoyed quite a bit, as a 5yo!) Anyway my dad loved Superman (from when HE was a kid) and I'm sure that was impressed upon me. There was generally an enthusiasm about the film in general and of course Reeve's casting was nothing short of magical. He WAS Superman!
I was 14 when Burton's Batman film came out. Batman was always "my" comic book hero and you can bet I was so excited for this film; the hype ahead of it was like nothing I'd seen ever before. At the time, I went to the first showing that morning with my friends (wearing my Batman t-shirt of course). They'd already shown a bunch of the best action sequences in promo TV things and I didn't really appreciate the weirder nuances and style of the film at the time; it was still really cool but felt a bit of a dud, to me.
Spider-Man 2002 was a big deal of course. I'd been working in the game industry as a young adult for a bit at that time; my close friends were working at Neversoft on the PS1 Spidey game (and actually had been extras in the Bonesaw wrestling audience scene, with the rest of the game's staff) so we were all excited to go see it. Plus Raimi's Evil Dead films were some of the coolest things I'd ever watched. The film felt like a real cultural moment that we had all been looking forward to for a very, very long time (there'd been rumblings about a Spider-Man film for years and years). I felt that everyone nailed it, even if capturing what was special about Green Goblin still felt too elusive for what they were trying to do here. I mean Dafoe was great, but the choices they made with Doc Ock in the sequel really made part 1 look a bit like amateur hour.
Overall, I'd have to say Burton's Batman is the one that's stayed with me the longest. As I got older and rewatched the film multiple times - and as filmmaking has changed, significantly, in the time since - it feels really crystallized as a very unique time and place in cinema. When effects were really advanced, but not so over the top reliant on CG as they've since become. The style and mood of the film is just so out there, special, and timelessly strange. It feels so much more like its own thing in a much stronger way than the others, and has aged like wine, to me. Keaton, Nicholson, and Basinger were all very much in their prime in so many ways (hell, Burton as well).
I love all the movies mentioned, but I'll have to say it's gonna be Batman > Spider-Man > Superman.
I'm still a bit traumatized from Superman 3 though. Whoa I mean WTF.
