God I love those movies to death. My childhood was beautiful.
These movies have more thematic value than nearly anything in the post 2008 MCU and DCEU combined, minus a few exceptions.
I think what I like the best about these scenes, and these movies in general, is that they are full to the brim with pure HUMANITY. In a way most modern superhero movies just are not. Marvel is mostly just a bunch of flashy larger than life characters in zany situations making zany quips. They might "save" the world, but it's on a cosmic scale that's so abstract it's hard to relate to it on an individual level. The very idea of Spider-Man struggling to the point of exhaustion, his suit torn and his strength strained so much he needs the very people he's trying to save to save him? That would be too human and too honest and real for modern Marvel. His current fancy techno Iron Man Jr. suit wouldn't even allow for the possibility, and in the worst case scenario there would just be some shenanigans of magic or other superheroes miraculously appearing. There is no human relatability; we're just watching the gods duke it out on a cosmic scale like it's f--king Wagner or something. THIS Spider-Man, on the other hand, was infinitely more relatable and you actually felt invested and cared about his fate and relationships.
And as for the DCEU... The less said about it, the better. I don't know why Zack Snyder was apparently under some other impression, but the fact of the matter is that at the end of the day, you cannot possibly make men in tights dressed as bats/clowns/etc. punching each other NOT campy/ridiculous/unrealistic. Raimi's films understood that and so chose to lean into it and make the most of it for what it was rather than try hard to make it as edgy, grim, dark, and miserable as possible as Snyder's DC films did. I mean Man of Steel honestly feels like a goddamn SNL parody of superhero movies to me. SUPERMAN as some kind of bleak Randian reluctant hero who literally snaps a guy's neck at the end in front of children? A color palate that doesn't go any lighter than "light gray," maybe? LITERALLY giving him a black suit eventually??? You just can't make this s--t up. It goes 100% against everything the genre was ever supposed to be and makes a mockery of itself in the process.
