I'm going to tell you right at the start: Fantastic 4 wins this battle.
Why? well, sit back and I will explain it to you.
My biggest mistake was having expectations. I love Sam Raimi and have been a fan of his since I first saw Army of Darkness (aka Bruce Campbell Vs. The Army Of Darkness, a far better title if you ask me). I enjoyed his frenetic camera moves and the use of alternate angles to create a uncomfortable, stalking feeling. The bike mounted camera chases of all the Evil Dead movies is hard to top in my book. Spiderman 1 was the most powerful of the series story wise it had Spiderman's origin as well as the death of his uncle. The scenes where he is learning to use his new powers easily captures the imagination with many of the movies viewers. In my opinion, looking at Spiderman 1 you can tell it is well-made and that the director knew his stuff but, it doesn't have very many of Raimi's trademarks, you know, the things that make a Sam Raimi movi a Sam Raimi movie. I felt that while Spiderman 2 was weaker story wise it showed a greater amount of Raimi-ness. That scene where Doctor Octopus' arms attack the medical crew brought me back to the nostalgis days of the Evil Deal trilogy. To me it seemed that Raimi was a little careful with Spiderman 1 and then let himself go with the second film and filmed it with more of his characteristic style. Both movies met my high set expectations
With the first Fantastic Four movie I was warned beforhand that this movie had a lot of problems. I went in with low expectations andcame away happy because it delivered all it had promised I'd be hard-pressed to name the director of the first Fantastic Four movie and even more hard-pressed to name another film that he had done. Special effects were the main character in this movie with the characters taking a backseat to the action heavy story.
By now you've probably given up on reading this or if you are still here you are asking yourself: "Why is he writing about the first two Spiderman movies when he is supposed to be detailing an epic battle between two comicbook movies. The answer my friend is all about origins.
I feel that to properly rate these two titles you need to look at what came before. The first two Spiderman movies set an awfully high bar, if the third movie needs to reach it or surpass it then it is going to have to be made very well indeed.
What I'm saying is that while I can't honestly say that Fantastic 4: Rise Of The Silver Surfer was a better movie than Spiderman 3, I enjoyed Fantastic Four: Rise Of The Silver Surfer more because I went in with less expectations.
FF: RotSS had moments that made me groan and cringe with their ham-fisted attempts at humor and schmaltz. Some of the special effects were horrible (see: Mr. Fantastic, danceclub scene) and others were absolutly amazing (see: Silver Surfer). There were also some times when I felt hit over the head with the Dodge marketing hammer. But all in all it was fun and more evenly paced than Spiderman 3 which seemed to move along at a snails pace for two and a half hours before wrapping-up everything in a nice package with a pretty bow in the last 30 minutes.
Sam Raimi has never let me down before but I guess there is a first time for everything. I hope he doesn't join the likes of Tim Burton where you never know if his movie is going to be an enduring masterpiece (Ed Wood, Sleepy Hollow) or just plain unwatchable (Planet of the Apes, which I feel was one of the greatest travesties perpetrated on cinema...ever).