With a demographically marginalized fanbase for intelligent material, spectacle and glamour have taken their predestined places at the forefront of moviedom. This is, for better or more likely worse, the golden age of the Hollywood blockbuster.

The shoddy craftsmanship of the “Titanics” and “Gladiators” of the past several years is given a high-gloss finish and praised in spite of iffy scripts, gaping plot holes and, frequently, lousy acting. The expectations of the general film-going populace have been whittled away, and what is left for the consumer is high-priced mediocrity.

So in a year which will likely be remembered more for box-office receipts than artistic accomplishment, it is surprising that four big-budget franchises have given a slight reprieve to the fate of Hollywood.

“Spider-Man” is the appropriate poster-child for this phenomenon. It has been the year’s top-grossing movie, but its good points only slightly outweigh its shortcomings. The film translated a comic-book hero to film as effectively as “Batman” and the “X-Men” but without the agreeable darkness of those films.

Tobey Maguire did a Michael Keaton in shattering expectations, but the film itself was built on the feeble assumption that everyone Peter Parker knows is too slow-witted to make the obvious connection (except the hammy Green Goblin, who deduces his identity from the most obscure observation). And let’s not forget a love plot that, until the film’s final minutes, remains more cartoonish than any comic book.

“Spider-Man” was a decent introduction to what will be a hugely prosperous franchise in the next few years. The shortcomings of the plot will hopefully be less prevalent in the countless sequels to follow. In its defense, “Spider-Man” fulfilled its simple goal of entertainment without trying to be more than a fun matinee.

Next is “Star Wars: Episode II — Attack of the Clones.” We all laughed when we heard the title, just as we did when we heard “The Phantom Menace” for the first time. (We never considered that “A New Hope,” “The Empire Strikes Back” and “The Return of the Jedi” were equally campy.)

Critics of this film remember their innocent awe at the original “Star Wars” a quarter-century ago and expect the same amazement today. They look at acting and dialogue that fail to rival “Casablanca,” and call “Clones” a failure.

They forget that “Star Wars” was conceived as an update of 1950s sci-fi serials. A 12-year-old seeing any of the five films for the first time now could be amazed to some degree, because he or she can have accurate expectations.

“Clones,” like all the films in the franchise, is entertaining. But more importantly, the plot is amazingly complex. No, not the central Anakin-becomes-Darth-Vader plot, which is interesting but certainly without surprise, but the fictional historical setting in which the story takes place.

Whereas the first trilogy started with black-and-white, good-versus-evil and became more complicated all the way through the lamentably kid-friendly “Jedi,” the prequels have, from the start, been so full of gray political intrigue that George Lucas might be the only person with a clue as to how it will all be resolved.

Last year the epic-franchise genre brought audiences the well-executed adaptations of the first books in the “Harry Potter” and “The Lord of the Rings” series. Each film’s follow-up seems poised to replicate both the praise and the bank of the initial outing.

“The Chamber of Secrets” struggles more to maintain the integrity of the unwieldy source material than “Sorcerer’s Stone,” but again delivers the required entertainment, faithfully recreating the Harry Potter universe. It is perhaps the perfect fare for exploitation but still maintains sincerity.

Likewise, “The Lord of the Rings” has kept admirably to the spirit of the book. Unlike J.K. Rowling’s tricky series, Tolkien presents obvious choices for trimming — the excessive singing has been mercifully abandoned, as have some subplots that interrupt the core narrative.

Of course, we may have to wait until next fall to see the full “Two Towers,” as it is the special edition DVD of the first film that comes across as the real thing. Studio “wisdom” provided that sucker “Lord of the Rings” fans were coerced into buying the crappy initial DVD release.

This is the crucial demonstration of how the entertainment industry now functions: Even quality work is exploitable, and corporations care less for the quality of the product they sell than for exactly how much they can squeeze out of the audience’s wallets.

Thus, for another year of contrived blockbuster releases, it is all the more surprising that the films at the top of the stack were quite palatable. Maybe there is some hope for Hollywood, as long as there is still a market for spectacle mixed with quality.