Every Spider-Man movie, ranked (including ‘Brand New Day’)
Cybersecarmor.com – What's better than one friendly neighborhood movie Spider-Man ? Three of them.
Tobey Maguire wore the mantle of the beloved Marvel Comics superhero for three movies in the 2000s, Andrew Garfield donned the web shooters for two films, and Tom Holland has been fully entrenched as the resident Spidey of the Marvel Cinematic Universe for a decade. Holland's fourth solo movie, "Spider-Man: Brand New Day" (in theaters now), catches up with the young hero as he reconnects with old friends ( Zendaya and Jacob Batalon) and gets used to a new status quo fighting crime in New York City.
So how does the web swinger's latest adventure compare to his other cinematic outings? We're ranking every Spider-movie from worst to best. (Pro tip: With the exception of "Brand New Day," all are streaming now on Disney+.)
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Tobey Maguire’s Peter Parker going emo and dancing weirdly − a downside of being infected by an alien entity − is one of the biggest knocks against the final chapter in Sam Raimi’s Spidey trilogy. It’s horrendously bad, but so is most everything here, especially its villains: Topher Grace is terrible as Venom and James Franco’s new Green Goblin goes from arch enemy to Spidey ally in haphazard fashion.
Director Marc Webb didn’t learn the important lessons of "Spider-Man 3" because he also has antagonist issues. Jamie Foxx’s Electro is a nerd-turned-foe come to life through bad CGI, and Dane DeHaan looks like a reject from "The Lord of the Rings" as an oddly elfish Green Goblin. The biggest sin, though? Fouling up the comics' tragically iconic tale involving Gwen Stacy (Emma Stone) and one really nasty fall.
The execution wasn’t great, but at least Marc Webb’s first superhero foray tried different things: having Gwen be the love interest rather than Mary Jane, tying Peter’s dead father (Campbell Scott) into the science that gave Peter his powers, and giving the hero a non-villain figure − in this case, Gwen’s overprotective cop dad (Denis Leary) − to complicate his life. That said, Andrew Garfield’s super-dude is too broody to be any fun.
Puppy love and summer flings abound when Tom Holland's Peter Parker goes on a school trip to Europe to spend quality time with his crush MJ (Zendaya) and instead gets thrown into a few international incidents. Even with Peter lamenting the loss of his mentor Tony Stark , high-school high jinks keep the storytelling lighthearted, while Jake Gyllenhaal makes an over-the-top splash as enigmatic supervillain Mysterio.
Tobey Maguire was 26 when he played high-school Peter, so thankfully he moves into college pretty quickly. But for the most part, his first outing as Spidey is a pretty successful one. Watching him fly through Manhattan is still rousing more than two decades later, his relationship with Mary Jane (Kirsten Dunst) spawned an iconic onscreen kiss , and Willem Dafoe is entertainingly hammy as the insanely over-the-top Green Goblin. Having the most fun, though, is J.K. Simmons as joyously cranky newsman J. Jonah Jameson.
Tom Holland's young hero grapples with adulthood as much here as he does a mysterious new antagonist. Peter yearns to tell his love MJ (Zendaya) what she means to him, even if she doesn't remember him, thanks to a magic spell. But that's just the beginning of his troubles as his body and powers are going through major changes from his hairy arachnid DNA, and a formidable foe pops up who can possess anybody they want.
The third time is indeed the charm . Tom Holland looks like a kid and exudes a not-quite-there-yet self-confidence dealing with father figure Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) and supervillainous Vulture (Michael Keaton). The do-gooding is effective but the best stuff is when Peter is being a normal teen around best friend Ned (Jacob Batalon), school crush Liz (Laura Harrier) and resident jerk Flash (Tony Revolori), giving "Homecoming" the young adult film the MCU has needed.
Sam Raimi’s second Spidey set the gold standard for superhero movies back in the day and still holds up. With the origin story out of the way, the sequel digs into the emotional stakes of doing the right thing: Peter becomes estranged from love Mary Jane and best friend Harry (James Franco) and loses his powers because of a nervous breakdown. Alfred Molina melds Shakespearean tragedy with mechanized tentacles as the fabulous Doctor Octopus, and the scene with Spidey using super-strength, lots of webbing and pure grit to stop a speeding train is an all-timer.
The emotional and satisfying conclusion of the teen-oriented trilogy featuring Tom Holland's hero also cleverly pays off aspects of Tobey Maguire's and Andrew Garfield's earlier Spider-films . A trio of web swingers team for a rousing climax – plus old bad guys like Alfred Molina's Doc Ock, Jamie Foxx's Electro and Willem Dafoe's Green Goblin show up, too – in a stirring story about second chances that begets a whole new story via one monumental sacrifice.
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