Welcome to "Ranked"-where I rank a franchise or filmography from worst to best and hand out assorted related superlatives and accolades. This week, I'm profiling the Spider-Man franchise.
Spider-Man Movies Ranked:
9.The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (C-)
8.The Amazing Spider-Man (C)
7.Spider-Man 3 (C+)
6.Spider-Man: Far from Home (B)
5.Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (B)
4.Spider-Man: No Way Home (B)
3.Spider-Man (B+)
2.Spider-Man: Homecoming (B+)
1.Spider-Man 2 (A-)
Top Dog: Spider-Man 2 (2004)
As the response to No Way Home has proven, nostalgia is a powerful tool and that's precisely why Spider-Man 2 sits at the top of this list. It's still the first movie I think of when someone mentions Spider-Man and along with X2: X-Men United, was the earliest superhero movie that really blew me away as a kid. Would the effects, action sequences, entertainment value and really anything outside of the performances hold up nearly 17 years later? Perhaps not, but the fond memories I have for a film that I long considered to be the crowning achievement of superhero cinema will last forever.
Lowlight: The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014)
Depending on your perspective, the strength of the performances from Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone were either really done a huge disservice by the sloppy-ass Spider-Man movies they appeared in or the only things that keep them from completely falling apart. One thing that most people can agree on regardless of where they stand on this issue is that The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is the weaker of the 2 films they appeared in. Remarkably, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 manages to overshadow the middling redundancy of its origin story predecessor by jamming enough corny moments, poorly handled backstories and awful villains (Jamie Foxx's Electro, Dane DeHann's Green Goblin, Paul Giamatti's Rhino) to fill at least 5 additional movies.
Most Overrated: Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021)
No Way Home was a fun ride that was made better by audiences losing their minds over every live action Spider-Man appearing together for the 1st time ever. The reason why I don't view No Way Home as something more impactful is the entire movie is basically just an endless parade of fan service, and there's a limit on how much I can enjoy something that doesn't really do much outside of bask in the glory of its own brand and pander to the people who love it so much.
Most Underrated: Spider-Man (2002)
The history of why superhero movies are the full-blown global phenomenon they are today at least somewhat traces back to Spider-Man. While the genre had found some success with Batman, Superman and X-Men- which was released only 22 months before this in the past, Sam Raimi shook things up by showcasing how groundbreaking special effects could bring these vivid worlds to life, adding real emotional stakes to the story and treating the material with the same level of seriousness that could be found in a typical blockbuster of the era. It also gave us a brilliantly unassuming performance from Tobey Maguire as a nerdy high school kid who suddenly becomes a superhero and a genuinely evil, imposing villain in Willem Dafoe's Green Goblin that remains a high watermark for the genre 2 decades later.
The One That I Really Need to Re-Watch the Most: Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018)
With its unique animation style that blended 2D drawings and 3D computer renderings, emotional story and the representation barriers it broke, Into the Spider-Verse quickly became viewed as a special film that made a profound impression on a lot of people. Since I have a reputation as the animated movie Grinch to uphold, I didn't happen to be one of them. Despite this unfortunate role I have to play, I really want to go back and watch it again to figure out if I missed something the first time or I'm just one of the only pricks on the planet that found this movie to be fine, but nothing overly noteworthy.
Best Spider-Man: Tom Holland
Maguire, Garfield and Holland have all brought a distinct flavor to the character and gone down as the strongest parts of their respective films because of it. What makes Holland's performance slightly stand above the rest of the pack is that his version of Spider-Man syncs up the most with how the character was depicted prior to being put on the big screen. Peter Parker's primary portrayal in the comic was that of a naive, bumbling and kind person who's figuring what it means to be a hero on the fly and Holland has done an unbelievable job of bringing that characterization to life while also delivering a certain emotional nuance and charm that couldn't exist in the walls of comic panel.
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