Spoilers etc.
Christmas 2021 is now in the history books for Sony Pictures. It marks the first time that one of their movies has earned the $1 billion mark for a cinema release. That movie? Spider-Man: No Way Home – the third instalment to the joint Sony-Marvel Spider-Man franchise and the 27th in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. That’s pretty impressive, especially in pandemic times when cinema attendance was extremely low and media companies were turning to subscription streaming platforms. Peter Parker must be happy.
Most of the world has seen the film starring Tom Holland as our friendly neighbourhood dude, but what makes No Way Home unique from all the other Spider-Man films is that it has combined the previous ones under the Sony brand, featuring 2002 – 2007 Spider-Man‘s Tobey Maguire, and 2012 – 2014 Amazing Spider-Man’s Andrew Garfield into one magical piece of cinema that has had fans go crazy over that they film themselves in a shonky-hidden-camcorder-that’s-borderline-piracy-but-they’re-just-filming-themselves-honest-your-honor kinda way.
In tribute to how awesome No Way Home is, here is our ranking of the Spider-Man cinematic film franchise from weakest to strongest. We’re not saying the weakest films are bad, they’re just not as strong as the rest. We still love them. Please note: we’re only including the main Maguire / Garfield / Holland editions and not the spin-offs, minor appearances and animated versions like Venom, Avengers and Into The Spider-verse.
The Weakest.
The Amazing Spider-Man 2: The Rise Of Electro. (2014)
Part of the Garfield-verse, they tried to cram in too many villains. The main baddie Max Dillon / Electro (Jamie Foxx) had a great feature on him, but the re-imagining of the Harry Osborn / Green Goblin (Dane DeHaan) who toooooook soooo looooong to establish only for a short fight, and Aleksei Sytsevich / Rhino (Paul Giamatti) to get roughly 10 minutes of screen time at the top and tail of the film, all while the wonky relationship of Parker and Gwen Stacy (Emma Stone) being woven in between just lead to confusion and clutter. Surely they would’ve learned that less-is-more from Spider-Man 3, which brings us to…
The Weaker.
Spider-Man 3. (2007)
In the third chapter of the Maguire-verse, we’re introduced to the alien goo that is temper and mood-changing Venom that dons Parker’s rival Eddie Brock Jr (Topher Grace) as well as latching onto Parker to give him ego and sass. But we also meet our main antagonist Flint Marko / Sandman (Thomas Haden Church), an escaped criminal who falls into a silo and is turned into sand. He’s misunderstood though as all he wants to do is be with his daughter. While Spider-Man is dealing with the two guys, Harry Osborn / New Goblin (James Franco) has completely channelled his anger over the death of his father from the first Spider-Man and is seeking revenge. All while Parker is still lusting over Mary Jane Watson (Kirsten Dunst) and losing grip on reality. So much going on, and so little screen time for everyone.
The Weak.
Spider-Man: Homecoming. (2017)
Our first foray into Parker’s life in the MCU instead of being a special guest. In the first instalment of the Holland-verse, it’s one baddie this time. Adrian Toombes / Vulture (Michael Keaton) who is a salvager turned arms trafficker and uses scrap and technology from the 2012 Battle of New York to build his own bad stuff. Though as this is an attachment to the MCU story-arc, it doesn’t sit well as a stand-alone if you want to view it separately, due to the interwovenness of other MCU characters like Tony Stark / Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr) and Happy Hogan (Jon Faverau). But we do meet this “M.J.” Michelle Jones-Watson (Zendaya).
The Not-So-Weak.
The Amazing Spider-Man. (2012)
The first instalment to the Garfield-verse, The Amazing Spider-Man came to fruition due to the cancellation of Spider-Man 4 in the Maguire-verse, and the studios decided to reboot the franchise and re-cast everyone and everything. Because the Maguire series had really established itself with three chapters, it’s hard to hit the reset button and forget them. But, this Garfield-verse edition did extremely well to make the Spider-Man franchise its own.
In this first instalment, Parker confronts Dr Curt Connors / Lizard (Rhys Ifans) who is a scientist and the former partner to Parker’s dad Richard Parker (Campbell Scott), who is keen on engineering the redevelopment of body limbs using reptilian tissue. But something goes wrong and Connors turns into a giant lizard. Not only Parker needs to stop him, but he also has to deal with police captain George Stacy (Denis Leary) who doesn’t trust Spider-Man, and deal with the fact that George is the father of his love interest, Gwen Stacy (Stone).
The Strong.
Spider-Man: Far From Home. (2019)
Back to the Holland-verse, Spider-Man: Far From Home is the epilogue to Avengers: Endgame battle and the ‘snap’ that made everyone blip and disappear for 5 years. At the time of this film release, Disney had just bought the 20th Century FOX library of films and TV – which had other Marvel licences underneath the banner they couldn’t get access to. One major piece of that library was the X-Men and their characters. Fans speculated that Far From Home was the entry point for these characters to enter the MCU, with Quentin Beck / Mysterio (Jake Gyllenhall) as the piece of the puzzle to solve the connection. Well… we were all wrong. Instead, Mysterio was all made up, having been created by a disgruntled Stark Industries employee, using Stark technologies to create the illusion of the mystical person from another world.
The Stronger.
Spider-Man 2. (2004)
The second instalment into the Maguire-verse, and this time, he has to deal with his emotions and studies while keeping his persona secret.
Parker’s grades are falling, he’s become estranged from his best friend Harry and his love interest Mary Jane, and he’s trying to keep a steady job. Slowly suffering from an identity crisis, he decides to step away from Spider-Man, but it’s not until his mentor Dr Otto Octavius / Doctor Octopus (Alfred Molina) suffers personal and emotional damage from a scientific experiment gone wrong, Parker has to accept his fate – he needs to balance both worlds equally. Spider-Man 2 has fantastic storytelling and great action sequences which makes it stand out from the rest.
The Incredibly Strong.
Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021)
The third instalment of the Holland-verse which magically brings all the Spider-Man worlds from the above, together. Parker is exposed as Spider-Man (Far From Home), Parker approaches Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) to cast a spell so everyone can forget who he is. He accidentally tampers with the spell, a tear in the multiverse happens, and they all combine together in their own way to try and repair the damage that’s been done. But that’s not without resistance from the Green Goblin, which brings us to…
The Strongest.
Spider-Man. (2002)
The first instalment into the Maguire-verse, and the first major attempt at a blockbuster Spider-Man film. Maguire is perfectly cast as Parker, and Dunst as MJ, with the perfect origin storytelling out of all of them.
Parker is living with Uncle Ben (Cliff Robertson) and Aunt May (Rosemary Harris), and is a budding journalist photographer, selling his photos to Daily Bugle editor J. Jonah Jameson (J K Simmons). Parker gets bitten by an escaped genetically modified spider while on a school excursion which MJ and Harry (Franco) are also attending. Meanwhile, Harry’s dad Norman Osborn (Willem Dafoe) the CEO of Oscorp and scientist, experiments on himself while trying to create a super-serum for the military and is shut down over the ethics. Osborn is given super-strength and a split personality with the Green Goblin, and plans revenge on anyone who gets in his way.
After Uncle Ben is killed by a robber, Parker makes sure that he uses his new abilities to fight injustice. That includes fighting people he cares for and risk losing the ones he loves.
To us, 2002’s Spider-Man is the strongest due to a solid origin story, development of relationships and impressive action sequences that show strength and stamina, without taking itself too seriously.
These are our thoughts, but we’d love to hear about your Spider-Man list. Which do you think is the weakest, and the strongest.
