Spider-Man has always been my favorite superhero. My parents had a college kid dress up like Spider-Man for my 6th birthday. A little later, mom bought me a Spider-Man costume and I even had a photo shoot done while wearing it. If that isn't proof enough of my love, I stole a Spider-Man toy from my friend's house because I wanted it so much.
So naturally, I've seen all of the Spider-Man movies, and when they announced they were making the most recent one, I even tried to send in an audition video (Ah well).
But not all Spider-men were created equal. The three live-action movie series we've seen so far all have their strengths and weaknesses and I want to talk about those today.
The very first movie we have is Toby Maguire as Peter Parker in the original trilogy, Spider-Man 1, 2, and 3. What he did so well was capture the incredible awkwardness and nerdiness that is Peter Parker. He did this beautifully, and any scene where he and MJ are together is fantastic.
Spider-Man 2 with Doc Ock is probably my favorite Spider-Man of all time, the storyline is just so so good. He wasn't quite as good at the humor that Spider-Manhas when he dons the mask, though.
Spider-Man 3 was obviously in a bit of a train wreck, but I blame the studio for rushing its production, and think it could've been something good.
Next up we have The Amazing Spider-Man 1 and 2. Andrew Garfield is the lead in these, and I have to say, this is probably my least favorite of all three iterations. He is absolutely way too cool.
He comes across as more of a skater boy/ hipster, and not a nerd or a loser. I will say, Andrew Garfield has the perfect look for Spider-Man though. He also had a bit more success with the humor, but overall it's a little flat, though not from any doing of Garfield's. He's acting was great, I think it was simply poor directing and poor script.
("It's my birthday, and I'm gonna light my candles"- really? That was the best line you could think of?)
The highlight of this movie series is, of course, Emma Stone as Gwen Stacy. She is absolutely perfect in the role and a joy to watch.
Last but not least, we have the MCU Spider-man. I still remember reading online the day they announce Spider-man was going to be in the Marvel cinematic universe. It was one of the best days ever.
In this, Peter Parker is played by Tom Holland. What's so wonderful about Tom's performance is the fact that he is so close to the actual age Peter is supposed to be. He also does a wonderful job of making Peter nerdy but also having the humor and quippy-ness that Spider-Man needs. It was a nice change of pace from the dark and brooding amazing Spider-man movies.
His reveal in Civil War was truly epic, and homecoming did a wonderful job of incorporating him without rehashing the old story.
The trailer for Far from Home having been released a few weeks ago looks like it will set up major events for the future, and I cannot wait to see it.
Here is my list of all the Spider-Man movies ranked 1-6!
Spider-Man movies ranked:
- Spider-Man 2
- Spider-Man Homecoming
- Spider-Man 1
- The Amazing Spider-Man
- Spider-Man 3
- The Amazing Spider-Man 2
