Sunday Best: Ranking the Spider-Man Movies (updated 2026)

  

With Spider-Man: Brand New Day in theaters now, I thought it would be good to look back at the previous outings of this iconic character and see where they rank.  Looking back at a few of them, I was actually fairly surprised at how my thoughts and opinions have evolved over time.

So of the 10  Spider-Man movies that have already been theatrically released, here are my rankings:

11.  The Amazing Spider-Man 2

What is so frustrating about this movie is that there are moments of actual greatness here.  We finally get to see that wonderfully horrible moment from the comic that defines Peter's tragedy as an adult Spider-Man.  The problem is that the main antagonists are absolutely awful and it is surrounded by an overblown conspiracy that doesn't really go anywhere.

10.  Spider-Man 3

A lot of people blame the villains here, and there is much to be said about how poorly they were handled.  But the main problem is with Peter himself.  It's okay to see him tempted by the dark side.  That isn't the problem.  People are okay with heroes fall a bit from the light.  They do have a problem with their hero acting like an... a word I can't say on this blog (but begins with "a" and ends with "e".). This isn't even the problem that occurs with the Venom suit.  Peter already becomes a self-centered $*^$#&@ before any of that.  It makes for a very unpleasant watch

9.  The Amazing Spider-Man

I liked this movie a lot more when it first came out, but the sequel spoiled a lot of it.  It removed a lot of the cheesy elements from the Raimi trilogy, but it lost a lot of heart in translation.

8. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse

This is a worthy follow-up to Into the Spider-Verse, but feels too much like an incomplete film.  Obviously as this is meant to be the middle film in a trilogy, it should look both forwards and backwards.  But it doesn't have quite the same magic of the original.  

7. Spider-Man: Far From Home

What I like about these MCU movies is that they really explore Peter's life and struggles as a metaphor for the high school experience and growing up the way a show like Buffy the Vampire Slayer did.  This movie isn't great, but it is fun and very re-watchable.

6. Spider-Man: Homecoming

See my note above.  I love how Tom Holland brings a youthful energy to the character that we never quite got with the other two.  I love watching his relationship with Tony.  And Keaton is great in his role as one of the most sympathetic villains in the MCU, I almost rooted for him.

5. Spider-Man: Brand New Day

This movie has the advantage of building on 10-year goodwill of Tom Holland's Spider-Man and being a wonderful mixture of disparate MCU elements and characters.  Having seen this twice now, I was entertained the entire time and it defintely deserves to be in the upper half of Spider-Man movies.  And it left me wanting more of this Spider-Man

4. Spider-Man 2

As I've written previously: What the movie captures so well so early on is how much of burden it is for Peter to be Spider-Man.  Unlike Batman or Iron Man, Spider-Man does not have unlimited resources.  Heck, even Clark Kent does better than him in the same field of journalism.  But Peter's life is on the rocks.  Director Sam Raimi captures in such nice visual touches Peter's poverty.  It is such a nice carryover from the first film to see how Peter refuses to make money off of his power.  That path led to the death of his Uncle Ben.

And these early scenes set up the main struggle of the film: is being Spider-Man worth it?  Being the hero leads to an overall decrease in his quality of life.  He barely makes rent, he cannot help his Aunt May, he cannot be with the woman he loves... and he still tends to be hated.  This is a crucial step in the hero's journey, reminiscent of the events of Superman II.

3. Spider-Man

I recently rewatched this one and I was surprised at how much I enjoyed it.  A few years ago, this movie did not even make my top 25 Best Super Hero Movies of All Time.  The reason why is that there is a cheesiness in the films that I found to be a real turn-off, particularly most scenes with the Green Goblin.  I think they handled him poorly.

But upon rewatch, the tone came off less like cheesiness but innocence.  There is something incredibly wide-eyed and wondrous about watching Peter discover his powers.  I love how Raimi handles the scene where Peter lets the robber go.  If you don't know the story, you completely feel his nasty vindication and so can follow along with his horrible guilt.  The performances are mostly excellent.  Even Norman Osborne, when he isn't the Goblin, is actually fairly nuanced.  But the best is JK Simmons as Jameson.  He hit the nail on the head exactly with broad comedic character without going completely into caricature.  And I love the fact that they got his character right when he refused to give up Peter's identity in order to save his own life.

If you haven't seen this one since it came out nearly 20 years ago, you should give it another look.  It has aged very well.

2. Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse

Everything about this move works.  As I wrote:

This is the best Spider-Man movie that has been made.

I don't say that lightly or in the mode of a fanboy who is pre-set to love anything comic book related.  I have several times noted my dislike of Miles Morales (the main Spider-Man character in this movie) from the comic books.  He was made up out of thin air by Brian Michael Bendis and inserted into the Spider-Man mythos with no connection other than his powers were similar.  He had no connection to Peter Parker or any of the larger Spider-Man family.  He was also incredibly boring as a character, not given any real flaws or even universal appeal.  He was as bland and as uninteresting as you could make a character.

Thank goodness for Into the Spider-Verse.  It is the best thing to happen to Miles Morales.

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1.  Spider-Man: No Way Home

As I've written before on this blog:

Going into the theater, I thought Spider-Man: No Way Home would be a fun Marvel adventure.  On that front, I was not disappointed.  But the movie was much better than I had anticipated.

Martin Scorsese criticized super hero movies as something closer to theme park rides than cinema.  I understand what he is saying, but I think his point misses out on the magic of the ride.  When you are on a thrill-ride, you lose yourself for the briefest of moments and become engrossed in an overwhelming emotion.  This is not an easy thing to accomplish in a movie, but No Way Home did that.  There were times, even upon multiple viewings, that I was filled with a sense of excitement and happiness.

...

Usually at this point, most creators would take the heroic figure and try to deconstruct him (as they did with Luke Skywalker in the Sequel Trilogy).  But instead, the makers of No Way Home decided to multiply the heroism and push him even further.  While young in the MCU, the story shows that Peter is the hero among heroes.  There is a reason that Spider-Man is the THE flagship Marvel character.  This movie shows you why.

All of these themes are explored while engaging in a finely plotted film.  This is a coming of age story for the MCU.  The trappings of childhood from the earlier part of the trilogy are left behind as Peter grows into a man.