Ranking The Spider-Man Movies From Worst To Best

The less said about this one, the better. Not even a meme campaign could make a movie featuring a D-List Spidey villain a compelling narrative. Morbius commits the cardinal sin of moviemaking: It’s a flat-out bore, even with Jared Harris, Matt Smith, and Adria Arjona giving it their all. Jared Leto’s acting in the lead role is flat and uninspired as if he’s phoning it in—which is unfortunate because there’s a good foundation for it to be a serviceable horror-adjacent film (it is about vampires, after all!). Sadly, it just never comes together, and instead a series of bland filmmaking choices make it an all-around misfire.

On the other hand, Madame Web is at least bad in an interesting way. The cast is full of talented performers—Dakota Johnson, Sydney Sweeney, Isabela Merced, and Celeste O’Connor—all doing their best to try and salvage an insane script with some of the most bizarre line readings I’ve ever heard. This is the good bad movie many thought Morbius was, and I wouldn’t be shocked if the film ends up becoming a staple of the Midnight Madness repertory screening culture in the future. It’s not even the worst comic book movie to come out in 2024, which is saying something, given its initial reception.

Sometimes, bigger isn’t always better. In the case of The Amazing Spider-Man 2, the 2014 sequel is simply trying to do too much by including a truly bizarre take on Electro (Jamie Foxx), a feral-looking Green Goblin (Dane DeHaan), and even a tracksuit-wearing Russian gangster Rhino (Paul Giamatti, totally innocent). What does work is the relationship between Andrew Garfield’s Peter Parker and Emma Stone’s Gwen Stacy which has genuine chemistry, perhaps benefitting from the real-life relationship the actors were in at the time. This one gets some level of retroactive bonus points for setting up Garfield’s big hero moment in Far From Home and for a great cinematic costume, but not much else.

The first reboot of the Spider-Man cinematic franchise is roughly a retread of what’s come before, but it is bolstered by an absolutely captivating central love story between Garfield and Stone, who emerged from the production of this film as a couple. Garfield’s Spider-Man persona is probably the best representation of the character—a true sardonic asshole who is equal parts annoying and lovable at the same time. While we didn’t need a reboot this quickly after the Raimi films, the Marc Webb-directed flick leans heavily into his prowess as an indie director, putting the relationship elements front and center. It’s likely a little better than you remember, but still not quite in that upper tier.

Endgame, in so many ways, represents the absolute peak of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, as it brought years and years of interconnected storytelling to a close. It is, however, not a great Spider-Man movie. While Tony Stark’s guilt over letting Peter “die” at the hands of Thanos is one of the film’s many driving motivators, Tom Holland’s version of the character doesn’t show up until the very end of the film, where he’s most used a piece on the larger action chessboard. It’s a great Marvel movie–-but a bad Spider-Man one.

This sequel to the only anti-hero story that’s really worked at Sony doubles down on what works well about the first film, which is to say, the relationship between Eddie Brock (Tom Hardy) and the Venom symbiote, and it does so while also amping up the stakes. In short, this movie, helmed by Andy Serkis (yes, the actor who played Gollum!), is what every sequel should be. The arrival of Woody Harrelson as Carnage, a beloved Marvel foe, adds absurdity to the proceedings of what ends up becoming a 90-minute cartoon. That’s a good thing.

In Marvel Comics, Venom has a special status as a genuinely beloved anti-hero. Initially a villainous presence that practically scared Mary Jane to death, Venom’s gone on to have a long, storied history as a “Lethal Protector,” which informs Sony and Tom Hardy’s take on the cinematic version of the character. Societal outcasts looking for acceptance, Eddie and his symbiote are truly meant for one another, entering into a bad romance that makes them both the heroes they want to be—even if this is accomplished in a way that is anything but heartfelt thanks to dashes of absurdist violence (mostly involving masticating on goons). Anchoring it all is Hardy’s truly gonzo performance, which despite its broadness, never feels out of place for what he’s trying to achieve with the character.

Not unlike The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 3 suffers from a “too many villains” problem, but the much-maligned third installment is a breath of fresh air when compared to current superhero fare. Raimi never forgets to dot the film with grounded stakes—Sandman’s whole story arc is particularly sad and moving—and moments of wonder, like Peter discovering the powers of the symbiote suit before it starts to corrupt him. No matter how good it was, Spider-Man 3 was always going to be a step down from Spider-Man 2, but the drop in quality is pretty dramatic. And, before you say anything, yes, that dance sequence is supposed to be cringe-worthy!

While Far From Home gets credit for the inventiveness of its premise—taking the neighborhood out of the “Friendly-Neighborhood Spider-Man” remains a strong idea— the movie is too reliant on the Tony Stark/Peter Parker relationship dynamic, as Jake Gyllenhaal’s Mysterio is yet another Spider-Man villain who is madder at Iron Man than he is Spider-Man. However, the romance between Zendaya and Holland is great throughout. Plus, Far From Home culminates in the best ending of the Holland trilogy, with Mysterio revealing to the world that Peter is Spider-Man, presenting something for the character that audiences had never seen in a Spider-Man film before.

Spider-Man’s introduction into the MCU shouldn’t have worked as well as it does here, considering the sheer number of plot threads weaving throughout the course of the third Captain America movie (like Black Panther’s introduction and the fact that it’s practically a third Avengers film with how many heroes are crammed into it). And yet, from the moment audiences see Holland’s fanboy, aw-shucks, “I’m just happy to be here” attitude, it all just clicks together in a way that makes this take feel both familiar and new at the same time. Considering Holland’s Spidey was the third version of the character in a 15-ish-year period, that’s pretty hard to do.

Holland’s third solo Spidey outing is tough insofar as it’s not really his movie, packed as it is with so many other disparate pieces. And yet, I cannot deny the thrill of seeing Tobey McGuire, Tom Holland, and Andrew Garfield together on the same screen, ostensibly fighting the Sinister Six for the first time in cinematic history after many starts and fails. As previously mentioned, it’s nice for Garfield to have both redemption (and closure!) for his tenure as the ol’ Webhead, and there’s something to be said for how the film resets Holland’s Spider-Man to the more grounded version comic book fans know and love.

With all the plates that Avengers: Infinity War has to keep spinning, it’d be easy to sideline a character like Spider-Man. Instead, writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely and directors Anthony and Joe Russo make Holland’s Peter one of the film’s co-leads, signified by the moment Stark knights him as an Avenger. Plus, Holland’s “I don’t feel so good” is one of the best and most emotional moments in the MCU, giving some really weighty stakes to Thanos’ snap, even if gets undone in Endgame. In the moment, it’s an extraordinarily powerful beat—made all the better by how beautifully Holland sells it.

Even in its name, Spider-Man: Homecoming is a flex. Revitalized under the leadership of Kevin Feige and the rest of Marvel Studios, Homecoming is, yes, a return home for the wallcrawler, not only to Marvel but to the original tone and vibes of the character. Although it’s too Stark-obsessed for my personal liking, it’s refreshing to see a version of Spider-Man who looks and acts like he’s an out-of-his-depth high-schooler with extraordinary abilities just trying to help those in his little slice of the world. Combine that with a super-compelling villain in Michael Keaton’s Vulture, and Homecoming accomplishes the nearly impossible task of making audiences care about Spider-Man again just a few years out from a totally botched revival that nearly buried cinematic interpretations of the character altogether.

You never forget your first, and for those who saw Sam Raimi’s original Spider-Man upon release, it remains one of the high marks of the superhero genre. Raimi immediately understood the stakes of Peter’s hero’s journey, contextualizing his superlative powers and what that means for someone who suddenly has destiny thrust upon him. Combine that with a great supporting cast and a wonderfully compelling villain, and it’s no surprise that Spider-Man continues to resonate all these years later.

While there’s a chance Across the Spider-Verse could rise in these rankings later, the fact of the matter is that the film is very much the first part of a two-part film. Despite a savvy evolution of the concepts and themes initially introduced in Into the Spider-Verse, the film feels incomplete. Yet even with that cliffhanger ending, there’s enough here to land it in our third spot. Let’s hope the trilogy concludes as boldly and inventively as it started when Beyond the Spider-Verse eventually releases.

We all know that with great power comes great responsibility, and Spider-Man 2 is the best embodiment of that founding ethos. Constantly torn between balancing his personal and superhero lives, Tobey Maguire’s version of Peter Parker has to constantly make the hard choice to protect New York at the expense of just about everything in his life. Raimi’s smash sequel dives deeper into this tension, resulting in a brilliant story that’s made all the better by an empathic turn from Alfred Molina as a doomed Doctor Octopus. Spider-Man 2 contains one iconic sequence after another, culminating in Peter’s heroic and Herculean efforts to save a runaway train that perfectly emulates why he’s the best of the best. Live-action superhero films are rarely better than this.