Over the course of the winter break, a little movie called Spider-Man: No Way Home came out. It did fairly well in the box office and earned 1.74 billion dollars globally and is now the 4th highest grossing film of all time. In preparation for such an event, I watched for the first time ALL eight previous live action Spider-Man movies over the course of one weekend. I enjoyed all of them, some more than others. This list is my own and will probably be different from your personal list. It will be ranked from worst to best, although none of these movies are truly bad, I just didn’t enjoy them as much as others. I will also be including plot points to all the movies, so there will be spoilers for every movie except for No Way Home. I will, however, add to the online version of this article the plot details for No Way Home after it gets a home release on disc/digital so that you can go see it in theaters.

1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 8. The Amazing Spider-Man 2

     This was Andrew Garfield’s second movie as Spider-Man and I enjoy him as Spider-Man. He nails the quippy, sarcastic aspect of the character. He has great chemistry with everyone, including his then-girlfriend and costar, Emma Stone, playing Gwen Stacy. The plot revolves around Max Dillon (Jamie Foxx) who essentially develops a parasocial relationship with Spider-Man after the superhero saves Max from being hit by a car. After falling into a pit of electric eels and absorbing their powers, we are treated to a very blue and very evil Max. At the same time, Harry Osborn (Dane DeHaan) returns from Europe and needs Spider-Man’s blood to save himself. To help him, Peter goes on a quest to find out more about his parents, a plot point which is still never fully resolved as we learn that Peter’s dad deleted his files to prevent Oscorp, a corporation, from weaponizing his research. Harry goes insane after trying to cure himself and becomes this universe’s version of Green Goblin, capturing Gwen Stacy and dropping her for Spider-Man to save. He is just a second too late and Gwen hits the pavement, dying immediately. After a period of Spider-Man disappearing, he finally returns to save the city. This movie was okay, but the script wasn’t the best and set up too many things that never got a proper payoff. A third movie was planned with Andrew and would have been the launch of something similar to the modern MCU, however, due to the lackluster box office performance, Sony pulled the plug. Unfortunately, that means that we may never see the end of the “The Amazing Spider-Man” movies like we did with the Tobey Maguire or Tom Holland movies. Instead, we get to enjoy the movies that already exist, and this one has a brilliant soundtrack conducted by Hans Zimmer and is definitely a good movie, but not the greatest in the Spider-Man lineup.

7. Spider-Man 3

     This 2007 movie was the conclusion of the Sam Raimi trilogy starring Tobey Maguire as Spider-Man. In this movie, Peter Parker and his girlfriend MJ ( Kirsten Dunst) have a wedge driven between them because Peter starts to enjoy the company of Gwen Stacy ( Bryce Dallas Howard). MJ splits up with Peter and he becomes the host of the Symbiote, an outer space alien that enhances the negative aspects of its host. This leads to what has been named “Bully Maguire,” a meme of Peter Parker in a black suit walking down the street and dancing. The sequence is goofy, but was made to be that way. The Symbiote separates from Peter and attaches to Eddie Brock (Topher Grace) and introduces us to this film’s Venom. At the same time, Harry Osborne (James Franco) is preparing to become the next Green Goblin to exact revenge on Spider-Man because Osborne believes Spider-Man killed his dad, Norman. For years, no one told him what had happened, so Harry has a change of heart and helps Peter defeat Venom and then dies. Oh right, and Sandman (Thomas Haden Church) shows up and makes amends with Peter because the death of Uncle Ben was retconned to have Flint Marko kill him. This movie has too much going on and unfortunately, isn’t that interesting when broken down. It’s a good “turn-your-brain-off-and-enjoy” kind of movie, but there are better movies in the Spider-Man lineup. The soundtrack is excellent and is conducted by Christopher Young, who replaced Danny Elfman, who scored the first two films. I think that it had too much going on and didn’t know exactly where it wanted to go. It’s still a fun movie though.

6. The Amazing Spider-Man

     This was Andrew Garfield’s first foray as Peter Parker and it did really well. There have been some complaints that Peter in this movie was “too cool” and shouldn’t have been a skateboarder, but I enjoyed it. Andrew is incredible and his relationship with Emma Stone definitely contributed to the chemistry they shared on screen. In this movie, it starts with Peter obsessing over finding out more about his parents, leading him to meet Dr. Curtis Connors (Rhys Ifans), is a coworker of Peter’s dad, who’s interested in genetic engineering to help amputees like himself. To achieve this, he and his team study lizards. After Uncle Ben (inevitably) dies, Peter becomes Spider-Man to find his uncle’s killer. With the threat of his funding being cut, Dr. Connors takes the drug himself and regains his missing arm. As the drug takes effect, he turns into a massive reptilian creature and becomes the Lizard. He attacks a bridge and Peter arrives and saves everyone before Lizard escapes to the sewers. Peter is invited to dinner with Gwen’s family and learns that her dad, George Stacy (Denis Leary), hates Spider-Man. Peter reveals his identity to Gwen and goes to track Lizard who is planning on weaponizing the drug that made him that way, turning all of New York City into Lizard people like him. Spider-Man stops him, but before he can, Stacy dies and changes his mind on Spider-Man. This is a good movie that set up something great with Andrew, but was undermined by its lackluster sequel. The action scenes are cool though and Garfield is directed to fight like a spider, wrapping Lizard up in webs and there are improved stakes with him having to make more and more web fluid. The soundtrack was done by James Horner and revamps the original Danny Elfman theme. It’s a good movie and different from the others, but is judged too harshly most of the time. I love the Andrew Garfield movies because of how different they are from the Raimi and MCU films. Andrew Garfield plays Peter as if he were a normal kid and while they are over the top comic book movies, they ground themselves in reality, something that gets added onto by the MCU films.   

5. Spider-Man: Far From Home

     This was the second solo Spider-Man film within the Marvel Cinematic University and Tom Holland’s fourth time donning the suit for the MCU. A lot of the plot revolves around having already seen a majority of the previous MCU films, something I haven’t done, so I know I’ve missed some important plot aspects. Anyway, the film starts with Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) and Maria Hill (Cobie Smulders) fighting an Elemental, an alien figure with each one representing the elements. To help them, Quentin Beck (Jake Gyllenhaal) shows up and is recruited by Fury to help should they attack again. On a field trip to Europe, Peter decides to reveal his attraction to MJ (Zendaya), only to be thwarted by an attack from another Elemental, this time, the Water Elemental. Once again Quentin Beck arrives and saves the day. Peter meets up with Nick Fury, who gives him Tony Stark’s glasses, which have access to Stark Industry weapons, including E.D.I.T.H. Beck claims that in his dimension, The Elementals killed his family and he was performing a crusade to rid the multiverse of them. After the Fire Elemental, the final one, attacks, Peter decides to leave E.D.I.T.H in control of Quentin Beck, who goes by Mysterio now. As it turns out, Beck had worked under Tony Stark (Robert Downey JR) and was fired for being “unstable.” As it turns out, The Elementals were all highly advanced holograms and projections and now, Mysterio has access to dangerous military drones and orbital weapons. He launches them in an attack on London, which ends with Mysterio being shot in the chest by a drone. Then we get one of the coolest scenes in the movie. Mysterio surrenders the glasses back to Peter only for a single gunshot to ring out. The film cuts and the real, mortally wounded Mysterio has his arm held up as Peter uses his Spider-Sense to stop himself from being shot. The Mysterio laid up against a wall and surrendering the glasses was another projection and fades away as the real Mysterio dies, saying the most ominous last words, “People will believe anything.” The film ends with Mysterio releasing a doctored video of Peter calling the drones to attack and revealing that Peter Parker is Spider-Man. This movie was fun because of all of its twists and turns. Although some of the dialogue was kind of bland at times and the fight scenes were a little too reliant on CGI, the performances were great. The soundtrack, done by Michael Giacchino, was what you expect from a modern Marvel Movie. I enjoyed this one a lot.   

4. Spider-Man: Homecoming

     This was the first solo Spider-Man movie in the MCU and opens up right after the events of 2012’s The Avengers. Aiden Toomes (Michael Keaton) is on the cleanup crew after the alien invasion in New York. He loses his job after Tony Stark’s Department of Damage Control takes over, forcing Toomes to steal alien technology and become the arms dealer, Vulture. Peter Parker and his friend Ned Leeds (Jacob Batalon) are on the school’s academic decathlon team, but Peter quits to be Spider-Man and, hoping to eventually join the Avengers. Ned finds out and helps Peter track Aiden after finding Aiden’s associates trying to sell arms to Aaron Davis (Donald Glover). Aiden finds Spider-Man and drops him into a lake, only to be saved by a remote controlled Iron Man suit. Tony Stark warns Peter not to fight Aiden and focus on helping the citizens of New York. Peter is able to place a tracker on one of the criminals and rejoins his Decathlon team for a trip to DC, because Aiden is in Maryland. While in DC, Peter and Ned remove the tracker Tony built into his Spider-Man suit. Toomes attacks a Damage Control truck and Peter ends up stuck inside of a warehouse, missing the Decathlon Tournament. He realizes that the weapons are alien technology and after a power cell from one of the weapons explodes, he has to save his classmates from inside of the Washington Monument, including his crush, Liz (Laura Harrier). Peter tracks Aiden again to a Staten Island Fairy and the arms deal is interrupted by the FBI and Spider-Man. The weapon malfunctions and splits the Ferry in half, making Spider-Man web the two halves back together. Iron Man appears and saves the ship by welding the two halves. Tony Stark appears in person and reprimands Peter, taking away his suit. Peter lives a normal life and even gets to go to a dance with Liz, who’s dad is Aiden, a really cool twist that you don’t see coming. In one of the coolest and most tense scenes, Aiden drops the two off at the school dance and figures out Peter is Spider-Man, making a deal with him and saying that because he saved his daughter, Aiden will let him go. Peter leaves the dance and follows Aiden, who plans on stealing Avengers weaponry from a plane. In his original, homemade suit, Spider-Man crashes the plane on a beach and saves Aiden from his flight suit, which would have exploded. Tony Stark decides to make Peter a full-time Avenger, which Peter declines. This movie is a great introduction to a different Peter Parker than Andrew or Tobey portrayed. Again, it requires some previous knowledge of the MCU, so I’m sure I missed more plot details, but stands on its own as a good Spider-Man introduction. Michael Giacchino revamped the original Spider-Man theme from the ‘60s and uses that in a brand new and excellent theme. This is one of my favorite Spider-Man movies and absolutely separate from the Raimi and Andrew Garfield films. These are the most grounded in reality and different because of that. They do require previous knowledge of the events of the MCU in order to truly “get” everything, but they stand perfectly fine enough as their own movies, which makes them enjoyable for everyone.

3. Spider-Man

     The first Tobey Maguire and Sam Raimi movies, this movie tells the origin of Spider-Man. Peter Parker is an awkward teen who works for the school newspaper. During a school field trip to Columbia University, Peter is bitten by a genetically modified spider and gains spider powers. Norman Osborn (Willem Dafoe) fails to land military funding for his experiments and uses them on himself, leading him to go insane. Uncle Ben (Cliff Robertson) urges Peter to be responsible, leading to the famous “With great power comes great responsibility.” Instead, Peter signs up for an underground wrestling tournament and fights a Macho Man Randy Savage cameo. After getting cheated of his proper earnings, the fight promoter gets robbed and Peter lets the thief go, leading to Uncle Ben being carjacked and shot. Peter chases after the killer, only to find it was the same thief who robbed the promoter. In fear, the thief backs into a window and dies after falling through. Osborn attacks his opponents at Quest Aerospace and kills them. This is the first episode of the Jekyll/Hyde life of  Osborn and Green Goblin. After Goblin takes over, Osborn doesn’t remember any of it. Osborn is forced out of his company and assassinates the board that made the decision to force him out, only to be thwarted by Spider-Man. Goblin captures Spider-Man and tries to convince him to join his side, and Spider-Man refuses. During the fight, Peter gets his arm cut. Peter, MJ, Norman, and Harry are all invited to Thanksgiving dinner by Aunt May (Rosemary Harris). Norman sees the cut on Peter’s arm and figures out his identity, leaving Osborn to plan a way to get to Peter by attacking his loved ones. Green Goblin bombs Aunt May’s house and leaves her hospitalized. MJ, who was dating Harry at the time, comforts Peter by holding his hand. Harry tells his dad that Peter loves MJ and Norman figures out his next plan. He captures MJ and forces Spider-Man to choose between saving MJ or a train car full of children. Spider-Man is able to save both and is taken to an abandoned building by Green Goblin. A brutal fight ensues and Norman Osborn reveals himself as troubled, begging for forgiveness. He positions his glider behind Peter and hurtles it towards him. Peter dodges and the glider impales Norman, killing him. Peter takes Norman back to his house and is seen by Harry, who now believes Spider-Man murdered his father. At Norman’s funeral, Harry swars to get revenge and MJ reveals her feelings for Peter, but Peter decides they can only remain friends so that she is safe. This movie is a great introduction to Spider-Man and was the start of the modern superhero movie. Everyone is perfectly cast, especially Tobey Maguire and Willem Dafoe, who play these creepy and over the top characters so incredibly well. You don’t need too much about the hero to understand and enjoy the movie, and has an excellent soundtrack done by Danny Elfman. The movie is fantastic and one of the most influential superhero movies, holding the record for most tickets sold for a superhero/comic book movie until The Dark Knight in 2008. I love the Raimi trilogy because of how campy and comic book-like they are in how they’re shot and edited.

2. Spider-Man 2

     The second of the Raimi trilogy and Tobey Maguire films, this film is arguably the best of those movies. Peter Parker is slowly losing his powers and at the same time, losing MJ who is now engaged to astronaut John Jameson (Daniel Gillies) and son of Peter’s boss J. Jonah (JK Simmons). Peter is introduced to Dr. Otto Octavious (Alfred Molina) to interview him for a college report. Otto is attempting to harness nuclear power and to safely do so, constructs an AI controlled set of robotic arms. The arms are a really cool construction of puppetry and were completely practical. At a demonstration of the reactor, it goes critical and kills Otto’s wife and drives him insane, allowing the AI controlling the arms to control him. Spider-Man shuts the reactor down and retires after losing his powers for good. Peter assumes a normal life, but after the bank is robbed by Otto, Spider-Man returns and we are given the famous train sequence. Otto, now Dr. Octopus, destroys the controls of a train full of people and leaves Spider-Man to save them. In a matter of quick thinking, Spider-Man attaches several webs to the surrounding buildings to save them from falling into a river. The event causes him to pass out and be saved by the citizens who learn his identity. They all promise not to tell. Harry Osborn, still believing that Spider-Man killed his dad, recruits Doc Ock to find Spider-Man and in exchange, Harry will give him the fuel he needs to run his fusion reactor. Harry learns Spider-Man’s identity and is convinced to help stop Octavious. Unmasking himself, Peter convinces Otto to shut the reactor down and regains control of the arms, sacrificing himself by taking it into the East River. MJ learns that Peter is Spider-Man and decides to be with him again. This movie is fantastic and is definitely worth the watch. It’s one of those rare movies where the sequel is better than the original and has the greatest villain with Doctor Octopus, played fantastically by Alfred Molina, who seemed to be the favorite of everyone who reviewed the movie. This film is one of the best Spider-Man pieces of media and earns its respect.

1. Spider-Man: No Way Home 

     I have to review this one differently. I can’t talk about major plot points that happen within the film, however, I will discuss the plot points we know based on the trailers and marketing for this movie. After the events of Far From Home, and Mysterio releasing his real name, Peter Parker is living a crazy life and seeks the aid of Dr. Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) and asks for everyone to forget his identity. The spell goes awry and the multiverse collides, bringing back Green Goblin, Doc Ock, Sandman, Lizard and Electro, the main antagonists of the two previous film series, played by their original actors. The villains all recognize that Tom Holland’s version of Peter Parker is not their version of Peter Parker. The multiverse is threatened by them being in this world. That’s about all I can really say on this film without spoiling it, but do know that it is incredible and deserves the number one spot on this list.