After finally finishing all of the Spider-Man movies this past weekend, I have decided to rank which actor (Tobey Maguire, Andrew Garfield, and Tom Holland) did Spider-Man the best. For my decision on the best Spider-Man I will be considering the plot of each movie series, the acting ability of the actors playing both Peter Parker and Spider-Man, and the chemistry between Peter Parker and the love interests.

Tobey Maguire:

Tobey Maguire is the classic Spider-Man, and when most people think of Spider-Man he comes to mind. For me, the portrayal of Spider-Man as a just nerdy awkward kid was really well done in this movie by Maguire, and because of this I think that Maguire is the best Peter Parker, but not exactly the best Spider-Man. Because of how old the movies is, some of the effects, like when Spider-Man is fighting villains or is swinging from the tops of skyscrapers, can kind of feel outdated and not realistic. But I think that in a weird way this does kind of work, as it can feel nostalgic for some.

Also in the Maguire series, the writers really played on the idea of what a hero really is, and blurred the lines between good and evil. Viewers not only saw all the good Spider-Man can do, but also the bad he is capable of, which I think was not as apparent in the Andrew Garfield movie. Overall, the plots of the Maguire movies were really good, and I especially loved watching the relationship between Peter Parker, and his best friend, Harry Osborn develop throughout the series. The ending of the third movie with Harry and Peter was so heartbreaking and unexpected, but it made the movie so better at the same time. If I could change anything about these movies, I would definitely make some of the scenes a little less cringey, like in the scene above where Peter Parker is dancing around the streets and trying to hit on girls. But this was possibly done by directors on purpose, since Peter Parker is supposed to be this kind of nerdy character.

These movies did a really great job of  portraying the classic Mary Jane: girly, with big aspirations, who is also a little dumb. But at times during the movie, it was hard to see them together as I didn’t really feel like they had a lot of chemistry, and their relationship was always rocky and up in the air so you never really knew what terms they were on. But I did enjoy kind of 2000s era vibes you get during this movie.

Andrew Garfield:

In my opinion, Andrew Garfield gets a lot of hate for being the worst Spider-Man which I don’t think he really deserves. I think he did a really great job of playing Spider-Man, and for me he might even be my favorite Spider-Man. But, I thought that Garfield was not a good Peter Parker, because he didn’t fit the nerdy archetype that Peter Parker is supposed to be. Definitely the weakest point of these movies were the plot and script, because there were lots of plot holes and the script of the movie was just kind of bad. I will say that one of my favorite parts of these movies was learning about the backstory behind Spider-Man’s parents, but overall it just felt unfinished and not fully explained. In the end Garfield did not have control over the bad plot in his movies, but it still really took away from his performance in these movies.

I liked the choice by the writes to not have Peter Parker date Mary Jane, but rather they chose Gwen Stacy, who Tobey Maguire’s Spider-Man went on a date with in the third Spider-Man. Gwen is a very intelligent and ambitious person, and I really enjoyed her character because she had a busy lifestyle while dating Peter. In addition, the chemistry between the two seemed really easy and enjoyable to watch. Because Gwen is such a likable character, of course she was killed off at the end of the second movie and that was so hard to watch and was probably one of the saddest scenes in the entire Spider-Man multiverse.

Tom Holland:

I like that in these movies the writers decided to again play back into the nerdy side of who Peter Parker is supposed to be, and I think that Tom Holland did a really great job of portraying that. But for some reason I just don’t like Tom Holland as Spider-Man. Overall the plot of the movie was very good, especially how Aunt May was killed off, but this almost needed to happen for Parker’s Spider-Man to relate to the other two, who lost Uncle Ben. I also thought this was a good move by directors because it put the blood in Spider-Man’s hands and showed his struggles between good and evil. In addition, at times the script could feel kind of cringey. Overall for me these movies are too new to really be enjoyed. In some of the movies in this series, especially “No Way Home”, it almost felt like an Avengers movies where they were doing too much, but it was still one of my favorite Spider-Man movies ever. I also thought there were too many special effects in these movies and it was just so much that it made that aspect of the movie feel unrealistic.

MJ and Peter Parker’s chemistry is probably the best out of the other Spider-Mans, probably because Zendaya and Tom Holland are actually dating in real life. I also liked how in these movies they made MJ a little more modern, as she was not always the most interested in or in love with Peter Parker all of the time.

Best Spider-Man: Tobey Maguire!!!

Overall, I have to go with the classics and say that the best Spider-Man is of course Tobey Maguire. His Spider-Man movies are just so nostalgic and good to watch. Which Spider-Man do you think is the best?