NOTE: There are no spoilers for Brand New Day here, although I will be ranking it and giving some non-spoiler thoughts on it. There are spoilers for most of the other Spider-Man films, though.
Another Note: I published a post "Who is my Favorite Spider-Man?". Although many things I talked about over there could fit in in several spots in here, I left them out since I already wrote about them.
Okay, just finished watching Spider-Man: No Way Home, which concludes my watchings of the (core) Spider-Man films in preparation(/because I wanted to) for Spider-Man: Brand New Day. I'll come back to this draft and rank Brand New Day once I've seen it.
This was notably my first time seeing the Tobey Maguire trilogy. It was also my first time watching Spider-Man: No Way Home after seeing both the Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield films. The first, (and only other) time I had watched No Way Home was in theaters before I had seen any other spider-man film. (Although, I think I should note, I did know how Gwen Stacy died before watching No Way Home for the first time.)
I wanted to rank them and give a couple thoughts about them. NOTE THIS IS MY PERSONAL ENJOYMENT/FEELINGS; IT IS NOT INTENDED TO BE AN OBJECTIVE RATING.
IN REGARDS TO SPIDER-VERSE: Although I'm not officially ranking them here, I'm fairly confident both Spider-Verse films would make it into my top four. Maybe even taking both the top spots.
1. Spider-Man: No Way Home
This movie is a freaking triumph. I love this movie. I think it was really cool that it still landed with me before I had even seen the other Spider-Man films and now is even better.
As referenced, I knew how Gwen Stacy died before my first viewing, so Andrew catching MJ landed the first time, but the moment landed soo much harder after seeing Andrew's films. Additionally, knowing additional small references was great ("Sun in the palm of my hand", "You were never a nobody Max", "Trying to do better" etc.).
A cool thing that I didn't even realize was a cool thing the first time I watched No Way Home was Tobey Maguire being the one to stop Tom Holland from killing the Green Goblin. A moment which is so much more meaningful now after watching Spider-Man 3 where one of the major themes was forgiving/letting go of revenge.
Does the first chunk of the movie have weird pacing, and is not nearly as great? For sure, for sure. But it's peak beyond that.
2. Spider-Man: Brand New Day
I was so high on life after watching this film and frankly should maybe be number one, but No Way Home made me more emotional to the point of shedding some amount of tears and Brand New Day didn't, so that's the major reason No Way Home is still my favorite.
I thought the dialogue felt very natural and good. The MCU presence felt incredibly natural and not forced at all -- was done incredibly imo. Thought the pacing was really good. Action was incredible. Great emotional moments, although some of them only landed, like, 75% for me. Humor was funny and natural. Man, I love this movie.
3. Spider-Man
This movie blew all my expectations out of the water. The plot kept thickening. Even up to the very end, the plot kept thickening and making the story better and richer.
Ex. Final scene. At the funeral when it set Harry Osborn up as a villian/enemy and a piece of heart-wrenching conflict as Harry expresses his love for Peter but his anger toward Spider-Man. At that point I was like, "Oh snap, what a good way to end the movie", but then it thickened again with Mary Jane telling Peter how she feels, but Peter saying a friend is all he has room for right now. Freaking heart-wrenching beauty. So good.
4. Spider-Man 2
So good. I knew going into this one that it was generally regarded as the best Spider-Man film. I was thrown off by some directorial stuff (ex. randomly becoming a horror movie when the arms took control). Also felt like some decisions characters made felt a tad less realistic than the first one + Harry hearing voices and finding the Goblin stuff just felt unrealistic/weird too. Which is why I put Spider-Man 1 above. But the story and the emotional-wrenching stuff is top notch and, in those categories, are stronger than Spider-Man, imo.
5. Spider-Man: Far From Home
The Mysterio fights are still some of the coolest Spider-Man scenes we've gotten, which is why I prefer this movie over Homecoming. The moments with Happy in the plane were powerful and awesome. I think the pacing is kind of wonky though.
Peter's identity getting revealed in the end credits scene gutted me when I watched it in theaters.
The first two Tom Holland movies feel very different than the Tobey and Andrew movies, which makes it harder to rank. The MCU presence just shifts a lot of things.
6. Spider-Man: Homecoming
First time personally using this slang word, but I feel it fits perfectly here: I felt like RDJ's performance mogged Tom Holland's in this movie, which is a little awkward since it's, you know, a Tom Holland Spider-Man film and not an Iron Man film. But what can you do, it's RDJ. Still really like the film, though. Vulture's identity reveal was really good.
7. The Amazing Spider-Man 2
Man, the emotional scenes in this movie hit for me. I think many other parts are much rougher than The Amazing Spider-Man, but the emotional scenes were strong enough for me to like it more than The Amazing Spider-Man even though on paper I recognize that The Amazing Spider-Man is better.
8. The Amazing Spider-Man
I really liked how this movie dove into why Peter was an orphan. It's a question I've had and am surprised it's never brought up in the other adaptations. But I like how this one does it, tying in with the cross-species plot and having it be the root of some good emotional moments.
9. Spider-Man 3
This movie started off so rough, but I think it stuck the landing. Peter letting Gwen kiss him was soooo hard to watch, I took several breaks because I was cringing so hard over how stupid Peter was. I liked Harry's redemption at the end. Bully Maguire will forever be iconic. The last scene made my heart happy; I'm glad Peter and Mary Jane figured it out. It was a good scene to end a great trilogy.
SPIDER-MAN. I LOVE SPIDER-MAN. Easily my favorite superhero.
Btw, the 9 Spider-Man Movies >> the 9 Star Wars Movies
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