Spider-Man: Every Tobey Maguire Marvel movie ranked worst to best
2. Spider-Man: No Way Home
Spider-Man films often try to balance a lot of characters and different storylines together with mixed results. Spider-Man 3 and The Amazing Spider-Man 2 both failed at trying to face the wall-crawler against three different supervillains in a cohesive way. So when there were rumors that Tom Holland’s third installment in his Spider-Man saga would bring together previous incarnations of the hero to fight against the Sinister Six, many felt excited and worried at the same time. Could Spider-Man: No Way Home be the very first time a Spider-Man live-action project managed to successfully balance many characters together without feeling like a complete mess? Fortunately, for every superhero fan out there, the answer was a clear “yes”.
The movie successfully recognized the strengths of Tobey Maguire’s trilogy and Andrew Garfield’s saga and used them to its advantage. For example, the antagonists in Sam Raimi’s projects were absolutely iconic, so both Alfred Molina’s Doctor Octopus and Willem Dafoe’s Green Goblin were one of the main focuses of the film.
Not only that but the pain that Andrew Garfield’s Peter Parker felt after losing Gwen was displayed once again, even allowing him to find redemption when saving Zendaya’s M.J. Overall, the movie knew exactly what aspects it needed to build upon from previous Spider-Man entries. So it didn’t matter if you were a fan of Tobey Maguire’s, Andrew Garfield’s, or Tom Holland’s portrayal of the wall-crawler, there was something everybody could enjoy.
Spider-Man: No Way Home wasn’t without its faults, however. How does a spell that tries to erase everybody’s memory ends up bringing together different versions of Spider-Man? And curing the villains would really prevent their deaths? After all, Otto Octavious’ death wasn’t provoked because he was evil, but because he sacrificed himself for the greater good. The more you think about the movie’s plot, the more holes you start to find. But does it really matter once you see all three different versions of Spider-Man fighting against The Lizard, Sandman, Electro, and the Green Goblin?
Spider-Man: No Way Home is iconic, fun, and truly emotional at times. You could even argue it’s the MCU’s only successful multiversal project so far. But while few things could top the feeling of watching three versions of the wall-crawler fighting together, there’s one movie that manages to surpass it in every way possible.