Every Sony Marvel movie ranked from worst to best
By Wesley Bell
4. Spider-Man
Regardless of how many reboots have and will come out, Tobey Maguire’s version of Spider-Man remains the most iconic. The story sees Peter Parker getting bitten by a radioactive Spider, granting him superhuman abilities. After an act of selfishness results in the death of his Uncle Ben, Peter decides to focus on protecting the city. Peter tries to navigate through the remainder of high school and his romantic interest in Mary Jane Watson, his next-door neighbor he has liked for years. However, she begins dating his best friend, Harry, once they graduate.
At the same time, Peter is also fighting Norman Osborn, the former CEO of Oscorp and Harry’s father, who had been corrupted by his company’s super soldier serum, turning himself into the Green Goblin and terrorizing the city. Their conflict gets more intense when Norman discovers Spider-Man’s identity, kidnapping MJ to draw Peter out. Goblin ultimately dies after accidentally killing himself while trying to impale Peter. In the end, Peter makes the difficult choice to distance himself from Mary Jane since he can’t be with her because he needs to be Spider-Man.
The story aligns nicely with Sam Raimi’s filmmaking style while still being a pretty straightforward origin that, for the most part, sticks close to the comics. It set the standard for adaptations of comic book movies as we know them in virtually every way. Willem Dafoe’s dual performance as the Green Goblin and Norman Osborn personalities is one of the most iconic and has inspired countless villain performances since then.
It also did a lot for the genre by being one of the few comic book films to embrace the more eccentric parts of the source material, bringing a vibrant and colorful suit at a time when black leather was considered a more popular alternative to adapting characters’ costumes accurately. Without it, the landscape of comic book films would look completely different, and they probably wouldn’t be as good or popular as they are.