The best Spider-Man, ranked – A dad's honest take on every web-slinger

“Four years after No Way Home erased him from every memory but his own, Peter Parker is still swinging through New York alone — until his evolving powers, a captured telepath named Jean Grey, and two unlikely street-level allies force him to accept who he's becoming. Spider-Man: Brand New Day is Destin Daniel Cretton's 38th MCU film, and it's the best one yet.”

“We adored the first film and still weren’t prepared for how far *Across the Spider-Verse* goes. It’s a dizzyingly confident sequel that enlarges Miles and Gwen’s stories while treating the multiverse as a living metaphor—choice, consequence, and the courage to define your own canon. The animation language becomes orchestral: watercolor worlds that bleed emotion, halftones that pulse, frame cadence as character growth. Set pieces are kinetic yet readable; jokes spring from who these people are. It’s artful, crowd-pleasing, and—miracle of miracles—more personal the bigger it becomes.”

“As lifelong comic readers and superhero-movie addicts, *Into the Spider-Verse* floored us. It’s the rare film that honors the *page* while discovering new cinema grammar: halftones, speed lines, focus pops, and bold color keys that feel ripped from a Dave Johnson cover. Miles Morales’ coming-of-age story is intimate and universal—family expectations, identity, found mentors—wrapped in multiverse hijinks that never drown the heart. Every gag lands, every cut sings, and each frame could be a poster. We left grateful and a little awestruck.”

“Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 is the rare sequel that elevates every pillar: movement, combat, world design, and story. Peter and Miles share the mantle without diluting identity; web wings stitch boroughs into one continuous playground; symbiote and Venom powers add punch without sacrificing precision. PS5 features—DualSense, 3D audio, near-instant loads—transform flow into second nature. Most importantly, the narrative lands with weight and warmth, propelling you from mission to mission. For families, it’s session-friendly yet epic, the kind of game that begs to be 100% completed—and rewards every minute.”

“Marvel’s Spider-Man on PS5 is a dream for Marvel fans: breathtaking visuals, buttery traversal, and a story that genuinely lands. New York feels alive and explorable in a thousand ways, from skyline swings to street-level details. DualSense haptics, 3D audio, and near-instant loading turn momentum into pure flow. Most importantly, the narrative delivers heart and stakes, making you feel like Peter behind the mask. It’s a showcase exclusive and, frankly, a console seller for PS5 owners.”

“Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales is a dream for Marvel fans and a showcase for PS5. A focused, heartfelt story, thrilling traversal, and stylish Venom powers make every minute sing. Snowy New York feels alive, from Harlem block parties to fire escapes dusted in winter light, and DualSense haptics turn swing and strike into tactile rhythm. Most importantly, the campaign lands emotionally, then invites 100% completion without busywork. It’s concise yet rich—perfect for parents with limited time and players who love story-first adventures.”

“*Spider-Man: Homecoming* swings into the MCU with heart, humor, and exhilarating energy. After his introduction in *Captain America: Civil War*, Peter Parker finally headlines his own adventure – a grounded, high school–set superhero story that nails both teen angst and superhero action. Tom Holland embodies the character like no one before, capturing the spirit of a modern, relatable Spider-Man. Supported by a stellar cast and a layered, down-to-earth villain, this film strikes the perfect balance between coming-of-age comedy and Marvel action. It’s pure joy – and one of the best entries in the MCU.”

“*Spider-Man: Far From Home* is a deeply personal and surprisingly global Spider-Man story. Still reeling from the loss of Tony Stark, Peter Parker heads to Europe for a school trip – only to be pulled back into superhero duty. With breathtaking visuals, humor, emotional depth, and a show-stealing villain performance by Jake Gyllenhaal, the film blends heart and spectacle. It closes Phase 3 of the MCU with a bang, delivering one of the best modern Spider-Man experiences.”

“Before the MCU, before the multiverse, before No Way Home made us care all over again — there was Sam Raimi's Spider-Man. A film that arrived in 2002 feeling wildly ahead of its time, it gave us the definitive origin of Peter Parker: the nerd, the loss, the responsibility. Tobey Maguire carries it with a sincerity that newer adaptations have struggled to match. A 4.5/5 that earns the extra point purely on historic weight.”

“*Spider-Man: No Way Home* is more than just the third MCU Spidey film – it's a multiverse celebration of everything Spider-Man has ever been on the big screen. With surprise returns, emotional reunions, and nostalgic callbacks, the film combines action, humor, and tragedy in equal measure. The stakes are personal and cosmic at once, and for long-time fans, the payoff is extraordinary. A true event movie that only works if you've followed the entire Spider-Man legacy.”

“Spider-Man 2 arrived in 2004 with something rare: it was better than the original in almost every technical respect. Alfred Molina's Doctor Octopus is one of the finest comic-book villains ever put on screen -- genuinely sympathetic, properly menacing, and given a coherent arc that mirrors Peter Parker's own struggle. The train fight remains one of the genre's greatest action sequences. For years this was the high-water mark of what a superhero film could do. It has since been joined at that altitude, but it has never been knocked off.”

“Critics piled on The Amazing Spider-Man 2 for being too cluttered, too franchise-hungry, too much setup and not enough story. Some of that is fair. But strip away the discourse and this is the most emotionally courageous Spider-Man film ever made - the one willing to end on a loss, to let the hero fail in the way that defines him, to commit to the darkest page in the comics canon. Andrew Garfield delivers his best performance in the suit, Emma Stone is heartbreaking, and the third-act gut-punch is the most powerful single sequence in any Sony Spider-Man film. The studio tried to do too much. The film succeeds despite that, not because of it.”

“Spider-Noir takes Peter Parker's alter ego into territory the mainline films would never touch: 1930s New York, corruption, crime, and an ageing spider-detective who has seen too much and trusts too little. Nicolas Cage, fresh from years of playing damaged men in troubled genre films, is completely at home here. The production gimmick — a real-time toggle between colour and black-and-white — turns out to be not a gimmick at all: the black-and-white version is demonstrably the correct way to watch this, and the show knows it. For anyone who loves Spider-Man and wondered what the character looked like from a completely different angle, this is the answer. A passionate 4/5.”

“Following the high-octane drama of X-Men '97 and the TV-MA gore of Marvel Zombies, Marvel Animation has pivoted to a 'high-bandwidth nostalgia' strategy. Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man lands as a definitive 4/5 entry, offering a 'fantastic feel-good' tone that serves as a necessary relief from the MCU’s recent heavy-lift continuity.”

“Venom kicked off Sony's Spider-Man Universe in 2018 with a film nobody expected to enjoy quite this much. Tom Hardy plays Eddie Brock, a journalist who bonds with an alien symbiote and spends most of the runtime arguing with the voice in his head. It is chaotic, tonally unstable, occasionally ridiculous, and almost impossible to stop watching. The Eddie-Venom dynamic is pure odd-couple comedy gold, and Hardy commits so completely that the film becomes something else entirely: a blast. A high-trash 4/5 that earns every point through sheer entertainment value.”

“Five years after Spider-Man 3 burned the franchise down, Marc Webb rebooted it with Andrew Garfield in the suit and Emma Stone as Gwen Stacy. People wrote it off as too soon and too unnecessary. They were wrong. This is a more grounded, emotionally textured origin story with a genuinely great lead performance and chemistry between the two leads that no other Spider-Man film has come close to matching. Yes, the Lizard is weak. Yes, the pacing wobbles. But as a character piece about a kid dealing with loss, identity, and a power he did not ask for, it absolutely earns its place in the Spider-Man canon. 3.5/5.”

“Venom: Let There Be Carnage (2021) is the breezy, self-aware sequel that stops pretending it has anything serious on its mind. Andy Serkis takes over from Ruben Fleischer and leans fully into the Eddie-Venom odd-couple dynamic, producing a 97-minute film that is funnier, pacier, and more comfortable in its own skin than the original. Woody Harrelson's Cletus Kasady is a genuinely wild villain. The final battle between Venom and Carnage is spectacular chaos. And the post-credits scene, in which Eddie Brock briefly glimpses the MCU, is one of the single most consequential sting sequences in the Sony Marvel catalogue.”

“Tom Hardy's third and final outing as Eddie Brock takes the Venom saga cosmic. The threat this time is Knull, the god of symbiotes and ruler of the ancient darkness, who wants his property back. The plot is messier than ever, the pacing lurches, and the film does not entirely stick its landing — but none of that ultimately matters when the Eddie-Venom chemistry is this consistently entertaining. It is a fitting, funny, occasionally moving farewell to one of superhero cinema's most enjoyably strange double acts. A 3.5/5 that earns its score through charm rather than craft.”

“Spider-Man 3 is the film that happens when a studio decides more is more and a director loses the creative argument. Three villains, an emo Peter Parker, a jazz club dance sequence, and a Sandman origin story that should have been the whole film -- all crammed into 139 minutes that feel longer than they are. Raimi's visual instincts survive the chaos, and Thomas Haden Church deserves better than the subplot he was given. But this is a 3/5 that earns honest disappointment rather than nostalgia-softened revisionism.”

“Aaron Taylor-Johnson brings unexpected physicality and genuine intensity to Sergei Kravinoff, a hunter with a brutal moral code and superhuman abilities granted by a lion encounter in Africa. Kraven the Hunter is the Sony Spider-Man Universe's first hard-R (FSK 16/18) entry, leaning into visceral hunt-action and real gore rather than the PG-13 creature spectacle of the Venom films. The tone is more serious and grounded than anything else in the SSU, and that seriousness is the film's greatest strength and its greatest risk. A thin script and a weak villain keep it from landing consistently, but the action highlights are real. An honest 3/5.”

“Morbius (2022) stars Jared Leto as Dr. Michael Morbius, a brilliant biochemist who accidentally transforms himself into a living vampire while searching for a cure to his rare blood disease. Directed by Daniel Espinosa, the film is a textbook example of a superhero origin story that follows every formula beat without the wit, energy, or strong lead performance needed to make those beats feel earned. It is not memorably bad in the way that invites rewatching. It is forgettably mediocre in the way that fades from memory while the credits are still rolling. The 'It's Morbin' Time' meme cycle that followed is an infinitely more entertaining cultural artefact than the film that inspired it.”

“Dakota Johnson steps into the role of Cassandra Webb, a paramedic who develops clairvoyant powers tied to the spider-web of fate. On paper, a psychic origin story set outside the MCU has real potential. In practice, Madame Web is the lowest point of Sony's Spider-Man Universe: choppy editing, dialogue so stiff it crackles, and a villain whose motivation collapses the moment you prod it. It stands completely isolated from the rest of the SSU, serves no connective purpose, and leaves nothing memorable behind. A 2/5 that is fair, not cruel, but unflinchingly honest.”