10 Ways The Amazing Spider-Man Was Better Than Homecoming
6. We Saw Peter Be A Boy Genius
Being a genius is essential to Peter Parker’s character: he’s known for being the science geek who self-conscious and jealous bullies pick on for having the intellect of Albert Einstein.
Although Garfield’s Peter Parker was a departure from the 1960s comic book nerd, he was still a teenager with a visibly high IQ (even if he did use Bing instead of Google). We saw him build his web shooters, we saw him engage with his father’s scientific experiments, and we saw him collaborate with and impress Dr. Curt Connors.
The problem with Spider-Man: Homecoming is that the evidence of Peter Parker being a genius is bare. He correctly solves an equation in class, but that’s the last we see him of doing anything remotely smart. His friend, Ned, is the one who outsmarts Tony Stark by hacking into the suit, and his school - in contrast to the narrative - didn’t require Peter to win the decathlon.
In Homecoming, all Liz and the decathlon squad talk about is Peter being so much smarter than everyone else. The difference between seeing and hearing, however, is significant to the medium of film, and it's why Garfield's Peter Parker had the stronger prescence of a quirky someone who would be at the top of their class (or second).