Every Spider-Man Movie Ranked Worst To Best

5. Spider-Man (2002)

Spider Man 2002 Peter Parker Tobey Maguire Wall Crawl
Sony

With James Cameron having spent years trying to get his own Spider-Man movie off the ground in the '90s, the Wall-crawler was finally brought to the silver screen in 2002 by Sam Raimi.

Tobey Maguire won out for the part of Peter Parker, beating out competition from the likes of Jude Law, Scott Speedman, Jake Gyllenhaal and, interestingly enough, James Franco for the gig.

Maguire was the perfect nerd next-door here, with him putting in a performance that was every inch the quintessential Peter Parker that had been seen in the comics up until then. And in terms of quintessential, Rosemary Harris was Aunt May at that point in time.

Everything here worked brilliantly as intended, from Willem Dafoe's maniacal turn as Norman Osborn, to Franco as the cool but pressured Harry Osborn, to Kirsten Dunst as a fantastic Mary Jane Watson, to Joe Manganiello as the classic Flash Thompson, to beloved Cliff Robertson as a great Uncle Ben, to Randy goddamn Savage as Bonesaw(!), to Danny Elfman's swirling musical score.

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Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main day job, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks/Saints, Jamie Hayter, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg. Where his beloved Wrexham AFC is concerned, Andrew is co-host of the Fearless in Devotion podcast, which won the Club Podcast of the Year gong at the 2024 FSA Awards.