Tobey Maguire: 5 Awesome Performances And 5 That Sucked

1. Spider-Man 1 & 2 - Peter Parker

Spiderman Though some have suggested that Jake Gyllenhaal would have made a better Spider-Man for Sam Raimi, the web-slinging wonder has so far been Maguire's greatest screen creation. Aside from the blunders of the third film - which was a catalogue of errors from top to bottom - his vulnerable Peter Parker and cocky, self-assured Spidey were the definitive versions of the character. It is no accident that Andrew Garfield's version of the character so closely follows the model mapped by Maguire: both were careful to make Parker a likable, and crucially not tragic character, despite the tragedies he has to overcome. Peter Parker is Maguire's most successful everyman role, despite the superhuman aspects of the character - his struggles with responsibility are utterly relatable, and it was the pronounced allegory exploring the parallels between superhuman powers and aspects of puberty that mapped out the trajectory for most of the more recent comic book movies. And now on to the ones that sucked...
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