The Spider-Man 2002 topic inspired me to post this. I thought to post in this forum as the majority of the films were released in the 2010's. So which one was your favorite? For me it's a tough one between the Tobey Maguire ones and Tom Holland.

I grew up with the Sam Raimi trilogy with Tobey Maguire as Peter Parker/Spiderman, so I have a soft spot for that trilogy. Not to mention being a kid from New York City, no less. The new MCU series is pretty good though. I love Tom Holland's portrayal of Peter Parker (depending on my mood, I either prefer his Peter Parker or Tobey's, because they're both very good). My only gripe with the new Spiderman movies is a main complaint that I have with a lot of 'phase 3' era MCU films, in that because of the wide and interconnected universe that ties these films now, there sometimes is a lot of forced fan service from other properties. The Spiderman films in the MCU era notwithstanding to this trend.

I liked Homecoming, but I felt like the film would've benefited greatly with more character attachment if there was another 'origin story' of sorts. I understand that if they went down this route, it would've been the third time in less than 20 years that we would have had an 'origin story', but I feel like there easily could've been a way to cultivate a more effective way of telling that story without getting too redundant. In all honesty, there could've been flashbacks to Peter's references to Uncle Ben in Homecoming and other original character motivations, so that we would have more empathy with the Peter Parker character in the movie and the finale with his fight against Vulture would've felt much more heart pounding and would had much more weight. That is an area where Far From Home improved greatly from Homecoming, and it's why I greatly prefer its sequel than to the first film.

However, even with the improvements made with Far From Home, you still don't really get to see too much of the 'web work' and interconnection with Spiderman's spiderlike powers as much as you would've expected. Ironically, that was a component of the story that the 'Amazing' series did just as well as the Raimi series in. In both the Raimi and 'Amazing' series of movies, you genuinely get the sense that Peter was bitten by a radioactive spider. However in the MCU series, unlike in previous installments it is never really made explicitly so. For kids growing up with these films, the connection to this version of Spiderman is less of an empathetic one to his genuinely sh*tty situation, based on the hard knock life of a dorky turned heroic teenager fighting crime with his strange spiderlike powers, with the troubles of being an adolescent and a young adult that go along with it. Instead, it's more of just an extension of the MCU brand, in which you cant delve too deep into Spiderman, risking the importance of other interconnected characters in the universe.

It's because of that as to why, if I had to choose, I'd probably opt for the Sam Raimi trilogy, or in particular Spiderman and Spiderman 2 (3 can take a hike). I rewatched those two recently, and I have to say that they're still very great films. In fact, I appreciate the cinematography, the acting, the musical score, and plot themes a lot more now as an adult than how I could've appreciated it as a kid. Spiderman 2 especially hit me hard, I'm an adult now just like Peter Parker in the movie, relating to the life of balancing out so many responsibilities and at times still falling short, that is something that I and many other young adults could easily relate to. There just seems to be more passion in the originals and a sense of rawness that the MCU Spiderman films (understandably) would probably never be able to truly replicate and innovate with. But Far From Home is my favorite Spiderman film since Spiderman 2, which says a lot, because they do show the aspect of Peter trying to balance so many of his responsibilities as a student, his love interest for MJ, and his responsibility as being Spiderman. I haven't seen Into the Spider-Verse yet, but I've heard nothing but good things from that flick, so one of these days I'm going to have to check that one out as well.

But for me, as things currently stand, it's Tobey Maguire all the way 8).