/Film Readers Pick The Best Spider-Man Once And For All
/Film readers once again proved they're a group of discerning taste when they recently voted Michael Keaton as the greatest Batman actor ever. But that outcome was, honestly, somewhat of a surprise, considering Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy usually dominates the modern discourse on Batman movies. Nevertheless, the original and best blockbuster Batman came out on top, and all was right with the universe.
Now, we've gone ahead and conducted yet another highly-scientific study to determine who takes the prize for best on-screen Spidey. And this time, our dear readers have made a solid choice among four top contenders. Is it the correct choice? Well, no. But that's ok because in terms of Spider-Man-on-film, we've been gifted some superb performances, which technically means there's no wrong answer (even though there is).
Things only got more complicated with the dizzying, dazzling "Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse" cementing Shameik Moore's Miles Morales as yet another excellent portrayal of the wall-crawler, not to mention delivering one of the finest Spider-Man films ever made. But since the Tobey Maguire-led "Spider-Man" arrived back in 2002, we've seen pitch-perfect performance after pitch-perfect performance ("Spider-Man 3" notwithstanding) when it comes to Peter Parker/Miles Morales/Spider-Man. Even the widely (and wrongly) disliked "Amazing Spider-Man" movies featured Andrew Garfield's excellent take on Peter Parker and his alter ego. Which makes choosing the best on-screen Spider-Man a difficult task. Luckily, our readers have once again risen to the challenge.
You've probably guessed who won
Unlike the Batman-on-film canon, which has a glaring "Batman & Robin"-shaped stain on its legacy, the history of Spider-Man's big screen adventures remains relatively untarnished. Tobey Maguire kicked things off with a performance that was at once gentle, funny, and emotionally affecting. Then Andrew Garfield did an even better job with a dynamic performance that was only bolstered by his chemistry with real-life former girlfriend Emma Stone in the role of Gwen Stacy.
We've since been introduced to Tom Holland's more child-like take on Peter Parker, who slowly grew into the role of fully-fledged hero by the end of "Spider-Man No Way Home." And now Shameik Moore (more specifically his voice performance) has established Miles Morales and his version of Spidey as just as compelling and worthy an on-screen hero as all the Peter Parkers that came before him — all of which makes picking a favorite a challenge. So, in order to ascertain the most unbiased and clear-headed opinions, /Film of course turned to the font of unfiltered wisdom: Twitter.
With 296 votes, we can't necessarily label this a definitive answer to the question of who played Spidey best, but hey, that's a hell of a lot more people than we'd get if we hit the streets with a clipboard. That said, allow me to unveil the results of our latest Twitter poll, which posed the question: "Who has played/voiced your favorite Spider-Man?" Coming in dead last with a still-respectable 15.9% of the vote was Andrew Garfield (for shame, /Film readers). Up next was Shameik Moore with a 16.6% share, behind Tom Holland with 30.7%. But once again, the original blockbuster Spider-Man came out on top, with Tobey Maguire taking 36.8% of the vote.
A well-earned win
This outcome makes a lot of sense considering Tobey Maguire is a) the first on-screen Spider-Man that most modern viewers will remember, and b) he starred in what most consider to be the best Spider-Man film ever made: "Spider-Man 2." Likewise, it's not all that surprising that Andrew Garfield came in last place, considering his "Amazing Spider-Man" movies are usually at the bottom of best and worst Spider-Man movie lists. I'd hoped Shameik Moore might have at least outdone Tom Holland, but with the success of "Spider-Man: No Way Home" and the fact Holland is the Marvel Cinematic Universe Spidey, his ranking here makes a lot of sense.
What's it gonna take for Garfield to get his due? Well, since "No Way Home" there's been renewed talk of an "Amazing Spider-Man 3," with Tom Holland himself supporting the idea. Which, if it ever happened, could right some of the original movies' wrongs. With that said, Garfield himself was never the problem with those movies, and in my opinion should get a little more respect that he does.
Still, the readers have spoken and Maguire reigns supreme. Could that change with the release of "Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse"? Perhaps, although no one seems to know when that movie will actually arrive. For now, it's a testament to director Sam Raimi and Maguire's performances in his movies that the actor is still thought of so highly by fans.