Spider-Man has had seven live-action films in the past two decades, featuring three different actors playing the character, and critical reception has been mostly positive, but here's how their Spider-Man: No Way Home reviews are almost here, but first let's take a look at Spider-Man movies that have faired with critics historically.
Spider-Man universe is bigger than ever.
With Spider-Man: No Way Home bringing in elements from past Spider-Man continuities, the Spider-Verse is about to explode in live-action, growing even beyond the MCU to tie together multiple versions of one of the most popular cinematic superhero characters. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse already did this in animated form, becoming the highest-rated theatrically released Spider-Man movie in Rotten Tomatoes, but here's how all the live-action movies compare.
Only One Spider-Man Movie Has a Rotten Score
Of the seven Spider-Man movies, all but one of them have Fresh ratings in Rotten Tomatoes. Both The Amazing Spider-Man 2 are generally regarded as the worst in the franchise, but only The Amazing Spider-Man 2 actually has a Rotten score with 52 percent, while Spider-Man 3 squeaks in at a fresh 63 percent.
Otherwise, the other five The Amazing Spider-Man with Andrew Garfield is 72 percent, Jon Watts's Spider-Man: Homecoming with Tom Holland 92 percent, and Spider-Man: Far From Home has 90 percent.
MCU Spider-Man Movies Have the Highest Average Score
Despite both the Raimi trilogy and the MCU Spider-Man movies having positive scores for all their respective movies, the MCU has the highest average Tomatometer score with 91 percent, compared to the Raimi trilogy with an 82 percent average, or the Webb trilogy with a 62 percent average. The MCU has a reputation for its high Rotten Tomatoes scores, with every movie up to the most recent release, Eternals, earning a Fresh rating on the Tomatometer.
While the MCU average Tomatometer score has a nine-point edge on the Raimey and Maguire Spider-Man trilogy, the Tomatometer's Fresh reviews divided by total reviews formula doesn't always tell the most nuanced story. Looking at the actual review averages, things are a lot closer. The Raimi Spider-Man trilogy averaged 7.37 out of 10, while the MCU Spider-Man movies averaged 7.55 out of 10. The MCU still has the edge, but only by 0.18 points.
Tobey Maguire Has the Best Individual Movie on Rotten Tomatoes
The average score for Tobey Maguire's Spider-Man trilogy is brought way down by Spider-Man 3's 63 percent score, but if you calculate only the first two installments of Maguire's trilogy against the first two installments of the MCU's Spider-Man with Tom Holland, Maguire actually comes out the clear winner. This doesn't change the fact that the MCU still wins when it comes to series averages, but the fact that the averages are so close despite Spider-Man 3's low score is a testament to just how highly rated Spider-Man and Spider-Man 2 are on Rotten Tomatoes.
Spider-Man 2 is the highest-rated live-action Spider-Man movie with 93 percent on the Tomatometer and the highest average review score at 8.3 out of 10; Spider-Man: Homecoming is the second-highest rated on the Tomatometer with 92 percent and the second-highest average review score at 7.7; and Spider-Man and Spider-Man: Far From Home are tied with 90 percent on the Tomatometer, although Spider-Man has the higher average review score with 7.6 versus Spider-Man: Far From Home's 7.4.
