Every Andrew Garfield Spider-Man Movie Ranked, Worst To Best

Andrew Garfield's Spider-Man movies have featured numerous web-slinging adventures, making ranking them far from straightforward. Following Tobey Maguire, Andrew Garfield's Spider-Man became the second big-screen Peter Parker with the 2012 reboot The Amazing Spider-Man. Garfield would reprise the role in the 2014 sequel The Amazing Spider-Man 2, but the film marked a significant slump for the Spider-Man franchise.

With Spider-Man subsequently being rebooted again and officially joining the Marvel Cinematic Universe with Tom Holland taking on the role, it seemed for years that Garfield's time as Spidey had come and gone. Spider-Man: No Way Home offered the biggest rebuttal possible to that notion in December 2021. Not only did Garfield return as his version of Spider-Man, so to did Tobey Maguire, the two appearing alongside Holland's MCU-based Wall-Crawler after a few doorways in Marvel's Multiverse are inadvertently opened.

In all of his Spider-Man performances, Garfield brings a flair and charm to Peter Parker that made No Way Home uniting Maguire, Garfield, and Holland a blast for audiences around the world. Individually, Garfield's Spider-Man has blended quipping and web-shooting as only Peter Parker can in all of his adventures, always with the mindset that with great power comes great responsibility. Here are all of Andrew Garfield's Spider-Man movies, from weakest to strongest.

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014)

It might not have become the Spider-Verse starter that Sony had envisioned, but setting aside everything it was burdened with, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 has held a relatively secure place in Spidey’s big-screen history. Two years after The Amazing Spider-Man, Peter Parker and Gwen Stacy (Emma Stone) are entering their adult lives after graduating from high school, while Peter finds himself facing a new villain in Jamie Fox's Max Dillion a.k.a. Electro (who himself later returned No Way Home). Peter also begins to learn more about his past and the seeds his father Richard Parker (Campbell Scott) planted to his eventual spider powers with the return of his old friend Harry Osborn (Dane Dehaan). These plot lines prove to be a lot for The Amazing Spider-Man 2 to juggle, with the film at times becoming exhausting as a result.

Max and Harry’s vendettas with Spider-Man also sees each of them take a sharp turn into outright psychopathy. Balancing those issues out are Garfield and Stone’s outstanding couple’s chemistry, a comic book-like color palette, and some of Spidey’s best web-slinging action ever. The film's Sinister Six Easter eggs and the shortchanged cameo of The Rhino (Paul Giamatti) ended up being for naught with The Amazing Spider-Man 2’s underperformance. As such, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is a mixed bag overall, but thanks to Garfield's return in No Way Home, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is retroactively essential to Garfield's Spider-Man tale.

The Amazing Spider-Man (2012)

The beginnings of a new take of Spider-Man began in 2012’s The Amazing Spider-Man, with Andrew Garfield selling the movie with his deadpan joke delivery and search for answers as Peter Parker. The Amazing Spider-Man follows Peter's origin of being bitten by a genetically tinkered spider at Oscorp and donning his mask and web-shooters after failing to stop the killing of Uncle Ben (Martin Sheen). Peter’s battle with Curt Connors (Rhys Ifans) after his transformation into the Lizard provides plenty of thrilling Spidey action, but The Amazing Spider-Man works primarily because of how much Garfield makes Peter Parker his own.

Whereas Tobey Maguire’s masterfully exhibited Peter’s self-confidence issues, Garfield’s Peter is cocky and joke-prone in and out of the suit. Whether in debates with Captain George Stacy (Denis Leary) or mocking a car thief bringing a knife to a web-fight, Garfield’s Spider-Man riffs without any Avengers around and is a joyous presence in every scene. Garfield and Stacy are also great fun together in Peter and Gwen’s blossoming romance, and the late Stan Lee also makes a cameo in Spidey’s school grounds battle with the Lizard worthy of an enthusiastic “Excelsior!” The Amazing Spider-Man might have been a rather sudden move into a reboot for the Web-Head, but it nevertheless is a great intro to one of the three big-screen Peter Parkers.

Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021)

Three Spider-Men in Spider-Man No Way Home image

Amid the COVID-19 pandemic's impact, three Spider-Men would weave a web of multiversal fun with Spider-Man: No Way Home. Set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the efforts of Peter Parker (Tom Holland) and Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) to restore his secret identity instead bring over villains from other universes who know his secret. Fortunately, he has assistance from the two Spideys of the villain’s worlds, with none other than Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield returning. No Way Home became an international cheer-filled phenomenon in 2021’s holiday season, and very rightly so. Tom Holland’s portrayal of Spider-Man brings Peter’s scientific aptitude and dedication to justice together like never before with plenty of Spidey’s trademark one-liners that are his bread and butter. Holland is far from the only member of the cast getting in on that fun too, with Charlie Cox’s Matt Murdock bringing his lawyerly know-how and radar sense to The Man Without Fear’s cameo.

The Web-Slinging Spider-Man action is as breathtaking as ever in No Way Home, while the movie also expertly balances the biggest Spidey villain cabal ever with Willen Dafoe's (largely mask-free) Green Goblin, Alfred Molina's Doc Ock, along with the Sandman (Thomas Haden Church), Ifans's Lizard, and Foxx's Electro (with an end credits cameo by Tom Hardy's Venom to boot). The biggest highlight is truly the trio of Spideys themselves simply having fun as a team. Maguire and Garfield’s returns brought entire theaters to standing ovations, with neither having lost an iota of the magic each brought to Peter Parker – or, more accurately “Peter #2” and “Peter #3” as they are dubbed by Holland’s “Peter #1”. Garfield’s performance especially is without a doubt his finest as Spidey in No Way Home, still crushed by the death of Gwen Stacy but on-hand to provide Peter #1 support at his lowest point, with Peter #3's rescue of MJ (Zendaya) also becoming one No Way Home’s big cheer moments. No Way Home’s ending leaves Peter #1 at a tear-jerking crossroads, but seeing the three Spider-Men together is a joy to be cherished by every fan of the Web-Slinger. Spider-Man: No Way Home has earned very deserved praise as both one of the MCU’s best films and the ultimate Spider-Man movie, but however one ranks it in such larger criteria, Spider-Man: No Way Home is absolutely the most amazing Andrew Garfield Spider-Man movie.