The Marvel Cinematic Universe and Sony Pictures partnered together after Andrew Garfield’s second Spider-Man movie. Sony was desperate to get the character trending again and turned to Marvel for help. As a result, we have the MCU trilogy, called the “Home” trilogy. The creative minds behind this trilogy said it was their answer to the Harry Potter movies. That each movie would be like another year of his schooling. For the most part, it was. The first film in that trilogy, Spider-Man: Homecoming takes place during Peter Parker’s (this time played by Tom Holland) sophomore year of school. Then, we have Spider-Man: Far From Home, which takes place during the summer of one of Peter’s last years of high school. Finally, we have Spider-Man: No Way Home, Peter, his girlfriend MJ (Zendaya), and his best friend, Ned Leeds (Jacob Battalon) during their last year of school.

While these three movies are all financially a giant success, not all of these films are made equally. Today we are taking a look back at the “Home” trilogy and ranking them, ahead of the July 31^st release date of Spider-Man: Brand New Day.

3. Spider-Man: Far From Home

The third best film of the “Home trilogy”, and possibly the weakest live-action Spider-Man entry to date, is none other than Spider-Man: Far From Home. In spite of having some of the series best scenes, like the hallucination scene where Mysterio tricks Peter into telling him which of his friends know his secret about the drones, and Spider-Man using his spider-sense at the end of the movie, this film does not have much suspense. In fact, it is pretty much used as a palette cleanser after Avengers: Endgame.

It was the first film released post-Endgame and Marvel said they wanted to lower the stakes a bit and ensure everyone had a fun, non-emotional time. That was the wrong way to go about making this movie. This was the film where they teased the multiverse while deciding not to actually include it. It was all a made up story by Mysterio as a means of making himself look like a hero. Ned and Betty Brant become a couple, which was humorous but a side bit that did little to advance the plot. Sure, MJ and Peter’s growing relationship was cute, but it also felt like filler at times because they did not know where to go with the story.

Mysterio’s plan seemed like it should not have worked as well as it did. He had drones that used CGI to look like monsters? How on earth would he ever realistically pull that off? Trick question: he would not be able to. The big reveal in the end credits that Peter is Spider-Man was a perfect way to end. But, it still was not good enough to redeem the movie. Mysterio dies and left me feeling like he should have made a bigger impact than what he actually had done.

2. Spider-Man: Homecoming 

The second best film of the trilogy might come as a bit of a surprise. At first, I thought that Spider-Man: No Way Home would have taken this place. But upon rewatching the entire trilogy, No Way Home became my favorite. So, to the one that started it all, Spider-Man: Homecoming comes in at number two. Though if one said they had Homecoming as number one on their list, I would not disagree much with them. It is a truly great comic book movie, especially for a first solo movie from the character.

Homecoming was inspired by the 1980’s John Hughes movies. It felt much less like a superhero movie and more like a coming of age epic that took place in a high school where one of them (Peter, of course) just so happened to be a superhero. All the school stuff felt refreshing considering how little Sony used to focus on Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield’s Peters being in the classroom. Peter being a part of a debate team and actually having friends was a breath of fresh air.

Before, Peter Parker only had Harry. Harry would not stay friends with him for long before turning into one of his villains. Ned Leeds helps carry this movie with his friendship with Peter. The Vulture was a normal guy, just like Peter. Though one decided to become a supervillain while the other became a superhero. The Vulture being Liz’s dad is one of the MCU’s best twists to date. Giving Peter the Stark suit only to strip it away and make him go back to his original suit that had no upgrades was the perfect way to prove this is our new Spider-Man. This movie showed that Tom Holland was worthy of the mantle and would become just as beloved as Tobey and Andrew.

1. Spider-Man: No Way Home

And, speaking of Tobey and Andrew, let’s talk about the number one MCU Spider-Man movie, Spider-Man: No Way Home. While No Way Home gets a lot of hate from fans these days about its nostalgia “bait”, I personally think it is the perfect Spider-Man movie, regardless of how paper thin the actual plot is. Sure, it seems straightforward enough, thanks to a botched spell by Dr. Strange, villains that know Peter Parker is Spider-Man come to our earth. The biggest complaint that I have is that Tom did not have to face any of his villains in this movie, he only fought with Tobey and Andrew’s villains. So, there really was not a personal connection until the death of Aunt May.

Having Tobey and Andrew return and be more than just a minor cameo is enough for me to say this is the best MCU Spider-Man to date. Add onto that the original villains returning to play their roles and it easily is one of the greatest superhero films to date. There were some story beads they could have included to make it even better, sure. But the finished product is nothing to scoff at.

So, there you have it. The ranking of best MCU Spider-Man: “Home” Trilogy films goes, Spider-Man: Far From Home, then Spider-Man: Homecoming, and then Spider-Man: No Way Home. It hurt me to remove Homecoming from the number one spot, but No Way Home earned it in spades.