In the good old days at Netflix, the streamer offered access to plenty of movies and TV shows from a wide variety of studios. Eventually, though, many of those studios got smart and realized how valuable the rights to stream their own content really were. As a result, they started to build streamers of their own, and now, all the Marvel stuff that you used to be able to find on Netflix has now been ported over to Disney+.
Netflix does still have a few Marvel or Marvel-adjacent titles, though, and fans with a subscription shouldn’t despair. The selection may be more limited than it once was, but there are still a handful of great titles worth watching or rewatching to get your Marvel fix.
Spider-Man (2002)
121m
Genre
Fantasy, Action
Stars
Tobey Maguire, Willem Dafoe, Kirsten Dunst
Directed by
Sam Raimi
The first Spider-Man launched the superhero boom. Although it was predated by X-Men, Spider-Man was such an enormous success that it eventually led the team at Marvel to begin making movies out of less familiar superheroes like Iron Man. This movie tells Spider-Man’s origin story, and really bifurcates itself between Peter Parker’s life in high school and his life outside of it. Thanks to a wonderful ensemble cast and some real inventiveness from director Sam Raimi, Spider-Man soared to incredible heights at the box office, and elements of it were even pulled into the most recent blockbuster Spider-Man film, No Way Home.
Spider-Man 2 (2004)
127m
Genre
Action, Adventure, Fantasy
Stars
Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst, James Franco
Directed by
Sam Raimi
Perhaps the pinnacle of superhero moviemaking, Spider-Man 2 is so endlessly rewatchable that it’s really the only superhero movie you need. What this movie, and Raimi’s trilogy more generally, really nail is the way that being Spider-Man totally ruins Peter Parker’s life. He wants so desperately to be a regular guy, but he keeps having to save people, and every time he saves anyone, he’s invariably late or about to get fired or missing a chance to make things work with MJ. In addition to its understanding of this core truth, Spider-Man 2 also has some of the best action in any superhero movie ever made. The fight between Spider-Man and Doc Ock that climaxes on the top of a subway car is genuinely thrilling, and holds up better than almost anything you’ll see in your typical Thorvehicle.
Spider-Man 3 (2007)
139m
Genre
Fantasy, Action, Adventure
Stars
Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst, James Franco
Directed by
Sam Raimi
The movie that led Sam Raimi away from Spider-Man movies, Spider-Man 3 is better than you might remember it being. It’s true, of course, that the movie feels overstuffed, and certain character arcs don’t totally gel or cohere. Even so, Spider-Man 3 still feels like a far more inventive movie than much of what superhero movies have become in recent years. Kirsten Dunst is genuinely committed to the material, and delivers a great performance in every chapter. Spider-Man 3 is definitely not redeeming in its entirety, but every frame is bursting with ideas that don’t feel like they’ve been pushed through a content grinding machine. What’s more, Tobey Maguire’s famous dance sequence is incredibly cringey, but that is the whole point. Peter becomes a weird jerk for large stretches of this movie, and Spider-Man 3 knows it.
The Amazing Spider-Man (2012)
136m
Genre
Action, Adventure, Fantasy
Stars
Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone, Rhys Ifans
Directed by
Marc Webb
Andrew Garfield’s run as Spider-Man doesn’t have the best reputation among fans of the character, but Garfield’s Peter Parker was somehow a thrilling addition to No Way Home. Garfield himself is an incredibly gifted actor, and his take on Peter was always a smart one. Add in his undeniable chemistry with Emma Stone and you’ve got a recipe for some outstanding scenes, even if the movie as a whole is a bit of a letdown. The action is muddy and boring, and the actual plot is a little bit of a mess. Even so, if what you’re looking for is a dynamite romance, you probably can’t do much better than Peter Parker and Gwen Stacy in The Amazing Spider-Man.
Morbius (2022)
105m
Genre
Action, Science Fiction, Fantasy
Stars
Jared Leto, Matt Smith, Adria Arjona
Directed by
Daniel Espinosa
Definitely not the movie to watch if you like genuinely great superhero movies, but Morbius is fun in its own twisted way. Jared Leto’s perverse commitment to the part, and the memes that have come out of the movie, have made it an object of fascination even though no one is really sticking up for the quality of the movie in and of itself. You may not want to devote all of your attention to Morbius, but if you’re hungry for superhero entertainment that you may have missed in the theater, you could do worse than putting Morbius on in the background while you do something else. If nothing else, the movie doesn’t adhere to the normal formula that has defined so many other Marvel projects.
The Spectacular Spider-Man (2008)
2 Seasons
Genre
Action & Adventure, Animation
Cast
Josh Keaton
Created by
Stan Lee, Steve Ditko
An animated series that bridged the gap between Tobey Maguire’s Spider-Man and Andrew Garfield’s version of the character, The Spectacular Spider-Man is aimed primarily at kids, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t plenty of fun stuff to enjoy in the show. In some ways, TV is a more natural fit for a character like Spider-Man, who often has his regular life interrupted by the emergence of some new problem or villain that needs to be dealt with. The show only lasted two seasons, but it received widespread acclaim when it debuted thanks to its faithful interpretation of Peter Parker, and for the way it tackled mature themes without alienating its core audience of young people. If you’re looking for a great Spider-Manstory that feels the way the comics often did, then you should definitely check out The Spectacular Spider-Man.
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