After Sam Raimi's successful Spider-Man franchise ended with the third movie, Sony rebooted everything with Marc Webb and his Amazing Spider-Man movies. Webb brought in Andrew Garfield as an older Spider-Man, replaced Mary Jane (Kirsten Dunst) with Gwen Stacy, and introduced brand-new lore with a mystery surrounding Peter Parker's parents.
With the new stories, the franchise kept the idea that Spider-Man was highly intelligent, and much like the first two movies in Raimi's series, he battled people who were also extremely intelligent as well. However, as expected, not everyone was on the same level when it came to their brains. Some of the Amazing Spider-Man heroes and villains ranked well below others when it came to overall intelligence.
May Parker
The Amazing Spider-Man franchise de-aged both Aunt May and Uncle Ben. While she was only 10 years younger than Rosemary Harris when she took on the role, Sally Field played it much younger. Neither actor played May as a highly intelligent woman, though.
What held May down in both movies was her naivete when it came to Peter Parker and Spider-Man, although Field's version was a little less oblivious to everything. However, she wasn't a genius and that keeps her below most characters in the franchise.
George Stacy
George Stacy was smarter than he looked in The Amazing Spider-Man. Played by Denis Leary, Captain Stacy was not the smartest person in the movie, but he was an intelligent and wise detective. He was held down somewhat by his hard-nosed determination to stop Spider-Man, even over real villains.
In the end, George learned that Peter was Spider-Man and made him promise to stay away from Gwen, and he seemed to trust Peter to listen. That showed his lack of wisdom, even as he was on his deathbed.
Harry Osborn
Harry Osborn (Dane DeHann) was very different in The Amazing Spider-Man movies than he was in the Sam Raimi trilogy. While both Harry's became the Green Goblin, the Raimi version did so for revenge after his dad's death while the later version had more personal reasons.
Harry in The Amazing Spider-Man had a degenerative disease ed on from his dad, who had already died from it. Harry tried to find a cure, but he was never as smart as his dad and ended up poisoning his body, turning himself into a supervillain.
Gwen Stacy
Gwen Stacy (Emma Stone) was a smart character in both the comics and The Amazing Spider-Man movies. She had a lot going for her and had a bright future, which is what made her death in both even more tragic. Ignore the fact she was Peter Parker's love interest, and just look at her accomplishments.
Gwen was a smart college student who had a love for science and worked for Norman Osborn's company. She proved her intelligence when she applied and received a scholarship to Oxford before her death. She also assisted Peter in making some of his gadgets stronger when he was unable to work out how to stop Electro from short-circuiting his web-shooters.
Max Dillon/Electro
Before he became Electro, Max Dillon (Jamie Foxx) was an electrical engineer working for Oscorp Industries. This was a big change from the comics, where he was just an electrician. However, he wasn't all that much smarter in the movies, despite his position.
Max was a nobody and allowed that to define who he believed he was. He was highly intelligent and even came up with an idea for a new power grid, but allowed his co-workers to steal the idea and claim it as their own. He gained revenge and realized his powers was more important than his brains in the end.
Rajit Ratha
Not a lot is known about Rajit Ratha (Irrfan Khan), although there are plenty of rumors that he could have played a much bigger role that he did. However, what is known is that he was a scientist, working closely with Norman Osborn, and was of high intelligence.
The last time he was seen in the franchise was when Spider-Man saved him from a Lizard attack. However, there is also a deleted scene where he searched out Curt Connors and died in the underground lab. Rajit was also an associate of Richard Parker, which also hints at his great intelligence.
Norman Osborn
Very little is known about Norman Osborn (Chris Cooper) in The Amazing Spider-Man movies. What is known is that he owns Oscorp and he had some of the most brilliant scientists working for him, including Curt Connors and Richard Parker.
However, while he was a genius in the Raimi trilogy, he never itted to as much in these movies. He could have just been a wealthy man who hired people to find a cure for himself and his son. Because his intelligence was never revealed, it can only be guessed that he was smart due to his position as the CEO and founder of his company.
Peter Parker/Spider-Man
In high school, Peter Parker (Andrew Garfield) was one of Midtown Science's best and brightest students. He had a genius-level intellect, with a mastery of engineering, chemistry, and physics. He showed throughout The Amazing Spider-Man movies how smart he really was.
He created his web fluid, using his dad's old formula. He created his own web-shooters. He even was able to solve a scientific formula that turned Curt Connors into the Lizard. In the second movie, he also got one step closer into learning what his father was doing, following in his scientific footsteps.
Dr. Curt Connors/Lizard
Curt Connors (Rhys Ifans) in The Amazing Spider-Man was very different than the version from the comics. In the comics, Curt was almost like a Wolfman character, not wanting to be a monster, but in the movies, he was more aligned with the "Mad Scientist" trope. Both versions were, however, geniuses.
Curt has a genius-level intellect and was a close associate of Peter's dad, Richard Parker. Curt was a world-renowned herpetologist who worked for Norman Osborn, and his own downfall was experimenting on himself, turning himself into a Lizard (and one of the most sympathetic villains in the Spider-Man franchise).
Richard Parker
The most intelligent person in The Amazing Spider-Man movies was a man who died before the storyline even started. Richard Parker (Campbell Scott) was Peter's dad and he was a top scientist working for Norman Osborn, trying to find a cure for his boss's debilitating disease.
He was called a brilliant scientist, and one who was even greater than Curt Connors himself. The two worked on cross-species genetics and he was ultimately responsible for the genetically-enhanced spiders that gave his son powers.
