Last week was pretty jam-packed, to say the least. I've got a birthday coming up, and I was treated to not one, but two movies last week, both of them the current Marvel offerings, so I decided to do another Marvel-themed week like I did at one point last year. (You can check out my reviews of Black Panther and Avengers: Infinity War here and here, respectively.)
In addition to Captain Marvel and Avengers: End Game, I also saw the latest Spider-Man (not counting the upcoming Far From Home) on Blu-Ray for the first time, so I'll be kicking off the week with a review of that one, obviously.
As for my schedule, I am supposed to start back my old one by the end of the month, likely the week after next, so for those of you who miss me reviewing oldies, you only have a couple of more weeks of this to deal with before it's back to normal. Thanks for hanging in there! 😉
Until then, I'll be doing a few more new reviews, starting with this one. Enjoy! 😃
TBH, I was suffering from a bit of Spider-Fatigue after a certain point. Though I loved the first two Sam Raimi films, after that things went downhill fast. Part 3 is the stuff of punchlines thanks to a boogie-fever dream version of the webbed wonder (click here, if you must, if you need a reminder), and The Amazing Spider-Man reboots left me cold.
Spider-Man: Homecoming, however, was a step back in the right direction, adding a dose of John Hughes-style teen angst to the mix, and the upcoming Far From Home looks fun. Be all that as it may, TASM 2 was the last one I saw in theaters, and that certainly didn't change with the last entry, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, though, in retrospect, perhaps I should have given it a fairer shot.
My main hesitation was that the animation I saw in the commercials looked awfully janky, leading me to believe that the film was yet another cash-in on one of many people's fave superheroes. As it turns out, that was somewhat by design, as the film was created by some 180 animators- the largest crew ever for a Sony animated film.
The main reason for that is that the film offers up a dizzying array of different styles, each meant to represent the various Spider-Men and Women and their respective universes contained within the film. In addition, the animators, according to the making of featurettes, adopted an unorthodox approach, intentionally holding each of the animated frames for a beat longer than most such films, which takes some getting used to, much like the "high frame rate" used by Peter Jackson in his Hobbit trilogy.
I didn't see the film in 3D, unfortunately, having skipped it in theaters, and not owning one of those 3D TVs, so I can't comment on how it looks in that format, but I'm guessing it was pretty spectacular. (See what I did there?) Regardless, once you do get used to the gambit, it works like gangbusters, making this arguably the most accurate depiction of what it's like to see a comic book come to life since the much-ballyhooed Hulk, by director Ang Lee, only much more so, being animated and all.
In short, that sort of blurry, pixelated look is by design, and meant to emulate the visuals of an actual comic book, and not only that, but various different styles of comic books, as the film features various interpretations of Spider-Men and Women, all of which have their own distinct style.
For instance, there's Peni Parker (voiced by Kimiko Glenn, of Orange is the New Black), an Asian Spider-girl, who actually uses a radioactive spider-infused robot, dubbed SP//dr, to help with her superheroine activities. The approach adopted for her character is (naturally) Anime-inspired, so whenever she is the focus of the film, it turns into that particular style.
Likewise, there's also Spider-Man Noir (hilariously voiced by a game Nicholas Cage, continuing his great run of solid work last year that also included Mom & Dad and Mandy, both of which made my Best Of 2018 list), who, true to his name, is rendered in exquisite black & white, like an old-school Film Noir- hence the name. With the introduction of each Spider-Person, we get a quick run-through of their background, for those of us who are unfamiliar.
I must admit, being more of a movie watcher than a comics reader- as of late, at least- I was kind of shocked to see how many permutations of the character there are nowadays, but I really dig it, even when it's something as silly as the Looney Tunes-inspired Peter Porker, aka Spider-Ham (perfectly voiced by stand-up comedian John Mulaney). And there I was thinking that the whole "Spider-Pig" thing in The Simpsons was just a gag they made up- turns out the character actually predates The Simpsons itself- go figure.
My favorite might actually be Spider-Gwen, aka Gwen Stacy, previously played by Emma Stone in the Amazing Spider-Man films, and here voiced by the delightful Hailee Steinfeld, who in addition to her part in reinvigorating the Spider-franchise here, also did wonders for the Transformers series with Bumblebee recently, which I would have thought was impossible, given how much those movies typically suck. (I'll be reviewing that one soon, BTW.)
In fact, that may end up being the one comic book version I actually check out in the near-future, though I am also curious to see the others I mentioned, if I can get a hold of some of them via the library. Finances are tight lately, so buying all of that stuff is probably not going to happen- who knew the library would become such an invaluable resource in my later years? Hopefully, they have at least some of those characters available in collections, because I am genuinely interested in checking them out.
The plot of Into the Spider-Verse is pretty cool, overall, even if the near-two hours running time is a bit much. (That said, I can't say I was ever bored, per se, so there's that.) It revolves around Miles Morales (winningly voiced by Shameik Moore, of Dope and The Get Down), a highly intelligent teen that is nonetheless intentionally flunking out at the high-end boarding school he attends because he'd rather attend a local public school, not feeling he fits in with the teens he's surrounded by.
One night, out tagging an underground subway station with his ne'er-do-well uncle, Aaron (Oscar winner Mahershala Ali, of Green Book and True Detective), Miles is, you guessed it, bitten by a radioactive spider. The next day, he begins exhibiting strange abilities, which does not go unnoticed by others, including classmate Gwen Stacy.
When he goes back to look for the spider that bit him to see if there's anything unique about it, he stumbles upon a "super-collider" built by the nefarious local villain, Wilson Fisk, aka the Kingpin (voiced by an unrecognizable Liev Schreiber, of Ray Donovan). It turns out that the machine has the ability to access other universes... but at a cost. Kingpin wants to access another universe in order to resurrect his late family, who were killed in a car crash that was, in part, Spider-Man's fault, as the two were fighting at the time.
Needless to say, Kingpin blames Spider-Man (voiced by Chris Pine, adding another superhero-type to his resume, along with his turns in Wonder Woman and Star Trek) for the incident, so he doesn't take kindly to his interference when he shows up to destroy the Super-Collider, the reason being that the machine could cause all the different universes to bleed into one another and eventually cause everything to be sucked into a black hole, eliminating everything as we know it.
Alas, he doesn't quite pull it off, so he tasks Miles with finishing the job. On the plus side, the various tests of the super-collider have already resulted in other Spider-People shifting over to Miles' own universe, so he has some help along the way.
In addition to the aforementioned Spider-Folks, he also has assistance from the middle-aged, schlubby Peter B. Parker (voiced by a game, self-defacing Jake Johnson, of New Girl), a Spider-Loser that has not been faring well in his own universe, having blown things with Mary Jane after balking at starting a family. There's also an assist from Aunt May (Lily Tomlin, Grace & Frankie), who is already aware that something is afoot and is surprisingly well-prepared to deal with it.
In addition to Kingpin, there's also a host of other villains- a veritable "Sinister Six," if you will, that includes The Prowler, Green Goblin, Tombstone, Scorpion and a female Doctor Octopus (Kathryn Hahn, of the Bad Moms movies), all banding together to defeat all the Spider-People. As if this all weren't enough, if the Spider-Visitors don't get back to their own universes in a timely manner, they risk dissolving into nothingness, as they can't sustain themselves in an alternate universe. Now you see why the movie is almost two hours long!
Needless to say, it's a lot to take in, but to the film's credit, it's all pretty easy to follow, even if you don't know your Spider-Verse from your multiverse. If anything, I was just impressed by the level of detail in the Spider-Verse that I wasn't aware of, to say nothing of how inclusive it all is. In addition to making some of the Spider-People women (as well as Doc Ock), Miles is a Puerto Rico/African-American mix, Scorpion is Mexican and The Prowler is a black man. To say nothing of Spider-Ham being a literal pig!
The point is obviously that anyone can be a Spider-Person, no matter who (or what, in the case of Spider-Ham and the robot) you are. Ditto a villain. While I imagine there are some Trumpist-types that are grumbling about all this diversity and political correctness, I dug the fact that it wasn't really something that was pointed out, but just was.
No mention is made of anyone's race or gender at any point- it's just the way things are, which is the way it should be, in life, as well as in movies and TV and the like. Like it or not, there's no turning back from the melting pot that is America now. The deafening sound you hear from the whiny right is just the last dying breath of all the haters that can't accept that.
At least we know who the racists are now- if there's one good thing to have come from the last few years, it's that they are no longer as anonymous as they once were. Instead of lurking in the shadows, they are now in full view, which means they can be stopped, just as the villains here are.
Just look at what happened with those Charlottesville neo-Nazis. Someone on the internet identified them all via their photos and sent word to their employers, and most of them no longer have jobs, having paid the price for their hatred. Now those are the IRL superheroes, in my book.
So, yeah, this new-fangled Spider-Man entry is super-inclusive, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. Believe me, I have seen shows or movies or what have you where that sort of thing sticks out like a sore thumb, and it's obvious the creators are trying too hard to be PC or whatever and the story suffers from it because it comes off as too preachy or whatever, but this is not that. Like the best examples of this sort of thing, it succeeds by not drawing attention to itself- these are characters that just so happen to be from different backgrounds and cultures and are of different genders and so forth.
But even if you look past the cool message that anyone can be a superhero in their own way, no matter what their background, it's just plain an entertaining movie. The visuals are pretty awe-inspiring and endlessly inventive, there are more Easter Eggs for Spider-Fans than you can sling a web at- there's even a nod to the aforementioned Spider-Dancing debacle, plus, the expected Stan Lee cameo (though animated Stan suffers a bit from the whole "Uncanny Valley" thing)- and the voice cast is first-rate and the story is involving.
About the worst thing I could say about the film is that, yes, it's a bit long, and the animation can indeed be a bit janky at times- that kind of thing can happen when you've got so many different artists working on something in so many different types of styles.
But overall, this is a worthy addition to the Marvel-verse and the Spider-Verse alike, and now having seen most of the Oscar-nominated animated films from 2018- I've seen everything except Mirai- I can honestly say, it was the best of the bunch and fully deserved to win, in spite of the typically first-rate Disney/Pixar competition (The Incredibles 2 and Ralph Breaks the Internet) and the wonderfully oddball Isle of Dogs.
I'd even go so far to say that it redeemed Spider-Man for me, just as I was ready to essentially write the character off after the meh-inducing Amazing Spider-Man flicks and the okay-but-nothing-spectacular recent reboot. If anything, it's sort of ironic that it took a host of Spider-People to make me completely rethink things and win me back over. Now, I'm actually looking forward to the new film, as well as any new Spider-Verse-inspired animated flicks.
Big props to filmmakers Philip A. Lord and Christopher Miller, who were also the masterminds behind The Lego Movie franchise and the animated kids' flick Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. The film is a return to form after the duo were fired off the Star Wars spin-off Solo mere weeks before shooting wrapped, reportedly for being too "irreverent" with the franchise. Well, we all know how that turned out, so it seems to me that the duo is best left to their own devices. If you don't like their style, maybe don't hire them in the first place, ok?
With promising projects like an adaption of the sci-fi novels Artemis and The Last Horizon and the script for the movie version of The Flash on the horizon, their future looks bright, so hopefully, Solo will prove to be just a bump in the road to further success.
They were also the ones behind the two 21 Jump Street movies, which were a lot of fun. If you saw the second film in that series, you know that this film wasn't their first stab at multi-verses, as 22 Jump Street ended with a fun montage at potential future installments of the series, which you can see here, if you missed it.
I had low expectations going into Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, but I'm happy to say those expectations were met and then some. This film was almost better than it had any right to be, what with all the reboots and sequels not exactly landing with a bang but often a thud, much like Spider-Man when he first gets started. IMHO, this was easily one of the best entries in the franchise to date, maybe even the best, period, though I might need to re-watch some of the others before I can say that for sure. It's up there, though.
By all means, check it out, ASAP, especially if you're already a fan, but even if you've cooled on Spidey and his antics, this one is worth a shot. Hell, even if you don't give two craps about superhero flicks in general, you might like this one. It's funny, smart, and doesn't take itself too seriously, save when the story calls for it, in which case, it's surprisingly touching. I can't recommend it enough.
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