New Review - Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018)

Writer's Note: Heard you missed me- I'm back! 😎

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. 

   

New Review: Annihilation (2018)

Writer's Note: Good news everyone! I asked for, and will soon get, a schedule change back to my old one, which allowed me to write on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, instead of only Tuesdays and Thursdays and the occasional Saturday or Sunday.

Needless to say, my current schedule made it harder to do what I was doing early on, but it's not like I could just say: "You've got to change my schedule because I can't review movies all the time like I used to!" Lol. Obviously, I do this blog more for fun than anything else (and no, I'm not getting paid for any of this) - and yes, I do consider this fun: I'm old, what can I say? It doesn't take much.

Anyhoo, I'll be back to my old schedule soon, which gives me just enough time to knock out a few more new reviews before I get back to reviewing the older stuff like I used to. That also includes franchise reviews, which I haven't done since the holidays. I already have a few picked out, including a couple that tie into more current TV-series spin-offs, which I'll also be reviewing- as well as watching some for the first time, in the case of the TV shows.

I'm not entirely sure when the change will go down, but I was told within the next few weeks. I'll keep you posted accordingly. Until then, I have just enough time to do a few new reviews, though, rest assured, I'll still do those on occasion as well, especially if I see something worth reviewing, as was the case with my latest review subject...

In the latest from Ex Machina writer/director Alex Garland, the cerebral filmmaker once again delves into a world in which science fiction and horror collide, this time even more overtly than in his past works. In Annihilation, a grieving widow- or so she thinks- is stunned when her long thought dead husband returns out of nowhere without much in the way of explanation. No sooner has he returned than he starts coughing up blood, and she is forced to call an ambulance.

Then, en route to the hospital, they are intercepted by a group of shadowy figures that jump out and grab her husband and drug her and take her as well, to a sheltered government facility in some undisclosed location somewhere in the vicinity of Florida. We discover that the woman, Lena (Natalie Portman), is a cellular biologist, and that her husband, Kane (Oscar Isaac, also in Ex Machina), disappeared while on a covert mission to... somewhere unknown- at least at first. 

Lena is questioned by psychologist Dr. Ventress (Jennifer Jason Leigh, The Hateful Eight), who, upon determining that Lena knows next to nothing about what's going on- her husband wasn't much of a sharer, in that regard, working for the government and all- finally discloses that Kane had been investigating an unexplained phenomenon that the authorities have been calling the "Shimmer," a sort-of glowing, colorful light that is covering a section of land in Florida.

It seems that the "Shimmer" is expanding, and might eventually overtake the rest of the world if they don't stop it. One problem: everyone that the government send into the "Shimmer" zone never comes back out, and that includes robots, drones, animals, etc. Radio/video communication from within the "Shimmer" zone is also a no-go, so they don't know what happened to anyone/anything, either.

To that end, Dr. Ventress is putting together yet another team, this time made up entirely of women, as all the previous human teams were made up of men. She's hoping that the gender switch might succeed where other missions have failed- that is, except for Kane, the only one to make it out alive, albeit in dire condition, and currently on life support at the moment.

In hopes of garnering some clues as to what happened to him, Lena volunteers to go on the mission as well, but on one condition: no one else on the team can know her ulterior motive. As far as they know, she's strictly there because of her expertise as a cellular biologist. Needless to say, this fact does eventually come out, with unpleasant repercussions, because of course it does.  

The other members of the team are: Anya Thorensen (Gina Rodriguez, Jane the Virgin), a paramedic; Cassie Sheppard (Tuva Novotny, Possession), a geomorphologist (aka an expert on land); and Josie Radek (Tessa Thompson, Westworld), a physicist. Perhaps needless to say, it's pretty gratifying to see such a female-heavy cast in an original film that's not a reboot or the like (i.e. Ocean's 8 or Ghostbusters).


It's also a given that things almost immediately begin to go wrong once the new group enters the "Shimmer," gender be damned. First, the crew loses time, with no one able to remember making their way to a certain spot and setting up camp, even though depleted rations make it clear they must have been inside the zone for days now. 

Then, they start to notice how off things are around them. The flora appears to be weird hybrids of multiple species, despite all growing from the same stem, which is technically impossible. Before too long, they realize a similar mutation can be found in the animals there as well- a too close encounter with what looks like an alligator actual proves to be a hybrid of a gator and a shark. There's also a nightmare fuel-inducing mutant bear which is able to mimic the sounds of other creatures to lure its prey. 

Things go from there, getting progressively worse, until the crew- or some of them, at least- eventually do stumble upon the truth of what's really going on with the "Shimmer," to a certain extent. I'm not entirely sure how to explain it myself, but suffice it to say it involves refraction and cellular mutations that mimic other cells, not unlike a variation of what goes on in Carpenter's version of The Thing, which makes this the second movie I've seen within the week (along with Overlord) that borrows from that classic. 


Unfortunately, as with that film, Annihilation wasn't exactly a box office blockbuster, making it a shoe-in for future cult classic status, as more and more people find it on Netflix and the like. Netflix bought the rights to distribute the film in most foreign territories and to stream it later on (which is where I saw it), with Paramount financing the film and holding the rights to it in the US, Canada and China.

Reportedly, it was to be the first film in a proposed trilogy, based on a book series by author Jeff VanderMeer. However, the movie was made before the book series was completed, so, much like Game of Thrones, writer Alex Garland was left to his own devices when it came to filling in the blanks for the unreleased material. Sadly, given that the film didn't even break even at the box office- it cost between $40-55 million, depending on the source, and only grossed $43 million- it seems unlikely that we'll get any follow-ups, save in book form.

Word is that the film wasn't particularly well-received by test audiences, but that, in a rare show of solidarity, producer Scott Rudin, who had final cut, sided with director Garland and insisted that his vision remain intact. Given that this put Rudin at odds with his fellow producer, David Ellison, who felt that the film was "too intellectual" and "complicated" and wanted to retool the film, changing the ending in particular and to tweak Portman's character to make her more "sympathetic," chances are we won't be seeing any more films in the series.

That's too bad, as Annihilation is a fascinating endeavor that is indeed pretty cerebral, but that's also what I think Garland's audience has come to expect from his work, which, in addition to Ex Machina, also includes writing the scripts for 2012's Dredd, Never Let Me Go, Sunshine and 28 Days Later, most of which he also produced as well. He is also a novelist, who wrote the Gen X cult fave The Beach, upon which the film of the same name was based, with Leonardo DiCaprio and Tilda Swinton.

Annihilation reminded me not only of The Thing in more subtle ways than Overlord (i.e. the scene in which several characters are tied to their chairs and interrogated) but also of more left-of-center sci-fi/horror efforts like The Day of the Triffids, Silent Running and Die Monster Die!/The Curse/Colour From the Dark and Stephen King's The Tommyknockers, all of which were inspired by the H.P. Lovecraft tale "The Colour Out of Space," which details the after-effects of a crashed meteorite, which causes illness and strange behavior in humans and mutations in animals and vegetation and so forth. (Note also the similarities to the cover of that book and the poster.)

In addition, I couldn't help but think of the infamous mutated bear in the cult favorite Prophecy when it comes to the best supporting actor in this film, that freaky bear creature. Appearance-wise, the Prophecy one is more ick-inducing than the one here, but this one takes the cake because of its particular abilities, which are hella disturbing.

Indeed, the entire film structure couldn't help but remind me of another genre favorite: the slasher flick. After all, what was the original Alien but a slasher film that happened to be set on a space-ship? That's not a coincidence, either, as writer Dan O'Bannon was a contemporary of director John Carpenter, with whom he made the amusing Dark Star, which is like a more comedic version of Alien. After seeing the success Carpenter had with his Halloween, O'Bannon no doubt thought to combine the two films for what became Alien. 

Here, Garland, working from only one book in an intended trilogy, probably filled-in-the-blanks using some of his own favorite sci-fi and horror films, hence the fact that some of the film seems a bit borrowed, but not necessarily in a bad way. But if you're well-versed in both horror and sci-fi, you're definitely going to find some of this familiar, for sure. Whether you consider that to be a good or bad thing is up to you, but in this case, I found it to be overall pretty entertaining.

Besides, like I said, it's rare to see such a strong female cast in a film like this- the last one that comes to mind is something like The Descent, though there may be others I'm forgetting at the moment. As with that film, these ladies are smart, self-assured, and must work together to survive- or go against each other at their own peril. It's refreshing to see something like that in a film like this, where women tend to be monster/stalker fodder.

Unfortunately, that's also where the more negative aspects of the film come in, since, also as with slasher flicks, most of the characters aren't particularly well-defined, save Final Girl Portman- not a spoiler, as you see she survives the ordeal in the opening scene. Basically, as with slashers, each girl is given one or two defining characteristics... and that's about it. Actually, I'd even go so far as to argue that most of them are flat-out reduced to the job definitions I gave above.

There's one character who is identified as being a lesbian, one who lost a child, one who tried to kill herself (or rather, "cut herself to feel alive," as one character puts it) and one who has cancer, but that's about as far as it goes for character stuff. So, yeah, it's basically a slightly brainier version of a slasher movie with some surface-level scientific stuff thrown in to make it seem smarter than it is. But I happen to love slasher movies for all of their faults, so it's not so much a complaint as it is an observation.

That said, I can certainly see why some audiences wouldn't particularly cotton to it- after all, none of the characters here are exactly warm and fuzzy nurturer types- but who says they have to be? Unfortunately, that does still tend to be what is expected of women in fictional representation, unless you're going for the whole "this one is good" and "this one is bad" thing, which is also acceptable to the masses. God forbid women actually be allowed to be, you know, complicated and, um, human.

But that's also my point here. Garland gives us a cast of excellent actors, with Portman, Thompson, and Leigh in particular having done complex, layered work elsewhere in more ambitious projects. Here, they're mostly reduced to "types"- hence the slasher movie comparison. Not that that's the only reason I brought it up- they're also stuck in an isolated locale and picked off one by one by an always lurking predator that uses subterfuge to lure them out of hiding at times. Sound familiar?

As such, there's much to recommend here for non-discerning slasher movie fans, but also sci-fi fans that don't mind something that soft-pedals the science aspect a bit. Although, I say this as someone who's seen/read quite a bit of both horror and sci-fi, so your mileage may vary on the science end, which some may find themselves a bit perplexed by, especially toward the end. (Just think an alien species with replicating abilities that aren't quite there yet and you've basically got the gist of it.)

That said, there's a lot to recommend here- cyphers or not, the cast is strong, and the writing isn't bad, just a bit half-formed, much like the alien species itself. Visually, though, it's spectacular, with a lot of the given shots looking like super-cool (if occasionally hella disturbing) art installations. Props to the production designers, which is not something I tend to shout out much in my line of work, but probably should do more of. Mark Digby, a Garland regular, did the major honors here, BTW. Here are some examples:

The film is a bit slow-moving at times, but just when you least expect it, some crazy stuff happens, like a mutant animal attack, so that may be by design. I also dug the ending, which, despite the unlikelihood of it now, leaves the door open for more exploration of the fascinating world Garland and author VanderMeer have created. Who knows? Maybe Netflix will turn it into a series or something. Stranger Things have happened. (See what I did there? 😉)

I say check it out. If you like this sort of thing, or if you're a big Garland fan, you won't be disappointed. 👹