Whoah, over thirteen years of blogging and this is the only post that landed on a Leap Day.
One would think it would be something more exciting than a late movie review.
One would, in that case, clearly not know me very well.
or web-steps?
or web swinging path?
However it moves, it follows the story, tone and style of the excellent Into the Spider-Verse film.
The cool part of any of the Spider-Verse stories- whether they be movies, TV or comics, is the collection of different versions of Spider-Men (Spider-Mans? , Spider-Folks I guess, there's many a Spider-Woman in the mix starting back in 1977) showcased.
The first movie had a fantastic cast and character set, which this film ignores half of.
However it makes up for that issue in two ways.
The first way is delving deeper into the story lines of Miles Morales and Gwen Stacy. That poster is awesome, but misleading. This film is as much Gwen's journey as is is Miles's. The movie highlights their interactions with their supporting cast (specifically their families), and allows time for character history plus growth and development. We also learn how Peter B. Parker has built his life back up since we last saw him, continues to be an effective if unconventional mentor and is on the road to becoming the MC2 version.
The second way is going where the comic book Spider-Verse stories have thrived- by throwing in a ridiculously massive number of Spider-People (and a fair amount of Spider-Things), referencing all manner of the character's appearances in multiple forms of media There's also a truck load of goofy ideas no one's ever seen before. This film continues the trend of the original using unique art styles for each Spider-Totem. (I think that's the proper designation. I've been reading the source comics lately.) With the MASSIVE increase of characters shown, it gives the film a wild look that is extremely effective.
There are new main characters. Spider-Man 2099 as the only Spidey who "isn't funny" brings great intensity. The new take on Spider-Woman as his top agent is all business, but it looks like she has a deeper and more compassionate side. Pavitr Prabhakar, a fresh take on the Spider-Man of "India," was a fun addition who used a Diabolo for his webbing in a variety of wild ways. The Diabolo defied most laws of physics, just like any good comic book character should. Spider-Punk was an amazing, funny, positive, anti-authoritarian influence.
The gags and references came at high speed from every direction. Some were fresh and strange, some were the oddest ideas from the comics (the sentient Spider-Mobile - Peter Parked Car [hee hee], the Tyrannosaur) some were live action references, and some poked fun at the history of comics and other media. (Nineties comics have always deserved to be poked.)
Am I going to be greedy and ask for a highlight on "Mayday" Parker in the next round?
You bet.
The Spot is the great use of a previously goofy bad guy developing into a huge nightmare of a foe, but, as in many good stories, there seems to be more villainy afoot elsewhere than meets the eye..
At it's core, the film is about the same things the best Spider-Man stories are:
What having the great responsibility that must also come with great power means and how that effects their lives,
but also how there is some relief based on support by friends and family.
On the negative side, as more and more of the main filmmaking population is my age, they do the same thing when making a sequel. They decide "This will be my Empire Strikes Back." Then they make a film that ends in the middle of the narrative.
Look, I get it.
Empire was awesome, and was most of our introduction to that kind of world building, dark storytelling.
But it had a satisfying ending.
Yes, the good guys lost, and we knew more was coming.
But it had a clear stopping point.
The Rebel heroes were defeated, but the main characters learned new things, escaped and were at a safe location to regroup.
The good homages to it understood that.
Just because the Avengers lost, it doesn't mean Infinity War didn't have an ending.
This film could have ended in the same way with a little tweaking, instead of once again having me spend the last fifteen minutes thinking, "How will they resolve all of this?"
Until I transitioned into, "Oh... They won't."
At least they realized Empire ended with hope, and tossed in a scene to make the end more than just a cliffhanger.
Don't get me wrong, it was an Amazing (ha!) ride, and I will happily watch this one and "Beyond the Spider-Verse" or whatever the next one will be called back to back multiple times.
But I do wish creators would concentrate more on telling the story they're currently on, rather than placing extensive focus on the franchise.
2 comments:
Yeah, I can't even remember the details of the sudden stop but I do remember looking at the progress bar and thinking "how're they going to wrap this?" and then they didn't
Thanx for reading.
So many films , once they get a sequel think of "part 2 and 3" as a single story, and both parts usually suffer from the lack of individual focus.
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