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Into the Spider-verse
I liked this movie so much I have difficulty distilling my feelings into points, but I want to, so here you go.
Tl;dr: best Spiderman movie. Among the best of any superhero movies. Might be the best movie I’ve seen in years, idk. One of the best animated movies I’ve ever seen.
- Art
- I really mean the art of the movie itself with this bullet, but I really appreciated the tagging. There were points being made about street art, art by people of color, and styles that subvert traditional/mainstream/critically accepted art, but nothing was hit over the head imo, and I loved that Miles’s art was actually paralleled by the movie. (Side-note, this was one of THREE movies I watched in a TWO-DAY period that referenced Banksy. The others were Aquaman and Ocean’s 8.)
- This is what CGI should be. I don’t understand why CGI keeps going for realism when it’s not there yet, or why if it’s not realism it goes for the weirdly blocky Toy Story 3d style. Just do this.
- I understand that sudden jolts with several frames overlaid made this movie difficult to watch for some, and I personally think it was overused. However, it worked on three major levels for me: a) it fit the theme of multiple universes and was a great visual cue to let us know when universe-crossovers were happening, 2) it used colors reminiscent of 3d, which I feel fit with the comics theme, 3) if you combine my points 1) and 2) as well as my point about CGI and tagging there is a theme I can’t quite even articulate about how the other universes in this movie are art universes, and laying them all on top of each other creates a multi-dimensional world in both senses of the word “dimension.” Like I am aware I am talking out of my ass here, but this movie blew my mind.
- Love the homage to comics.
- The dots!
- Ang Lee’s Hulk was the first movie I ever saw that tried to panel scenes in a movie like a comic. There are some things you can do in comic panels that you just can’t in a movie: the simultaneity, but also the still-frame jump to another still-frame that suggests a sudden burst of movement. But imo Lee failed grossly, as has every other movie until this one. This one is perfect and the standard by which every other comics movie that wants to be a Comics Movie should work toward.
- Pacing/Rhythm/Music
- When I got out of this movie, my mom said, “That reminded me of listening to Hamilton!” This is because Hamilton is basically my mom’s only exposure to hip-hop and various art forms associated with hip-hop. Like I said above, I feel like this movie had a lot to say about art by people of color, and I think that was also present in the rhythm of the dialogue as well as the soundtrack, which featured hip-hop and hip-hop influences.
- It’s an excellent soundtrack, btw (both songs and score).
- I heard that the voice-actor for old!Pete actually did do a Christmas album.
- I loved the Prowler theme so much I got a physical thrill every damn time I heard it. Possibly because paired with that character design idk, I think I got turned on. It does make me laugh a little, because I also loved Bucky’s theme in TWS, and it really is just a bunch of scratching/stabby sounds. I think this theme had a similar vibe but was even better.
- What made the pacing especially unique were the parts where Miles’s life was being echoed by literal comic panels. This worked on three levels: 1) His spidey-senses causing him to hear/experience things created an extra layer of perception, which confused/disoriented him and the viewer. That would have been enough! Except also, 2) We’re dealing with multiple universes, and bringing in the comics to parallel/echo his disorientation reminds us that every spider-hero has had a similar orienting-to-spider-sense experience, 3) Meta. In each of these universes, the spider-hero is an actual super-hero who has a mythos created by the people of this universe. They have actual in-universe comic books of themselves.
- On that note: meta. I just don’t think I can possibly even begin to explain how hard this hit my kinks. I mean, multiple universes with different versions is already meta. Then adding the layer that several of them, at least, are celebrities in their universes, which creates the potential for several versions of their own lives to exist in each universe, due to biographies/fan merchandise/celebrity gossip etc. Take all that, then treat this actual story you are telling as its own comic creating its own celebrity mythos (in a way), and damn, what is the equivalent of a trope orgasm; I just don’t know.
- Side-note: I appreciated the shout-outs to the other Spiderman movies, too. I have never been a fan of the Maguire movies but this movie made me want to watch them just so I could get every single detail.
- Omg the tag with Earth-67. I can’t.
- Characters/Story – can I just say that all these other elements would have been enough, but this story is goddamn awesome?
- Miles. I just loved him and his relationship to his dad and uncle so goddamn much. Everything else was good too, but his vulnerability with them really got to me. Voice actor was fantastic at making me feel for him. Also loved Miles’s relationship with Peter B and his black suit.
- Miles’s dad. The relationship with the dad was particularly striking, because the dad was so openly loving from the beginning, while still managing to be somewhat repressive. Usually these stories are about Dad being repressed but really loving you, and in the climax/denouement Dad finally learns to state his feelings. Miles’s dad had no problem expressing his feeling, but he still had trouble connecting with and understanding his son—for really understandable reasons, btw, considering his brother! Like damn.
- Miles’s uncle. This was a little bit more expected in terms of how it was handled, but combined with the dad story, it created a pitch-perfect family story that pulled at your heartstrings. And goddamn, I know everyone always talks about how fucking talented Mahershala Ali is, but he really, really is, and his voice was really fucking hot.
- Peter B Parker. I am not a Peter Parker fan; he’s just the opposite of one I’m into—young! Glib! Dorky! I like em older, bitter, and broody, so it’s obvious why this Peter is the first one I have ever liked, and boy howdy did I like him. I mean, my favorite thing with older+bitter+broody is the fresh-eyed innocent youth who still has hope, which is why Wolverine+the young-girls-he-has-to-protect-for-some-reason are always fun. It’s just my thing, okay? I would read endless, endless fic about him mentoring Miles. I am embarrassed by how hot I found Peter B. Also, I’ve never seen his voice actor in anything, but I cannot get over how into him I was.
- Other spider-heroes. I don’t know anything about other spider-heroes, so I went in without opinions. I wanted to care about Gwen but didn’t particularly, though her hair was super hot. I loved Noir Spiderman for the hilarity (and again, art universe). Spider-Ham was predictably too silly for me. Peni was interesting, and I enjoyed the anime/manga shout-outs.
- Villains. I have never cared about Doc Ock; I was even a huge fan of Alfred Molina and Spider-Man 2 did nothing for me, but oh man was I in love with this one. She was perfect in every way. I usually don’t even care about villains who don’t get redemption arcs; I’m just not really into gleeful, cackling evil, but I would read tons of fic in which she gets super invested in dissecting people. She had a sort of Entrapta from She-ra vibe, and I also loved Entrapta, so there you go. Meanwhile Kingpin was Kingpin, less interesting than Daredevil S3, but he held the plot down well enough, and the character design was delightfully silly, as Kingpin so often is. I think I just enjoy Kingpin as a villain generally, so he doesn’t even have to be that interesting for me to be on board.
Tl;dr: best Spiderman movie. Among the best of any superhero movies. Might be the best movie I’ve seen in years, idk. One of the best animated movies I’ve ever seen.
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I am really jaded about superheroes and dead and/or terrible dads, so I loved that Miles's dad was doing his best to be a good dad (and in particular his talk to Miles through the closed door was So Good. Miles is in no doubt that he is loved and valued, even if he's not always understood.)
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I love that Miles has a supportive family!!!!
I love that Aunt May in this universe basically does tech and backup (her "Oh, Liv" eyeroll = SO GOOD)
I love the humor!!
I love that the comic captions and sound effects get stronger whenever Miles is doing something more comicky.
I love that Prowler/Aaron gets redeemed.
I love that Kingpin fails in his goals because he can't help doing bad things.
If you ever watch the Toby MacGuire spiderman stuff -- the intro scenes are actually subtly different -- all of the Peter Parker / MJ scenes have them swapping places. It's so brilliant.
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I have watched the MacGuire Spiderman; I just hate it. I particularly thought the call back to Spiderman 3 was funny though.
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I could not connect to Miles at all; he seemed to be drawn so stereotypically. I was SO disappointed in how the multiverse was not-used. Peter Parker and his pouch were the best thing for me. :)
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I also really loved the animation style and the creativity that went into it and you really gotta ask why is so much cgi samey-samey?
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definitely with you re: CGI!
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I definitely like movie soundtracks as a way to try to get a handle on certain types of music; I'm not very good at understanding any music at all or what's popular, but because soundtracks are pinned on narratives I find them more accessible than other things.
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And yeah, I understand that frustration. Trying to get people to look past the entry point of something and into the actual influences/genre/whatever is a uniquely annoying task, and all the surrounding biases with hip hop just make it harder. Good on you for working on it.
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