Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
Mar. 1st, 2019 05:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
glitter_n_goreThis is one of the best, possibly THE best, comic book movie I've ever seen.
First of all, I'd like to thank the Internet in general for keeping all the spoilers under wraps. My mind was completely blown, over and over, and that's entirely due to how little I knew going in.
That said, I know I'm late to the party here. All my fellow reviewer folks have been collectively singing the praises of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse for months, and I'm just lucky I could find a theater where it was still playing this week. AND now it has an Oscar for Best Animated Feature. Nobody needs me to tell them how great this movie is, because chances are you know. What I didn't know was how emotionally affecting it would be. I'm going to try to dive into why without spoiling things.
The animation style is very unique and eye-catching. It's so immersive you feel not just like you're watching a comic book come to life, but like you're being pulled into a comic universe. It's actually a little disorienting at first. Gravity feels different here, and the way the "camera" spins you around makes it hyper real as if you're being taken on a ride. This is one reason I elected to watch it without my mom, who is my usual superhero movie buddy; it would have been way too loud and flashy for her. Once you get used to it though, it feels like you're flying, and I absolutely loved it.
You should know Into the Spider-Verse is very meta. I mention this because I've been feeling like we should get away from meta commentary in our entertainment overall. It's gotten a bit too in-jokey and self-referential for me. HOWEVER. If you're going to do meta, this is absolutely how it should be done. This movie winks at the audience without talking down to you or making you feel like you're missing something crucial in order to understand what's going on. There is a lot of information being thrown at you despite this being an otherwise straightforward superhero origin story, but it never feels overwhelming.
This movie did for me what the live-action MCU has failed to: made me want to read the actual comics. Which isn't to say I don't read the comics occasionally, but the MCU exists as its own universe and you can get pretty much all the information you need about that world from the movies themselves. This was a completely different experience. It hints at the vastness of the history behind Peter Parker, Gwen Stacy, and our main hero Miles Morales in a way that both feels complete in its given runtime, and leaves you craving more. That's one thing that kept me from diving fully into the comics' verse, actually: each individual superhero has been rebooted, reset, and recreated so many times it's impossible to know where to begin, and there are so many comics already out there it can seem intimidating. This makes the diverging worlds and universe sound fun and well worth your time to seek out, if you haven't already done so.
Lastly, as you've probably inferred, I haven't read much of the Spider-Man comics, including the arc where Miles Morales is introduced. This movie is more or less his origin story, but I can't speak to whether it's "accurate" to the comic-verse or not. What makes this story unique is how successfully it strikes the balance between being very personal and intimate, and being universal. Many comic book movies try for that at least. It's important to see our heroes as human first, the better to imagine ourselves in their shoes. The big tagline here is "Anyone can wear the mask." Actually, the moment that line is spoken made me tear up (A LOT) because it was so powerful and so well done, so I won't explain further. Miles is ordinary but brimming with personality, and in a markedly different way from Peter Parker. Where Peter has his nerd-like science skills and propensity for computer engineering, Miles has a passion for art and music and a fearless sense of humor. Into the Spider-Verse is entirely devoted to Miles's growth as a character, his devotion to his family, and his courage in stepping up to the hero plate. Only Miles Morales can be this Spider-Man. But anyone can be a hero.
If you haven't seen Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, it's worth your while to find it on a big screen while you can.
First of all, I'd like to thank the Internet in general for keeping all the spoilers under wraps. My mind was completely blown, over and over, and that's entirely due to how little I knew going in.
That said, I know I'm late to the party here. All my fellow reviewer folks have been collectively singing the praises of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse for months, and I'm just lucky I could find a theater where it was still playing this week. AND now it has an Oscar for Best Animated Feature. Nobody needs me to tell them how great this movie is, because chances are you know. What I didn't know was how emotionally affecting it would be. I'm going to try to dive into why without spoiling things.
The animation style is very unique and eye-catching. It's so immersive you feel not just like you're watching a comic book come to life, but like you're being pulled into a comic universe. It's actually a little disorienting at first. Gravity feels different here, and the way the "camera" spins you around makes it hyper real as if you're being taken on a ride. This is one reason I elected to watch it without my mom, who is my usual superhero movie buddy; it would have been way too loud and flashy for her. Once you get used to it though, it feels like you're flying, and I absolutely loved it.
You should know Into the Spider-Verse is very meta. I mention this because I've been feeling like we should get away from meta commentary in our entertainment overall. It's gotten a bit too in-jokey and self-referential for me. HOWEVER. If you're going to do meta, this is absolutely how it should be done. This movie winks at the audience without talking down to you or making you feel like you're missing something crucial in order to understand what's going on. There is a lot of information being thrown at you despite this being an otherwise straightforward superhero origin story, but it never feels overwhelming.
This movie did for me what the live-action MCU has failed to: made me want to read the actual comics. Which isn't to say I don't read the comics occasionally, but the MCU exists as its own universe and you can get pretty much all the information you need about that world from the movies themselves. This was a completely different experience. It hints at the vastness of the history behind Peter Parker, Gwen Stacy, and our main hero Miles Morales in a way that both feels complete in its given runtime, and leaves you craving more. That's one thing that kept me from diving fully into the comics' verse, actually: each individual superhero has been rebooted, reset, and recreated so many times it's impossible to know where to begin, and there are so many comics already out there it can seem intimidating. This makes the diverging worlds and universe sound fun and well worth your time to seek out, if you haven't already done so.
Lastly, as you've probably inferred, I haven't read much of the Spider-Man comics, including the arc where Miles Morales is introduced. This movie is more or less his origin story, but I can't speak to whether it's "accurate" to the comic-verse or not. What makes this story unique is how successfully it strikes the balance between being very personal and intimate, and being universal. Many comic book movies try for that at least. It's important to see our heroes as human first, the better to imagine ourselves in their shoes. The big tagline here is "Anyone can wear the mask." Actually, the moment that line is spoken made me tear up (A LOT) because it was so powerful and so well done, so I won't explain further. Miles is ordinary but brimming with personality, and in a markedly different way from Peter Parker. Where Peter has his nerd-like science skills and propensity for computer engineering, Miles has a passion for art and music and a fearless sense of humor. Into the Spider-Verse is entirely devoted to Miles's growth as a character, his devotion to his family, and his courage in stepping up to the hero plate. Only Miles Morales can be this Spider-Man. But anyone can be a hero.
If you haven't seen Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, it's worth your while to find it on a big screen while you can.