‘SpiderMan: Across The SpiderVerse Review: A Bedazzling Sequel, And The Rare ComicBook Movie That Earns Its Convolutions
Nearly all good animated films (and nearly all cartoons too) provide a tone and visual design that the viewer connects with; the movie, while bold, bright, and smart, doesn't stray much from this. But Spider-Man: Through the Universe's visuals have an intoxicating sense of uncertainty. This film makes you feel like you've dropped to the floor of a modern art museum on acid, but there's an interesting logic to everything. The highly eclectic imagery is saying something: a mind-bending explosion of quantum physics or a subconscious nod to decades-old comic book styles that have recently been retro, not to mention catchy. It looks like this could be the first film to feature Andy Warhol and Stephen Hawking's son.
Or maybe the second, because that's also Spider-Man: In Verse. Released in 2018, the comic book film was so vibrant and relevant, with visuals so compelling, that it left most comic book films in the dust. The reason has to do with an under-appreciated trend in our comic book movie culture, which is that comic book movies, or at least 98 percent of them, are inescapable: in tone, in looks, in demeanor. , and effects -- from the comics. . These are actually two very different ways.
Comics, as I remember from my youth, were short-lived, brief and completely inappropriate, and you never know what the next panel will bring. But big studio comic book movies tend to be heavy, gritty, and visually bombastic with big arcs. Among them many are happy, but there is no mystery . That's what Martin Scorsese meant when he said in 2019 that Marvel movies aren't movies.
One of the many joys of Spider-Man: Into the World is that it was the first animated Spider-Man film (and one of the few in the Marvel/DC film era) to focus on the character's looks, spirit, and reputation. . flat comic wonder. She adapts the elegant expressionism of 90s film noir graphic novels and capitalizes on her ephemeral wit. (Gruff Spider-Man veteran: "Most of the people I meet at work try to kill me.")
But it's also a beautiful feast for the eyes. It's a comic book movie like pop art invention, with its haunting explosions of bugs, and when it depicts material coming out of the collider, it leaves you more in awe than the more heady Avengers sequels. The story of Miles Morales, a black Latina from Brooklyn who is bitten by an electromagnetic spider, only to discover that Spider-Man (and Spider-Woman, not to mention Spider-Pigs) is one of many in the multiverse. , the film caught our attention because there was something at stake. In most origin stories, the hero gets things done fairly quickly, but since Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, being Spider-Man is tough . Literally jumping off a cliff and then having to keep on jumping if you don't know what you're doing. Called dramas (or maybe even movies), what most live-action comic book movies have in common is that processed foods pack calories.
Spider-Man: In the Universe set the bar high, and one of the reasons I wonder if Spider-Man: Through the Universe can live up to it is with the original film's directors (Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey, Rodney Rothman) serving only as producers. executive, returned and replaced three other directors (Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers, Justin K. Thompson). Can this new trio reproduce the intoxicating, combustible magic of pop art mutation, the cunning sophistication of storytelling, the inside-out understanding of comic logic that seems to elude almost all live-action comic book films?
They did. Spider-Man: Through the Universe does not continue Miles Morales' story. This film takes this story into surprising new areas, making it a true spiritual companion to the first film. It turned our heads, and more; it makes our heads spin even more (and would fans, myself included, would do it otherwise?).
The film opens with a prologue designed to kill us, as it brings together the stories of rock drummer Gwen Stacy (Hailee Steinfeld), and Spider-Woman in White, with immersive expressionist imagery that made the first film feel like an actual documentary. We thought: did they go here? Don't play. But Gwen's story goes up in stakes because her father, a police captain, blames her (wrongly) for Peter Parker's death. It will be a film about the burden of responsibility.
Increasingly voiced by Shameik Moore, Miles is now the 15-year-old crime-fighting master of New York's Spider-Man domain, but as we learn, he's more or less lazy. The film takes us into the soap opera conflict between Miles and his parents, Jefferson (Brian Tyree Henry) and Rio (Luna Lauren Velez), who still doesn't know that he is Spider-Man and thus finds things a lot erratic. behavior. disturbing... Sounds like a lie, a teenager with a hidden problem (that's why his family keeps growing him). But that's the least of the problems.
A supervillain emerges: The Spot, alias Jonathan On (Jason Schwartzman), a former scientist working for Alchemax and genetically disabled by Miles' spectacular crash in the first film. An is now a completely white image with black hole ink marks on his body which became a portal to the multiverse. He has more power than you think and he wants revenge. With all the extended family drama and shape-shifting archenemies, we thought we were setting ourselves up for a signature anti-comic book prequel, which would be this movie version if it were another Marvel blockbuster.
It's weirder, wilder and better than that. The film gives us time to savor the serene beauty of the scene in which Miles and Gwen get together as they are suspended upside down from the dome of the Williamsburg Savings Bank Tower, or to notice the texture of the characters' skin covered in comic patches. book points But that's before Miles dives into the multiverse, Mumbai (or its alternatively animated sci-fi version), where he encounters various Spider-Men, including Spider-Man India (Karan Soni), who looks like a bunch of boys. star of 2033; Jessica Drew (Issa Rae), Spider-Woman, strong and pregnant; and, most spectacularly, Spider-Punk (best voiced by Daniel Kaluuya), a mohawked thug from London, shown with his guitar slung across his back like a walking version of a Sex Pistols album cover. Audiences remained in an "okay, so this must be the new superhero group" mode, even though the characters strayed from the cubistic psychedelic paint. But when the Mumbai episode ends triumphantly, Miles is whisked off to Spider-Man HQ: the futuristic powerhouse of the Spider-Society, where all Spider-Man, by the hundreds, gather.
This movie is a lot of fun, with Spider-Man's version of cars, video games, cats, and dinosaurs. Jake Johnson's Peter Parker is back, now with a spider. But if it's all just a princess, things can get messy. Instead, the stakes are raised and Spider-Man's brother takes on a more complex and even creepier dimension. The place is Miguel O'Hara's (Oscar Isaac) Spider-Man's "vampire ninja" and the only Spider-Man who seems to lack humor; it is the luminous and scarred image that maintains the sacred order of the place. To maintain that order, there are stories in the Spider-Man canon that cannot be broken, such as the death of Uncle Ben. They are like mythology. And when Miles' responsible but loving father is promoted to captain of the New York Police Department, he becomes one of those characters. Miles must do something very dark to maintain the integrity of Spider-Verse.
It's a complicated and very believable situation, all staged by someone telling Miles, "There's no textbook on being like you." This leads to a quick manhunt as Miles, chased by hundreds of indistinguishable Spider-Men, tries to escape Spider-Man's base and return home. In the first film he is still learning to swing like a vine from his web. In this case, by virtue of her invisibility and electrification abilities, she seems to be an existential gymnast acting according to the laws of three-dimensional chess. This film puts us in the upper echelon of video games.
Without giving away too much, I'll say this: Spider-Man: Through All the Verses ends with that old-fashioned thing, a cliffhanger. (Several years ago, the decision was made to split the sequel into two parts.) At a previous screening, when I was present, I heard insults from the audience : Should we wait? To find out what happened? how much the original Series that inspired Raiders of the Lost Ark kept you waiting for an entire week. In this case we will have to wait closer to a year. But the longing I hear is really about the investment the audience feels. “Spider-Man: Through the Universe” got us into an increasingly odd deal in the pop movie world. What is expected is that this series surprises us in every frame.
