![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Longer Spider-Verse post, as promised
Jan. 7th, 2019 07:11 pmSpoilers abound ahead, and probably not in anything close to an organized fashion, and I have no idea how to do readmores here yet, so... Sorry about that. This isn't even meant to be some kind of analysis (though I might consider that when it comes out for personal ownership), I'm just gushing at length.
1) Thoughts on the plot
First off, and heavily spoiler-ey... Three out of four Miles backstories end up killing his dad. Damn glad this movie happened to be #4. Especially since this Miles seems a little younger than most of them. Kiddo has it rough enough with his uncle, he doesn't need to lose his dad too.
Because this is a Miles origin story, albeit one dressed up like one of the Worlds Collide style stories that Marvel and DC like to do every now and then. Which I also love - they tend to be fun arcs in comic form, and they're one of the stock Comic Book Things that I'm pretty sure hasn't been seen in any movie adaptations yet. It was time.
And given the premise, it was WAY tighter than I expected it to be. Colliding worlds plots tend to meander by nature, but they did a solid job of rapid-fire introductions and establishment (to the point where they're making fun of it by the time the full Spider-Crew is together), so the only real detours from the story are the laughs. And honestly, they're good laughs. And some of them are damn well timed - I was choking the hell up at the funeral and at Stan Lee's cameo, and both ended on a goof that helped there.
2) Characters
First and foremost, this movie probably has one of my favorite Aunt Mays ever. I'm always pretty happy to see an Aunt May who knows about the Spider-business, and this one is ready to throw the fuck down. I'm not kidding. She nails the Scorpion with a baseball bat. And the plot would have been choked in the first half-hour if it weren't for her.
This also has one of my favorite takes on Kingpin I've seen in a while. I feel like a lot of times the material doesn't do him justice. This one did.
Miles is My Boy. I don't have much to add for that.
The rest of the Spiders are used well. Peter is given the Main Mentor treatment, which. Fair. But Gwen's pretty major too, and Peni, Noir, and Pig aren't overused but also not underused. Some of them may be goofy as hell, but they don't totally derail the momentum of scenes. (Also, there's a good example of why it can be GREAT to have Looney Tunes shenanigans on your side.)
Doc Ock utterly destroyed my promise to never attempt to cosplay Doc Ock because I figured it'd be too hellishly difficult to build. It will ABSOLUTELY be too hellishly difficult to build and wear. I don't care. Doc Ock hot, and I NEED that gear.
Also, soft robotics, holy SHIT.
Mile's uncle has one of my favorite redesigns from the comic look I've seen in a while. Taking the green out was a Good idea.
3) Visuals
Epilepsy warnings are 100% warranted for this movie.
But god, I love it. They leaned HARD into the comic aesthetic. There's times where it goes straight up comic book without feeling like a huge jarring distortion of what it is. I've never loved text being splashed willy-nilly over a screen so much.
The glitch effects are great too. Turns out the art director was the same guy for the first Digimon movie, and they do have moments where they feel a lot like how that virus Digimon moved and looked.
I think this is one of the few times I've been extremely hyped about a movie and it actually lived up to it.
1) Thoughts on the plot
First off, and heavily spoiler-ey... Three out of four Miles backstories end up killing his dad. Damn glad this movie happened to be #4. Especially since this Miles seems a little younger than most of them. Kiddo has it rough enough with his uncle, he doesn't need to lose his dad too.
Because this is a Miles origin story, albeit one dressed up like one of the Worlds Collide style stories that Marvel and DC like to do every now and then. Which I also love - they tend to be fun arcs in comic form, and they're one of the stock Comic Book Things that I'm pretty sure hasn't been seen in any movie adaptations yet. It was time.
And given the premise, it was WAY tighter than I expected it to be. Colliding worlds plots tend to meander by nature, but they did a solid job of rapid-fire introductions and establishment (to the point where they're making fun of it by the time the full Spider-Crew is together), so the only real detours from the story are the laughs. And honestly, they're good laughs. And some of them are damn well timed - I was choking the hell up at the funeral and at Stan Lee's cameo, and both ended on a goof that helped there.
2) Characters
First and foremost, this movie probably has one of my favorite Aunt Mays ever. I'm always pretty happy to see an Aunt May who knows about the Spider-business, and this one is ready to throw the fuck down. I'm not kidding. She nails the Scorpion with a baseball bat. And the plot would have been choked in the first half-hour if it weren't for her.
This also has one of my favorite takes on Kingpin I've seen in a while. I feel like a lot of times the material doesn't do him justice. This one did.
Miles is My Boy. I don't have much to add for that.
The rest of the Spiders are used well. Peter is given the Main Mentor treatment, which. Fair. But Gwen's pretty major too, and Peni, Noir, and Pig aren't overused but also not underused. Some of them may be goofy as hell, but they don't totally derail the momentum of scenes. (Also, there's a good example of why it can be GREAT to have Looney Tunes shenanigans on your side.)
Doc Ock utterly destroyed my promise to never attempt to cosplay Doc Ock because I figured it'd be too hellishly difficult to build. It will ABSOLUTELY be too hellishly difficult to build and wear. I don't care. Doc Ock hot, and I NEED that gear.
Also, soft robotics, holy SHIT.
Mile's uncle has one of my favorite redesigns from the comic look I've seen in a while. Taking the green out was a Good idea.
3) Visuals
Epilepsy warnings are 100% warranted for this movie.
But god, I love it. They leaned HARD into the comic aesthetic. There's times where it goes straight up comic book without feeling like a huge jarring distortion of what it is. I've never loved text being splashed willy-nilly over a screen so much.
The glitch effects are great too. Turns out the art director was the same guy for the first Digimon movie, and they do have moments where they feel a lot like how that virus Digimon moved and looked.
I think this is one of the few times I've been extremely hyped about a movie and it actually lived up to it.
