Reaction post: Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse

[flamebyrd]

Everyone has been talking about this movie for ages, but I am very bad at going to the movies. I have ambivalent feelings about Spider-Man* but I love animation, so I finally pulled myself together and went out to see it in the cinema.

And I thoroughly enjoyed it!

Spoilers below!

Coming in, I really only knew it was about Miles Morales, who I had heard of but don't know a lot about, and a collection of alternate universe Spider-People, so I was largely unspoiled. Usually going into a movie spoiler-free gives me mild anxiety, but this time it worked out okay.

- The animation! I loved it. All the comic book sound effect text, the spider-sense lightning bolts, the screen-tone effects on the characters, they were all great. The offset screen printing effect on the backgrounds didn't really work for me, but I love that they tried it.
- I could see the film setting up a "Miles' dad thinks Spider-Man killed his brother" situation and I was all prepared to be Extremely Upset about this, so I am extremely grateful to this film for averting that.
- Are we at the point in cinema now where we're subverting the montage scene set to upbeat retro music? Amazing.
- But all the music was great!
- I did not pick Miles' uncle as Prowler until a couple of minutes before the reveal, so hooray for being surprised! Unfortunately, there was really no explanation for this offered, so I feel like I was left hanging a bit.
- On a more serious note, in addition to the fat-shaming, there was a weird unwillingness to accept that Peter B. Parker was not coping well with things and maybe needed someone to take his angst seriously for a second. I mean, I have a lot of complex feelings about man-pain in the media, but it was a bit confronting to see this checklist of depression symptoms treated as a joke.
- It was interesting to see the relationship between Miles and his dad go from cringe-inducing humorous tropes to something that had actual depth and resolution. The move from Embarrassing Dad to Dad Struggling To Connect With His Son was nicely done.
- The meshing of different art styles for the various Spider-People worked well, with the exception of Peni Parker, where I found the attempt to imitate anime styling Extremely Painful.
- I really could have done without the whole school sequence with Miles and Gwen's hair /o\ (How is this going to impact his school life going forwards? Particularly since Gwen is now gone from his universe. Yikes.)

Anyway, in summary, 👍.

* Which is awkward, because my most popular Marvel fic is about Spider-Man

Comments

[tickletheory]

When I watched it, I loved it a lot and wasn’t thinking a lot about the flaws. You brought up a good point about Peter B Parker though. I think they handled him a bit better In the end, but I’ve also read a reddit thread where someone who watched a test screening mentioned a scene between Peter B Parker and Miles that was edited out of the final release. It focused a bit more on Peter B Parker’s depression I think.

I’m glad you still really enjoyed it though. Easily one of my faves this year. 🥰

[flamebyrd]

Unfortunately I'm the kind of person who thoroughly enjoys a thing in the moment, and then spends the next couple of hours picking it apart in my head! It helps me to note it all down, both things I liked and things I didn't, so I stop thinking about it.

It definitely didn't ruin the movie for me, and the movie would probably take the #1 Movie of 2018 spot if I'd seen it in 2018 (I haven't seen any others in 2019). Although, given I only watched 3 movies last year, I'm not sure that's giving it due credit!

[lettered]

I loved this movie and enjoyed reading this!

[flamebyrd]

It was such a fun movie! Even with everybody saying how great it was, I wasn't expecting to enjoy it this much :D