The thing I've noticed most
about Sony Pictures, other than their inability to make anything
(Ghostbusters) worth (Annie) watching beyond some form of fanboy
hate-watching, is that they never quite seemed to understand the full
extent of what they purchased from Marvel when they originally gained
the rights to Spider-Man back in the early 2000s. Sure, they
obviously gained the titular character, the ability to change his
powers as they saw fit (the webbing thing) and his most iconic
villains (Doctor Octopus, Rhino, Green Goblin), but they never seemed
to understand just how much the Spider-Man comic book universe had
expanded over its five decade-plus run. With Spider-Man: Into the
Spider-verse, they seem to have finally acknowledged how far the
series can truly go and, shockingly, have made something worthwhile
of the fandom they hope to entice.
On the scale of Spider-Man
movies currently in existence, from the weirdo Japanese version where
he slapped people (a LOT) to the
multiple-trailers-in-a-movie-that-forgot-it-was-supposed-to-be-a-movie
Amazing Spider-Man 2, Spiderverse ranks just below its Tobey MacGuire
counterparts in terms of quality. It's a great introduction of
non-comic fans to the newest Spider-Man, Miles Morales, finally
introduces Spider-Gwen as more than just a Peter Parker potential
love interest and manages to not only make these characters endearing
but somehow make their repetitive origin stories feel original per
character (they all pretty much became heroes the same way). Throw in
the best soundtrack for a teen-oriented superhero movie since...ever
and compliment it with a worthwhile story undoes all that nonsense
from Amazing Spider-Man about being “chosen” and you even have a
movie that tries to have fun with its own premise without those
stupid halfhearted sequel promises common place among these kinds of
movies. See, Sony? You CAN make a good Spider-Man movie without
advertising your stupid franchising ambitions.
Unfortunately, while all of
the hero characters are fun and at least well-drawn, the movie
ultimately suffers from the seesaw problem of too many characters
misbalanced by the movie not being necessarily long enough to
accommodate all of them. As much fun as it was to watch Peter B.
Parker (Jake Johnson), Gwen Stacey (Hailee Steinfeld) and Miles
Morales (Shameik Moore) rely on their chemistry to make the plot work
so well, the later introductions of Spider-Ham (John Mulaney), Peni
Parker (Kimiko Glenn) and Spider-Man Noir (Nicolas Freaking Cage)
felt rushed and forced the chaotic but fun plot into the realm of
chaotic and confusing. You had me hooked, Sony! You didn't have to
overthink it halfway through!
As for watching it, are you
a Spider-Man fan? If so, you've probably already seen this and read
most of the comics currently running on sale on Comixology and you
should probably consider going outside for a little while. Have you
never really been that interested in comic book heroes to begin with?
Good luck with the late December offerings of the Oscar contenders no
one really wants to see. Have fun with that choice.
Bob Perischetti and Rodney
Rothman debut and help Peter Ramsey (Rise of the Guardians) finally
make a good movie with Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, a nearly
encyclopedic review of everything Spider-Man that Sony has been
sitting on while cranking out their Spider-Man-colored garbage on us
for two decades. You know the story: Miles Morales (and everyone name
Peter Parker, apparently) gets bitten by a radioactive spider and
blah,blah,blah with great power comes great responsibility blah,
blah, blah learns the importance of being a hero and blah,blah, blah
meets a bunch of versions of himself from alternate universes and
proceeds to give bad guys the worst day of their lives via Spider-Man
group punches. That last part was a new one (and pretty awesome).
My score: 8/10. Dear Sony,
please, considering that you kind of just fixed the character, don't
lose your collective minds and try to pull a Superior Spider-Man arc
on us. The world didn't deserve THAT trainwreck when Marvel pulled it
on us.
No comments:
Post a Comment