So these characters not even getting a bruise from falling great distances or getting hit by a speeding train but then they are killed just by a human punch is good writing?
Yeah no the movie is all over the place with their abilities.
Other than Parker and MM (barely) every other character were crappy Spiderman clones.
The blurry background was horrible looked like 3D without glasses.
The movie has pretty colors though lol
And sorry Cereal but ending a kids christmas song with the word “Stupid Song” is not my cup of tea.
Spiderman is still for kids sitting in the theater, right?
Or is it just for edgy adults now.
I’mma go ahead and tag in here while also using my response as a jumping on point for my overall thoughts on the movie. As per your first point, I feel like you’re overlooking the part where Ultimate Spidey was caught in the midst of a transdimensional beacon that was scattering and reassembling his very being, blown up by said beacon, buried under a bunch of rubble, and then beaten to death by a very, very, very large man. It’s also, you know, an animated movie where a talking pig gives a character a mallet that will fit in his pocket, so, you know; there’s that.
When it comes to the blurry background, there were a few instances where I found it a bit jarring, but, overall, I loved the way the frame rate contributed to the aesthetic. Between the benday dots, the ultra-stylized character designs, and the use of text and thought bubbles as a narrative tool, I thought the frame rate gave the film a sort of flip book quality that lent to the aesthetic that you were watching, in essence, a comic book come to life.
I also love that you point to the use of Spidey pointing out how he’s a commercial shill in a throwaway line from the credits as the example that it’s too edgy and that “Spidey is for kids and not adults” when one of the protagonists of the film was a self-loathing, super depressed, overweight, divorced Spider-Man who looked like a homeless person and spent most of the movie figuring out how to overcome his marital problems. Find me one kid who identifies with that guy and I’ll defend Spidey Bells no more.
Overall, I’ll give my thoughts on the movie: I thought it was brilliant, I thought it was earnest, I think it’s probably my favorite Spider-Man movie ever made and I honestly couldn’t think of a more brilliant way to make such an insane concept palatable to general audiences. The truth is: I don’t see this film as watering down Spider-Man, I see it as a celebration of everything Spider-Man is and can be. Every interpretation of the character in this movie works and I feel like, honestly, it was a calculated move by Sony to make this film approachable.
It’s sad to say, but, when you consider the state of toxic nerd culture, I honestly feel like this was the only way to make people respond positively to a black, Latinx Spider-Man without them being all like “MEH! FORCED DIVERSITY! PETER PARKER’S THE ONLY SPIDER-MAN!” You literally needed the seal of approval from three Peter Parkers and a talking pig. Otherwise, I can guarantee it would’ve been the same ****, different day, with people bitching up a storm about how “nobody cares about Miles” and “this movie’s gonna tank,” even though the film, itself shows he’s, indeed, a compelling character in his own right.
This movie just hit all the right notes for me, specifically, because, contrary to what you said, it WASN’T a kid’s movie. Kids could watch it and enjoy it and it was filled with the fun and the spirit of adventure inherent in the Spider-Man character, but it also told some very adult stories and, at times, I was so blown away by the performances that I had to do a double take and remember I was watching an animated movie. Brian Tyree Henry as Miles’ dad Jefferson delivering that monologue on the other side of the door had me utterly captivated, for instance, and that was just one bit. The death of Spider-Man was t shocking because he fired, it was shocking because of the gravity of his death. This wasn’t some poetic veiled Jesus allegory where our lord and savior Peter Parker died for our sins, this was an unceremonious vicious beating that felt all too real. The anguish on Miles’ face at having just witnessed something that traumatic and not having a way to relay that to the people closest to him has a weight to it that feels like it could be very relatable to some teenager in a big city somewhere. Couple that with MJ’s eulogy and that absolutely perfect cameo and I was close to tears.
I’ve always enjoyed Spider-Man as a character. I never got super engrossed in him to the point I collected him, but the first Raimi film was the first movie I ever watched in theaters and I must have seen it three or more times before it left. This film, as weird as it sounds, was like opening the flood gates and reminding me of how much I loved the character. I remembered the large Spidey and Venom 2-pack from the animated series and all the movie toys that I begged my mom for. I remembered all the Spider-Man comics I would pore through at the public library and the utter thrill I got from that.
I think that’s why I was so profoundly overjoyed by this movie. It wasn’t Sony watering down Spider-Man for the sake of a quick buck, it was Lord and Miller mining through over 50 years of history and delivering a celebration of the character’s legacy. Between the one-two-three pinch of Homecoming, the Insomniac game, and this, I feel more connected to old webhead than ever...and I think we can all agree that the true takeaway from this movie is that anyone with a beer gut and sweat pants can now, effectively, be Spider-Man and no one can ever take that away from us.
