When you
watch the credits and see just how many animators worked on this film, it makes
sense that it took three people to direct this behemoth. And they pull it off
spectacularly. The movie looks just like a comic book in the best possible way,
thought bubbles and action sounds included. The story centers around Dope’s Shameik Moore’s Miles Morales as
he navigates an elite boarding school before quickly being bitten by a
radioactive spider to become that dimension’s second Spider-Man after the aging
26-year-old Chris Pine Peter Parker. And it’s when we follow Miles and hear his
thoughts that the directing is at its best. The writing is so witty and
relatable and so quickly paced that even when the very occasional joke misses, the movie swings right along.
This movie
is almost 2 hours long, and it deserves every second. The buildup to the
mashing of dimensions takes its time, but the beginning is so strong that the
pacing works. The best way to describe it is to compare How to Train Your Dragons 2. As strange as it sounds, one of the best
things about that movie is how in between the beautiful action scenes were the
most compelling transition and expositional and character developing scenes in
an animated film that simply had characters talking to each other without much
else going on. That’s how this movie is: even before Miles gets those tingly
spidey senses, the movie is compelling through and through.
It’s at
this point in a review where I take a break from praising the film and start
pointing out small critiques. Yeah, not for this movie. We’re introduced to
Peter B. Parker (the awesome Jake Johnson of New Girl fame, also in Tag
and Jurassic World), a Spider-Man
from a different dimension where his real life has been torn apart more than
the space-time continuum and has resulted in Parker losing both motivation to
continue saving lives and his waist line. It’s this Parker that reluctantly
agrees to show Miles the webs as they work together to take down Kingpin and
his machine.
Since they’re
obviously shown in the trailers, I don’t see it as a spoiler to talk about the
other Spideys we meet. There’s Spider-Gwen (or Spider-Woman if you prefer) that interacts with Miles only less than Peter B.
Parker, Spider-Man Noir from a black and white era who eats justice and oreos for
breakfast and is played by freaking Nic Cage, and he’s contrasted by Peni
Parker, an anime style girl from centuries in the future who fights using her
best friend mecha spider bot. And of course you have to love John Mulaney’s
Peter Porker Spider-Ham from an anthropomorphic dimension. With this supporting
cast of heroes and the dynamics and interactions among them, you have a more than capable film already. But this is rounded
out by strong subplot featuring Miles’s uncle (Mahershala Ali) and dad (Brian Tyree
Henry, Atlanta’s Paper Boi), and
villains like Kingpin, Doc Ock, and even Green Goblin. All three of these villains
have fun, unique characteristics, but my favorite had to be how the directors
utilized Kingpin’s massive stature in his black suit and even giving him a
totally plausible motivation for why he wants to keep using his dimension
squashing machine.
Oh yeah,
and after you factor in the animation, characters, action, and story, you’re
still left with a strong score and one of the best movie soundtracks you’ll
find. If I had to say something negative, and I’m really pulling silky strings
here, I noticed during the credits that Post Malone was given like one
line to say. Oh well. His trip to Olive Garden with Jimmy Fallon was funny, so
everything evens out. I like Spider-Man 3
more than most people do (and probably enjoy the first two less than others),
and really enjoyed both Amazing
movies (yes, both had faults still), but they don't compare anywhere close to this film, so that leaves a toss-up on whether this
movie or Spider-Man: Homecoming is
the best Spider-Man movie. And I honestly put Homecoming as a top three Marvel movie, I enjoyed it that much.
Since I seriously can’t lean one way or the other between the two, I will say
that as much as I adored Brad Bird’s Incredibles
2, this is all eight hands down the best animated film of the year. If
using the categories of humor, animation, story, characters, music, and
directing, this film excels at all.
Oh, and
stay for the credits. They’re strange but worth it.
In Brief:
·
I liked Get
Out (not as much as some people, but still), but wow does Us look good.
·
I honestly think 2018 was a pretty weak year as
evidenced by Bohemian Rhapsody
winning the Golden Globe for Best Drama, but I really can’t offer input since I
didn’t watch most of these films. With that said, congrats to Christian Bale
and to the underrated Ben Whishaw.
·
Prediction: both A Dog’s Way Home and (sorry Keanu) Replicas look forgettable, so if you’re going to a movie and you’ve
already seen the previously reviewed movie, stick to what’s already out, maybe
even the recently released Escape Room.
