Monday 17 December 2018

Spiderman: Into the Spiderverse

We’ve seen an even half-dozen Spiderman movies with three different young men playing Spiderman. But it’s always the same Peter Parker, with the same origin story … until now. Using a distinctly modern art style, this film tells of Miles Morales, an African-American-Latino, whose life gets complicated by the inevitable radioactive spider, plus one very complicated cross-dimensional engine that drags in multiple other Spider-people from other universes. In cutting edge animation that gives the screen a comic-book quality, we get everything from sound-effects to voice-over panels. This level of styalisation has proved a mess in things like Ang Lee’s “Hulk” but here, it works.
If I don’t completely lose my mind over this, it might be that … this isn’t quite the Miles Morales that the comics have given me. He’s a little more urban, a little more street-wise, a little more keen on graffiti and stickers than the more mild-mannered character from the comics. And it’s not necessarily a bad change, and it’s a compelling kaleidoscope of comics pleasure all around, and there’s some really clever choices in there with the supporting cast – but it’s just not quite the Miles that I loved. He’s not a bad character, but he’s just not quite mine any more. And that’s my own baggage to bear.

No comments:

Post a Comment