I watched it in 3-d this weekend. I thought it was decent, although the story line was somewhat blah. I don’t quite get the over-the-top praise of the movie. It was just too unrealistic for me to buy in. I told my son that I thought it would have been better as a live action movie. In that format, I don’t think they wouldn’t have gotten away with some of the parts that didn’t make sense, such as:
His uncle just happens to be a henchman for the bad guy, and he just happens to be with him when the spider bites him giving him super powers
He’s a high school student who can somehow leave school at all hours and no one notices, missing classes and/or getting zero sleep
Gwen, who happens to be from another Spider Verse, is already a student at his school before he gets his spider powers
His uncle took him down to that spot in the subway because he saw it while at work. Sure it was coincidence the spider got loose and was down there at the same time, but at least it didn’t come out of nowhere.
He did have some troubles with leaving campus at one point, but I think the whole movie only occurred in a couple of days or so.
In her introduction, Gwen says she was knocked back in time a week as well as knocked into that universe. At least they addressed it, it seemed like Noir guy, Spider-Ham, and anime girl had been there for a while too.
I loved it. The whole thing was just ludicrously insane and over-the-top in a way live action could never be. The plot was pretty good, the relationships between Miles and his family were very convincing and heartfelt, and the characterization (eg acting, mannerisms, nuance) might be the best I’ve ever seen. This wasn’t just good, it was Pixar good. But the real show-stopper was the visual style and effects. It was absolutely unique, with this constant barrage of hallucinogenic, kaleidoscopic visual madness. It’s like Jackson Pollock and Baz Lurmahnn combined their super-powers into a spectacularly insane movie.
The closest thing I can compare it to is ‘Lego Batman,’ not just for the hyperkinetic visuals but also the fact that it incorporates tons of Spider-Man lore and just assumes the audience is already up to speed. I’m very happy that our superhero movie tropes are mature enough to make these kinds of films. The movies we are seeing nowadays wouldn’t have been possible twenty years ago. Last generation’s superhero movies were all about holding the audience’s hand and explaining to them step by step who the character is and what he does, on the assumption that they have never read a comic book before. And that’s what they needed. But our recent crop of movies have reached the deconstruction stage, where the audiences can be assumed to be familiar enough with the characters and the tropes that the film-makers can start playing around with them. (eg. Logan, Deadpool, Lego Batman, Watchmen.)
I could leave my high school. My kids could leave theirs. I’m sure his teachers noticed when he skipped classes, but he didn’t go back to face the music until after the show ended.
That one never even occurred to me as weird, and I’m completely certain they could have gotten away with it in a live-action film – how would that part even be different?
From the “too many cooks spoil the broth” department, per Wikipedia:
So they worked painstakingly (for a YEAR!) over ten seconds of footage, and then they got way behind schedule and had to farm it out to more and more animators. There’s no way that translates to the exact look they were initally going for, or what they would have gotten had they been told “take all the time you need, even if it is several years: just let us know when you have it ready”. I would sure love to see what that ten seconds looked like!
OTOH, I don’t have a problem with any of the story complaints people are mentioning. I still think it would be an excellent film with all the same dialogue and story beats but different animation.
Saw it, was blown away by it. A fast-paced, entertaining comic book film with layers upon layers of meta-storytelling.
I was heavily overstimulated by the end of the opening credits, so I agree with you. While I soon relaxed into it and enjoyed the style, it’s going to majorly trigger some sensitive folks.
Yes, that’s a good…point.
They did - there was a moment where I thought they had gone full Claymation (it wasn’t, but some scenes were much more 3D-modelled than the more comic-book style ones).
Yes, a nice touch.
The key point of that scene is (spoilering just because)Miles’ dad going from your standard “authority figure hating vigilante superheroes” to understanding what he was doing and supporting him, even though he didn’t know it was Miles. The frisson between Miles and his father was a significant plot point, resolved at the climax in an unexpected way.Also, of course, there was the parallel of Fisk’s family catching him again doing exactly the same thing (in the same pose) that he had done previously with the other Spider-Man. Fisk keeps blaming Spider-Man for his own mistakes. And his uncle’s death was there to parallel the losses all the others had had.
I couldn’t stop laughing at “BAGEL!”.
Miles gets called out on being out of school without permission a couple of times during the film - by the security guy and by his parents - and remember that he doesn’t leave by the door so it’s not like they could have stopped him.
Saw it with my 14 y.o. daughter, we both loved it, especially the animation style(s). Thought female Doc Oc was a nice subversion. Overall, great movie, want more like it.
Yes, I thought this was good, too. And good comparison.
Really, this is how any animated, or CGI film works, going all the way back to Disney. They first work on the concept art, which takes a long time. Then they bring in designers to flesh out characters, and backgrounds, etc. Then they farm out to dozens of shops to do the grunt work. Some shops specialize in backgrounds, some specialize in motion, etc.
We get that you didn’t like it, and that you want to trash it. Really, we get that.
Maybe you have, but I haven’t, and I do hope he chimes in with several more posts explaining why the movie is terrible using evidence that really shows he doesn’t understand how animation works, because those are the best parts of this thread!
This has risen to my favorite superhero movie ever, and the one major flaw in it–the offset print that looks like 3d graphics without glasses–is the sort of swing-and-miss that I’m happy to put up with as the price of getting so many swing-and-hit moments.
Absolutely the best superhero movie in years, vastly superior to most Marvel schlock. Innovative, imaginative, loyal to the look of comic books. Great story, great characters. All the thumbs up.
I’m not usually a fan of 3D, but I saw it in 3D and it really worked well. I wonder if it actually made it a bit less overwhelming visually, by being a bit easier to parse with the extra separation of the different elements.
I rarely see movies twice, but this one might justify it. There’s a wonderful second-run theater in town that does 3d, and I might catch it there. Was the offset printing mimicry at all jarring in 3d?