Spiderman into the Spiderverse

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2ssaMI03pg

You can count on the fingers of one hand the number of times an animated film has been nominated for picture of the year on several award platforms. But this movie is not just another animated feature. It’s not even just in the league with say Toy Story or Up or some of the Ice Age films, and for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is that you’ve never seen animation like this before— this is ground-breaking, and eye-popping vividness and color. It makes Halloween costumes look drab and boring. The basic premise of the film is: 1) that there are parallel universes and so 2) there are naturally spider persons in all of them, and 3) if you have a super collider you might be able to transport folks from one universe to another, but 4) the real reason the truly big bad guy King pin is doing such a dastardly thing is to try and get his family back. Meanwhile Peter Parker I, and Peter Parker II, and Miles, and Peter Porker (naturally the comic relief straight from the comics), and Spiderman Noir from the 30s version, all show up to try and save Mile’s world from Mr. Super Rotund One, and also a female version of Doctor Octopus. If you are not following all this, relax, and just enjoy the ride. It’s a lot of fun.

But for those of us who have been with Spidey since issue One back B.C. (by which I mean Before Cell Phone of course), this seems to be the culmination of many things that were excellent about the original comics— vivid colors and costumes, out-sized villains and flawed super heroes. the usual cameo from Stan the Man Lee (RIP in the parallel universe Stan) who this time is selling Spidey merch, including costumes. For roughly 100 minutes you’re on the roller coaster ride of a life time, and somehow, there is time to develop a heart-warming story line about Miles, his father, and his uncle. It is indeed nice to see a feature animated film with African American stars ( e.g. Mahershala Ali plays Uncle Aaron) and to hear familiar voices from the past (Lilly Tomlin voices Aunt May). They even managed to squeeze both of Peter Parker’s girlfriends into the film— Mary Jane, and also Gwen Stacy. Did I mention Chris Pine voices one of the Spidermen and Nicholas Gage voices Spiderman Noir? It seems everyone and his brother was lining up to do the voice thing in this film.

I saw the film in XD and it was blindingly brilliant. It is not clear to me that Real 3D would have added much to the overall effect. What I can say is that this film is probably a bit too intense and vivid for young children to watch, but overall, it makes for good Christmas fun for the rest of the family. Enjoy.