![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Into the Spiderverse
We saw this last Friday, but for various reasons I am only now getting around to posting about it. Anyway, I'm here to tell you that the rumors are all true: this is a fantastic movie. One of the best animated films I've ever seen, easily the best Spider-Man movie, one of my top five superhero films. Everyone who is heaping superlatives on it is 100% correct to do so. Maybe the only caveat is that it's not your best choice if you aren't at least somewhat familiar with the Spider-Man/Peter Parker mythos, because it shorthands his origin story in a way that probably wouldn't make sense to someone going in completely cold. But if you're at all interested, you likely know at least the bare outline of Peter Parker's story, and that's really all you need.
The writing is great, the characters and acting are great, and it tells a wonderful origin story for Miles Morales. But what really makes this film is the art. I can't think of another animated film where the artwork does a better job of matching with the storytelling. Most of the movie is in a very particular comic book style, with bold black line work and blocky scene framing, reminiscent of panels. The use of text balloons is especially effective, used primarily as a way to get us into Miles's head. There were lots of other little touches, too, like the use of halftone dots for some of the coloring, mostly familiar to me from the comics pages in old-school newspapers, but also often used in comic books as well. I also loved the way that comic book imagery is used to retell the Peter Parker origin story, which is repeated several times with great efficiency. It might be the best translation from comics to film that I've ever seen.
Great as all that is, the best thing about the art in my opinion is how it's used to communicate the multi-verse concept. One of the main concepts this story explores is that of alternate universes; several of the characters come from these other realities, and the intersection of alternate universes is always unstable. The way the film shows this instability is through the characters disintegrating, exploding into shapes and images and color, almost as though their home reality is trying to burst through into Miles's world. It would be literally impossible to communicate this idea in live action. As the lines between animation and live action become blurred (see: Disney's upcoming "live action" Lion King), there's something exciting about seeing an animated film that leans into the artwork rather than attempting to recreate reality. The other cool thing about the alternate reality concept is that the various Spideys can come from different animation traditions -- we have a black-and-white noir Spidey, an anime Spidey, and a Looney Toons Spidey, all side-by-side with comic book line art, and it works, seamlessly.
But maybe the most exciting thing is to see 2018 bookended by two fantastic Marvel movies about superheroes of color -- starting with Black Panther and ending with Miles Morales: an Afro-Latino character surrounded by black and brown friends and family members, with a mother who speaks untranslated Spanish and to whom he responds in kind. The artistic, critical, and commercial success of these films had better put to bed, forever, the idea that films about heroes of color can't be successful. It was always a lie, but now the lie has been fully exposed. And I hope we see many, many more.
The writing is great, the characters and acting are great, and it tells a wonderful origin story for Miles Morales. But what really makes this film is the art. I can't think of another animated film where the artwork does a better job of matching with the storytelling. Most of the movie is in a very particular comic book style, with bold black line work and blocky scene framing, reminiscent of panels. The use of text balloons is especially effective, used primarily as a way to get us into Miles's head. There were lots of other little touches, too, like the use of halftone dots for some of the coloring, mostly familiar to me from the comics pages in old-school newspapers, but also often used in comic books as well. I also loved the way that comic book imagery is used to retell the Peter Parker origin story, which is repeated several times with great efficiency. It might be the best translation from comics to film that I've ever seen.
Great as all that is, the best thing about the art in my opinion is how it's used to communicate the multi-verse concept. One of the main concepts this story explores is that of alternate universes; several of the characters come from these other realities, and the intersection of alternate universes is always unstable. The way the film shows this instability is through the characters disintegrating, exploding into shapes and images and color, almost as though their home reality is trying to burst through into Miles's world. It would be literally impossible to communicate this idea in live action. As the lines between animation and live action become blurred (see: Disney's upcoming "live action" Lion King), there's something exciting about seeing an animated film that leans into the artwork rather than attempting to recreate reality. The other cool thing about the alternate reality concept is that the various Spideys can come from different animation traditions -- we have a black-and-white noir Spidey, an anime Spidey, and a Looney Toons Spidey, all side-by-side with comic book line art, and it works, seamlessly.
But maybe the most exciting thing is to see 2018 bookended by two fantastic Marvel movies about superheroes of color -- starting with Black Panther and ending with Miles Morales: an Afro-Latino character surrounded by black and brown friends and family members, with a mother who speaks untranslated Spanish and to whom he responds in kind. The artistic, critical, and commercial success of these films had better put to bed, forever, the idea that films about heroes of color can't be successful. It was always a lie, but now the lie has been fully exposed. And I hope we see many, many more.
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject