I'm way behind on write ups where Dave-El and family absconded from the Fortress of Ineptitude to see movies.
Two weeks ago, we went to see Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. It's an animated film that features a Peter Parker Spider-Man that looks familiar and 5 other Spider people who may not. The core of this movie is not Peter but one of the other spiders, Miles Morales.
Miles is a very bright and gifted teenager with a passion for art struggling to adjust to life in an elite boarding school and live up to the expectations of this parents. He would rather hang with his Uncle Aaron and paint graffiti on subway walls. It is one such expedition underground where Miles gets bitten by a radioactive spider.
The next day, life at school gets even more awkward as Miles' new spider powers began manifesting themselves in surprising and very socially awkward ways. That night, Miles goes back to the scene of the crime to locate the spider that bit him when he discovers a hidden lair with a big honking particle accelerator that Wilson Fisk is using to breach barriers between universes, looking for a version of his wife and son who are still alive. The machine is being guarded by the Green Goblin and the Prowler in a knock down drag out fight with our friendly neighborhood Spider-Man.
Things go very badly, the machine goes ka-blooey which seriously injures Spider-Man. He slips a USB drive to Miles that will permanently disable Fisk's machine if he tries to use it again because if he does, it will destroy everything.
Then Wilson Fisk beats Spider-Man to death.
Wait! What?
Yep, after guarding and protecting New York City for 10 years, Spider-Man is dead.
Whoa. Bummer.
After his death, Spider-Man is revealed to be Peter Parker, a young blonde man with a hot wife, model and actress Mary Jane Watson.
Wait, did I say "blonde"?
While New York City is pretty much bummed out that Spider-Man is dead, Miles is particularly stressed out. He alone knows he has spider powers and the only person who could've helped him out with that is dead. And that person's last request before dying was for Miles to stop Fisk from using his big honking particle accelerator again and thereby destroying everything and to be honest, Miles is a bit and understandably freaked out.
Then Spider-Man appears.
Wait! What?
It seems Wilson Fisk's big honking particle accelerator has caused fractured in the multiverse which has pulled over another version of Peter Parker from another Earth, one where Peter has brown hair, a bit of a belly from sitting around eating too much pizza because he's depressed about losing Mary Jane Watson and he's a bit cynical after defending his New York City for 22 years.
Miles and Peter team up to put a stop to Fisk's big honking particle accelerator but run into problems with Olivia Octavius, AKA Doctor Octopus. So in Mile's universe, Doc Ock is a woman.
Speaking of lady versions, Gwen Stacy from another Earth shows up where she got bit by the radioactive spider and the great tragedy of her life is she couldn't save the life of her best friend, Peter Parker.
Also showing up:
Spider-Man Noir
----a black & white Spider-Man with a fedora and trench coat from 1933. Noir is voiced by Nicholas Cage in what has to be the role of lifetime.
Peni Parker
---- a Japanese-American middle school student who pilots a psychically-powered mech suit known as the SP//dr, which is partially controlled by a radioactive spider that also shares a psychic link with the pilot
Spider-Ham
----Peter Porker from a cartoon universe. John Mulaney provides the voice of Spider-Ham because occasionally, things happen in the world the way they should.
In addition to the danger that Wilson Fisk's big honking particle accelerator poses to everything, all the visitors to Miles' Earth are breaking down, their structures are unstable outside of a universe other than their own.
There is a lot going on in this movie and at times, it is a bit too frenetic and garish. But the story wisely has Miles Morales as it's focus. Miles' insecurities and frustrations with life are relatable even before he gets zapped with powers he struggles to understand and master.
The film makes using of varying art styles in the animation including reproducing the art styles associated with the characters from the comics. We even get caption boxes on occasion for inner monologues, right out of the comics.
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse is a wild ride, sometimes a bit too wild with some particularly frantic scenes. But is undeniably a fun ride and worth seeing.
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Upcoming on the blog thing:
- Mary Poppins Returns
- A travel report on where my family went this weekend
- The long awaited total season review of Doctor Who Series 11.
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