spider-man

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse – JenEric Movie Review

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Hello Cinephiles,

Today we’re talking about the 2023 film Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.

Story

I love series. Most of the books I write are series. This didn’t have any resolution for Miles and that made it feel like half a story and not a full movie on its own. Honestly, for a movie called Spider-man he’s the character who get the 4th amount of story after the Spider-verse, Gwen, and Spot. I loved Gwen’s story, but it felt half-baked.

The movie was hurt by having way too much exposition.

The concept of the Spider-Verse and “cannon events” took so much time to get to a point that all the other stories felt rushed.

Score: 0

Characters

The arc for Miles was interesting. I like that he’s more confident and just because the others arrive in his life again, he doesn’t revert to a useless child. He’s confident in his abilities, his morals, and manages to outwit the villains. His personal story of trying to tell his parents and coming to terms with being the only spider-man in his world is barely explored. Hopefully in the next movie.

There was a nice heartfelt moment for Gwen and I really felt for her and loved the parallels between hers and Miles’s story. While his feels lost in the movie, hers feels rushed.

Vampire-angst Spidey is either the dumbest anti-hero or a terrifying villain. We’ll see.

Spider-punk deserves his own series and feels like one of the only reasons the plot moves past all the exposition in the 2/3rds mark.

Score: 1

Dialogue

The dialogue, outside the exposition, is quippy and fun. Lots of great lines and the characters really play off each other well. Watching Gwen and Miles talk while web swinging was wonderful. Unfortunately, they didn’t use that style with the bigger bits of exposition.

Score: 0.5

Visuals and Music

I’m going to be nit-picky here and say that the animation isn’t as good as the first one. The first had clear crisp animation with amazing visuals. This one tried to cut corners by forcing our eyes with blurry backgrounds. It’s still absolutely gorgeous but instead of enhancing the scenes it often distracted from them. The pastel world of Gwen had both kids asking why her hair kept changing colours.

The music was excellent and made a great bridge between the first and second.

Score: 0.5

Fun

The action was great and both kids enjoyed it. The rest of the family found it fun. I’m familiar with the multi-verse concept (BECAUSE I WATCHED THE FIRST MOVIE) so I found the excessive explanations… well, excessive.

Score: 0.5

Overall

It’s great to catch up with old friends. The characters are there, but their story is rushed for extra explanations and world building. The movie is beautiful and fun but isn’t done, and suffers from not giving the audience any resolution.

Final Score: 2.5 Stars out of 5

Spider-Man: No Way Home – JenEric Movie Review

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Hello Cinephiles,

Today we’re talking about the 2021 film Spider-Man: No Way Home.

Story

There’s a lot of good and a lot of bad in this one. The hopefulness of Spider-man is challenged, but shown to be worth protecting. Spider-man doesn’t kill his enemies was a theme in the older films, but he also didn’t save them. Saving them in this one helps affirm the joy and hopefulness of this Spider-man. I love the concept.

I hate that they had to, once again, kill a strong female character to move the plot and motivate the hero. It’s old, it was old a long time ago.

Another thing that’s old and really annoying is the forgetting spell. I hated the soft reset of Gamora in Avengers, and I hate it here. It makes everything from the previous movie feel cheap. It feels like they had to have it so that Strange wouldn’t go ask Peter for help in the next movie.

Score: 0.5

Characters

I absolutely loved seeing the two older Spider-men. It made my elder millennial heart happy to see them and see them work through some of their trauma and issues. Felt, oddly, like coming home.

I adored the character development and redemption for the villains. When Alfred Molina’s Doc Ock called Peter, “Dear Boy,” I cheered. I’d forgotten how absolutely brilliant William Defoe was as Norman Osborne.

M.J. and Ned are great characters and I really liked watching them work with Peter. Unfortunately, most of their development and interactions now don’t matter. That pisses me off.

Score: 0.5

Dialogue

This was surprisingly heartfelt and perfectly quippy. Bringing back the Great Power speech was well done. I loved all the in-jokes and all the dialogue between the main trio.

Score: 1

Visuals and Music

Absolutely stunning special effects, camera work, and fight scenes.

The music didn’t just elevate the scenes, it also punched up the nostalgia perfectly.

Score: 1

Fun

I’ve been a fan of the Spider-man movies for twenty-one years and this brought all the feels and brought me back to summer 2001 when I watched the first movie more times than I can count at a discount second run cinema.

The kids liked it mostly (the 2yo got bored during the talky bits) and the rest of the family geeked out with me.

I was ridiculously annoyed at the loss of character interaction and growth due to the memory loss spell.

Score: 0.5

Overall

Lots of hope, thrills, excitement, and nostalgia with a big heap of fun. This is a Spider-man film for those who love Spider-man films. It’s marred by some tiresome tropes and leaves us in a frustrating place for the next one, but overall it’s a lot of fun.

Final Score: 3.5 Stars out of 5

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse – JenEric Movie Review

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Hello Cinephiles,

Today we’re talking about the 2018 film Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.

This was my favourite film of 2018.

Story

I’m not sure there is a better done origin story for a superhero. The combination of dark themes with the lighter elements are perfectly balanced. The audience always has just enough time to process what’s going on before they’re treated to another action or drama point.

Score: 1

Characters

Miles’s narrative arc is a perfect hero’s call to arms and we get to see him grow so much from the beginning to the end. He’s also both brilliant and artistic which is a nice combination.

The rest of the cast are extremely well developed in a short time.

Fisk’s story is both heartbreaking and terrifying at the same time; making you feel for the villain while hating his methods.

Score: 1

Dialogue

Everything from the internal monologues, to the character’s backstories, to the interactions between people feels real while still being honed to perfect quippiness.

Score: 1

Visuals and Music

The animation style wasn’t new, but the way they used it was groundbreaking. It’s a way of making 3D animated movies into a more paper/comic look. The ink-dot style that mimics old comics was wonderful.

The music was great. The score was obviously inspired by previous Spider-man movies, but with a fresh spin. The song choices were masterfully done and integrated with the animation.

Score: 1

Fun

The themes were complex, but the plot was fairly easy for my kids to follow. The reveal of who the Prowler is had my five year old gasping in surprise and my two year old just loved seeing all the Spider-people.

Score: 1

Overall

By far my favourite Spider-man movie and possibly my favourite superhero film of all time. The movie weaves a near perfect coming-of-age story and hero’s journey, while being funny and heartwarming at the same time.

If you haven’t seen this, you should.

Final Score: 5* stars out of 5

*A 5 star review doesn’t mean the movie was perfect nor that it is perfect for everyone but it is a movie I believe is as close to perfect as possible.

Be Different but don’t be Different?

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Hello My Imaginary Friends,

In genre fiction, most adventure or epic forms, the protagonist is an ordinary person placed in extraordinary situations. They are praised for a certain talent or personality trait that saves them in the end.

Despite being nothing special at the beginning, they have something that makes them special. As their story unfolds they become extremely special by the end.

Sometimes the protagonist starts as impressive or unique, but that almost always makes them social outcast in order to avoid making them seem too good to be true. We excuse friends, or characters we’ve watched grow, from this because we feel invested in their journey.

The whole narrative informs and is informed by real life, where anything new or different is seen as suspect. People revel in watching those with fame or great ability fall from grace. Is it jealousy or just a twisted sense of balance?

The contradiction is certainly there for everyone to see. We as a society worship extraordinary abilities and accomplishments while simultaneously dehumanizing anyone who is different, including those same people.

It honestly feels like society is telling us to be different and special but while being like everyone else.

Hold on… while I climb onto my high horse.

There’s a lesson in this and it’s simply to think critically about your reactions to what’s different. Your natural instincts will kick in and tell you that different is evil, wrong, silly, etc.; well, your instincts are jerk-faces.

Take the time to understand, analyse, and if necessary, live and let live.

Different isn’t bad, it’s just different. We need to stop trying to pull each other down and instead celebrate both our differences and our talents.

 

Be aware, be curious, and be kind,

Éric