Spider-Man Into the Spider-Verse (Bob Persichetti and Peter Ramsey AND Rodney Rothman, 2018)
As with the incestuous interplay of their properties in The Lego Movie (2014), and The Lego Batman Movie (2017) and The Lego Ninjago Movie (2017 too), writer-producers Phil Lord and Christopher Miller create an implosive universe sucking our cash deeper and ever deeper into this particular Marvel strain. Yes, the animation is jaw-dropping. Sure, it's life-affirming to have a blatino hero. You bet, I laughed out loud several times. But the overall message is buy buy buy.
Miles Morales/Spider-Man's (Shameik Moore) makes the moral clear in his closing monologue: "Anyone can wear the mask. You could wear the mask. If you didn't know that before, I hope you do now. 'Cause I'm Spider-Man. And I'm not the only one. Not by a long shot." An earlier scene literalizes this when Miles purchases a mask at a store and Stan Lee (actually Stan Lee playing himself), the creator of Spider-Man, sells it to him right before Miles joins a crowd of New Yorkers wearing the mask. Indeed, you could wear the mask too. But the one option you don't have is not to buy it in the first place. Nothing exists outside this suffocating universe.
The most oppressive moments in this feature-length commercial were the endless replays of Spider-Man's origin story (visualized in comic book form to remind you to buy the comic books too), culminating in a scene where Miles meets Spider-Mans from different universes. There's Spider-Man Noir, a brooding black-and-white figure fighting Nazis in the 1930s, and Peni Parker/SP//dr [sic], an anime variant from the year 3145, both ensuring that we'll have Spider-Man products to purchase for the next century-plus at least. A truly depressing spectacle.
And before you ask, I watched it on pan-and-scan VHS so, yeah yeah, I didn't get the authentic experience.
Grade: C-plus
Miles Morales/Spider-Man's (Shameik Moore) makes the moral clear in his closing monologue: "Anyone can wear the mask. You could wear the mask. If you didn't know that before, I hope you do now. 'Cause I'm Spider-Man. And I'm not the only one. Not by a long shot." An earlier scene literalizes this when Miles purchases a mask at a store and Stan Lee (actually Stan Lee playing himself), the creator of Spider-Man, sells it to him right before Miles joins a crowd of New Yorkers wearing the mask. Indeed, you could wear the mask too. But the one option you don't have is not to buy it in the first place. Nothing exists outside this suffocating universe.
The most oppressive moments in this feature-length commercial were the endless replays of Spider-Man's origin story (visualized in comic book form to remind you to buy the comic books too), culminating in a scene where Miles meets Spider-Mans from different universes. There's Spider-Man Noir, a brooding black-and-white figure fighting Nazis in the 1930s, and Peni Parker/SP//dr [sic], an anime variant from the year 3145, both ensuring that we'll have Spider-Man products to purchase for the next century-plus at least. A truly depressing spectacle.
And before you ask, I watched it on pan-and-scan VHS so, yeah yeah, I didn't get the authentic experience.
Grade: C-plus
Labels: bad movies
posted by Kevin John at 9:35 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home