Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (Part One)

I liked most of it. About two thirds of the way through the picture they did a questionable story turn. I guess, really, my ultimate opinion of the film will depend on how the third film shakes out. The ending leaves me a bit optimistic, but damn, the movie not failing this huge thing is not a given.

Let's talk about what I liked first. The animation style of Gwen's world felt like an art film. But it's not just the animation that looks like no other film. The thing that really impresses me is how the characters speak like real people. Okay, maybe real people aren't that clever and cool. But the dialogue is credible. There is something I notice about most computer animated films, particularly those by Dreamworks and Illumination. I think they try to have characters speak in a relatively "realistic" fashion when telling their jokes. Observational humor almost. Sort of to almost make the audience think they're watching a legit film instead of stuff with Donkey and the Minions. And the thing I notice about these scenes (besides the uncanny valley character animation going for subtle and touching and landing more on creepy and unconvincing) is that both the dialogue and the performances try too hard. They make SUCH an effort to sound natural it sounds phony instead. This movie? The real dialogue is credible. Not just the stuff at the end with Miles and Uncle Aaron. When the Da Vinci Vulture screams that that isn't art and Gwen replies, that they're talking about it, aren't they, it's like the movie has a good ear for dialogue, that as I often put it, snaps, crackles, and pops, and is part of this complete breakfast. If you want me to be brutally honest, this doesn't actually deserve too much praise. ALL movies should be able to do this. But it's the fact that they rarely do which puts the film doing that in the solid win column. It's not that I have no standards. It's just that most stuff has NO standards. A movie being merely competent at a necessary thing gets major credit if that necessary thing is still rarely fulfilled elsewhere.

Let's talk about the plot turn that turned me off. Once Miguel introduces the notion of "fixed canon" and the idea that all Spider-Mans NEED a defining tragedy their life, I'm like, "Nope." This crosses the line from science fiction to superstition. Miles was a great Spider-Man while his father is alive. I dispute his father needs to die for him to fulfill his destiny and for the Universe to not be destroyed. I reject the notion that every Peter Parker in every Universe is such an intrinsically amoral piece of crap that Uncle Ben ALWAYS needs to die to prove the point.

What I like is Miles himself says "No thanks, I'll do my own thing." He even has his own Spider-Rebellion going on at the cliffhanger ending. I like that. I think that it's still an open question how it will be resolved. But in hindsight, if the third movie decides that the moral of the story needs to be that Miles needs to allow his father to be murdered save the Multiverse and understand the true nature of sacrifice, I'll think the third movie (and this one) is crap. If the third movie lives down to my worst expectations and decides being "faithful" to the comic book canon is its job, I won't like it, or this one. If it cares about the characters instead, and allows them their own destinies and free will to make their own choices, I'll like 'em both. And just based on the lines drawn and sides picked at the end, that seems a likelier outcome than comic book slavishness. But until I see the third movie, it's not certain for me, so my praise of this one need to be measured. I'll give it's a respectable four stars for the dialogue and animation. If Beyond The Spider-Verse truly DOES allow Miles to be his own thing, I'll up the final grade to five stars. If the third film tows the Marvel company line however, I'll bump it down to two and a half or three instead. 4 stars.