Into The Spider-Verse — Greatness Through Reversal | Film Perfection

[Music] Pizza time [Music] ever since December of last year the comment I've been seeing in my comment sections more than anything else is this do a video on into the spider-verse right fit it now you lazy piece of [ __ ] and every time I saw this comment it always left me quite confused because I had never seen into the spider-verse I mean it's an animated movie by Sony why would I make a video on it why would you want me to make a video on it but after actually seeing it last night I do finally understand why spider-man into the spider verse is not only among the most remarkable animated movies Sony has ever done it's also among the most remarkable spider-man movies Sony has ever done right up there besides spider-man 2 and as to why this is there are many reasons its narrative ly very bold its visually incredible and so and so and so on but for me the one core thing that makes this film so remarkable is a bit different this one core thing is very small and inconspicuous to the point where it's very easy to miss unless you're specifically looking for it but at the same time it's also very significant and powerful to the point where it serves as the very backbone that this entire movie is built around so what is this mysterious one core storytelling thing it's the movies highly consistent and varied and effective use of reversals in case the term reversal isn't familiar to everyone here essentially it's like this in storytelling a reversal means the method of setting up an assumption and then paying that assumption of with a reality that entirely opposite as in a reversal [Music] again there are multiple different aspects about into the spider-verse that are worthy of doing a video on but today I want to focus on its utilization of reversals because honestly this film does utilize reversals more expertly and frequently than any other film I've seen in a while in a way that there's some form of a reversal in pretty much every scene and so let's take a closer look at spider-man into the spider verse and try to understand its magical use of reversals in what different ways it uses them and what it achieves by using them let's see how this movie set up the assumption of being just another Sony animated movie and then turn that assumption upside down by actually being one of the best animated and spider-man movies of all time the most common reason why big ensemble movies like into the spider-verse often don't work so well is because there are too many characters and not enough time to properly develop them infinity war worked because Marvel had spent like 20 movies to build and develop its characters plus it was 2 and a half hours long spider-verse as neither of those it has no earlier movies for these characters it's way under two hours long the movie does properly develop some of its characters especially in Miles Morales and the old Peter Parker and in some ways the other spider people and spider pig do get development as well but the one set of characters that pretty much get no development at all are the villains no considerable amount of time he spent to build them up no considerable amount of time is spent to develop them and by logic they should then be the case of yet another bunch of forgettable comic book movie villains yet somehow it isn't so somehow this movie has as fantastic and memorable villains as any other spider-man movie and that makes the question how is that possible how can this movie have memorable villains when it has no time to properly develop them into being memorable yeah that's how take this aliyev villain character for example the way she's introduced she doesn't seem to be anyone worth any attention whatsoever just some harmless nerdy science person overall it's clear that she's nobody we have to worry about and then and I for one can't wait to watch what did you say your name was [Music] call me Daka even though this movie has a few different great memorable villains I would argue that this female Doc Ock is the most memorable of them all not because she gets more development than the other villains in fact she gets less development than the other villains she gets absolutely no development at all we don't know why she is who she is we don't know why she does what she does but that doesn't matter because she is introduced with such a powerful reversal first the movie creates an assumption of her being a harmless nobody and then it suddenly reveals her to actually be the exact opposite same with kingpin unlike Doc Ock he does get some level of character development where it turns out he's causing all this mayhem just because he wants his family back that is development but alone it's not very original or super effective but the way the movie makes it super effective is by way of a super effective reversal when kingpin is introduced he's this gigantic human incarnation of confidence and remorselessness and destruction but then it turns out he's just a sad little man who misses his wife and son again an assumption that's at one end of the spectrum and then a reality that's at the opposite end same with miles is uncle who is revealed to be the mascot killer working for kingpin now you could say that this reveal isn't so great because it's such an obvious one and that's fair but still I would argue that the reveal is highly effective not because it's surprising but because it's such an extreme reversal throughout the movie miles views his uncle as someone he can always rely on but then it turns out his uncle is that one person who's been trying to kill him this whole time and that highly steep gap between assumption and reality is what makes this reveal such a powerful character moment to be clear I'm not advocating tossing out character development in favor of reversals no matter what kind of movie you're making you should always properly develop your characters but that said if you want your characters to make a quick lasting impression on the audience give them some form of a reversal just like this movie did with Peter B Parker when we think of Peter Parker and spy we always think of this unyielding fighter who never gives up and now we suddenly meet a Peter Parker who gave up a long time ago which is why he's a character you won't forget because there's a clear assumption of who he is and then in reality he turns out to be the exact opposite six years don't forget the guy playing the job he thinks he can sit it out and still take a slice I know what they call him the Joker if you look back to the age of Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin and the overall Golden Age of visual comedy you might notice one permanent comedy factor no matter how different the jokes may be they are pretty much always based on the same formula assumption and reality as in first the joke set up an expectation of something happening and then they pay it off with a reality of the opposite happening still today we have filmmakers like Edgar Wright and Wes Anderson who are doing their best to keep visual comedy alive but for the most part it has withered down to near-extinction in favor of dialogue based comedy you know biggest dialogue is much easier than the visual stuff I'm not saying you can't enjoy a dialogue based comedy I'm just saying that visual comedy at least to me will always be superior which is why I always try to support it take 2013's the Lone Ranger for example I understand why this movie didn't make Bank at the box office but at the same time I do have a lot of respect for the way it pays tribute to the visual reversal comedy made famous by the likes of Keaton and Chaplin the United States Army it's very helpful thank you believe me where this trains headed there's no place for men who do yeah where's that the future getting too into the spider-verse I'm sure you can already put together what I'm going to say this movie is one of the funniest movies I've seen in a long time and I would argue this is so because of its excellent use of this visual reversal comedy of setting up an expectation and then turning that expectation upside down for example take this scene where miles gets bit by a radioactive spider for two long minutes we've been watching this ominous spider creeping around getting closer and closer to miles the whole time were biting our nails in anxiety because it's very clear that the spider is going to bite him in some terrible shocking way that's our assumption our expectation so if you know that expectation how can you make a joke out of it Wow let's go another example in the beginning of the movie miles gets advice that the best way to get a girl is to just confidently place a hand on their shoulder and then be like hey later on miles is about to test this out with Gwen Stacy and again our expectation is that she's gonna react not so well and that it's gonna be this big super awkward Larry David situation but no that's not the joke when doesn't react in any negative way she's just like okay see you around that's the joke or at least part of the joke because after that we do get the big super awkward Larry David situation joke we were waiting for when miles get stuck in her hair we knew the awkward joke was coming but we didn't expect it to come this way and that's what makes it funny once again I'm not saying dialogue based comedy can't be funny it can be funny there's a bunch of funny dialog comedy in this movie but even then you might notice that most likely it's always based on the reversal of expectation and reality like this joke where we assume that Mars is done talking with instead but then his dad suddenly stops him and embarrasses him in front of everyone else in a way we didn't expect if you want your audience to truly laugh anticipate their expectations and then give them a payoff that's the opposite if you have a cafeteria full of harmless looking scientists have those scientists pull out a crap ton of guns like it was a Swartz Integra movie if you have your heroes finally preparing to chase their ultimate goal cut to them eating hamburgers if you have a tiny rundown Shack serving as the base of your hero's operations make that tiny rundown Shack the spider-man equivalent of the Batcave anything you do do it in a way the audience doesn't expect and maybe also if you want it to be really effective just figure out a way to do it visually believe me where this trains headed there's no place for men who do that the future I don't think so counselor because right now my guys are right outside this train and they will open the door behind you and then you will look like a fool as an argument I would say that the greatest movies of all time are always emotional roller coasters a great drama also makes you laugh a great comedy also makes you cry a great horror thriller also gives you moments of levity it doesn't matter what emotions a movie makes you feel what matters is the size of the spaces between the emotions that a movie makes you feel and the single most effective way to create these spaces and make the audience go from one emotion to another is by utilizing reversals truthfully there are multiple different bigger and smaller ways of using reversals with emotions but for this video I'm gonna focus on these reversals on more of a scene slash sequence level if you want your scene to be powerful and memorable and overall great you should always build it on a reversal as in you enter your scene one way and then you end it in an entirely other way for example let's look back to my previous video and the ending battle scene of Captain America Civil War when the scene begins Tony Stark and Steve Rogers have United and our friends once again but when the scene ends they are bigger enemies than ever before in other words in this one single scene we go from highly positive to highly negative and that space in between that's what makes this one of the best scenes / sequences in the MCU as - into the spider verse I would indeed call this movie an emotional rollercoaster the biggest emotional roller coaster I've seen since Mission Impossible fall out and that's because it pulls off scene reversals very well in fact it does it so well that you could pick any scene at random and odds are that it features some form of an emotional reversal take this sequence at the end of Act one where the original spider-man is trying to destroy the particle accelerator he does get beat up by some intimidating villains overall the whole thing does stay fairly positive and optimistic I mean it's spider-man he's cracking jokes throughout the whole thing he's gonna be fine at least up until the point where he dies oh now you could argue that the sequence is powerful because Peter Parker dies and that's true but as a counter-argument I would say that it wouldn't be nearly as powerful without the reversal if the whole sequence had been bleak and hopeless throughout it would have evoked just one emotion not a range of emotions but because it finds a natural way of going from one extreme to another from optimistic to pessimistic it does evoke a range of emotions but instead of me picking and choosing new scenes for this point let's look at some of the scenes we used as examples in earlier points and see if they do all have some level of an emotional reversal okay a little bit of a gut perhaps from dimensional warping oh yeah miles let's go [Music] one more highly important thing to keep in mind even though your scenes and sequences should consist of different emotions you have to be careful not to go overboard with it any emotional transition you make it has to feel natural and organic because otherwise you might end up like my boy George but all that said if you want to build an emotional rollercoaster like into the spider-verse be sure to fill it with emotional reversals plus combine that with character reversals as well as comedic reversals and boy you got yourself one hell of a movie in a space of about 90 seconds you know you go from lamenting the death of you know a hero to escape to slightly comedic with Jar Jar you know to Anakin returning when I may have gone too far [Applause] [Music] [Applause]

Channel: Filmento

Views: 1,188,770

Keywords: spiderman, into the spiderverse, miles morales, the tragedy of peter parker, peter parker, animated movie, spider-man: into the spider-verse, spiderverse movie, into the spiderverse 2, mcu, captain marvel, film, movie, video essays, filmento, film perfection, new peter parker, into the spiderverse after credits, mistakes, review, reaction, screenwriting, gwen stacy, spider-pig, marvel, ending explained, into the spiderverse clip, into the spiderverse fight scene

Id: s7uoMbWuOMM

Length: 16min 44sec (1004 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 08 2019