Spider-Man Across the Spider-Verse is One of the BEST Movies I've Ever Seen!

alright let's do this one more time every now and then a film comes along and completely changes the game 2018 Spider-Man into the spider-verse is one of those films not only did its unique visual style created by blending CGI with traditional animation and illustration techniques revolutionize Western animation but it also popularized the Multiverse with mainstream audiences setting off the Boom in Multiverse Centric stories we're currently living through however while there have been some notable standouts like last year's exceptional everything everywhere all at once the vast majority of these Multiverse films have failed to fully realize the Limitless potential of the concept the way spider-verse did most of these stories have simply lacked imagination treating the Multiverse as a means to indulge in cameos and references or you know to do a little continuity maintenance the alternate worlds they depict feel like simple palettes Ops with none of the Wonder or authenticity of spider vs worlds as a concept the Multiverse presents an opportunity to create fantastic impossible places you're telling me the best you can come up with is a city where the color of the street lights are inverted come on now give me a break so it's lucky then that after four long years Daddy's finally back to show us how it's done and oh boy did they do that the highly anticipated sequel to into the spider-verse across the spider-verse is a reminder of just how invaluable the Multiverse can be as a storytelling tool when it's approached with boundless imagination and Ingenuity somehow even more technically impressive than its predecessor across the spider-verse is a goddamn visual Feast seamlessly integrating more animation Styles than should be possible it might be cliche to say that every frame is a painting but in this case it really does feel like each individual cell was deliberately and precisely designed by hand to be a work of art I mean half of this movie should be hanging up in a goddamn Museum every moment is legitimately jaw-dropping with every new character in Universe having its own art style tailored to its specific tone era of origin or cultural influence Gwen's world is rendered in dreamy pastel watercolors making for the most striking scenes in the entire film Spider-Man India takes on a more pencil-drawn look in the style of old Indian comic art while hobies is fittingly a cut and paste collage of high impact pop art again combining this many eclectic Styles should not work but somehow it does they all feel cohesive and then there's the music oh my God there's the [ __ ] music Daniel Pemberton continues to secure his place is one of the best to ever do it with an anarchic score that plays like the love child of Ludwig Goranson Vangelis an ALT rock band and a turntable his score effortlessly flows between musical styles with as much creative freedom as the visuals enhancing the mood and atmosphere of every location and narrative beat each character gets a distinct and memorable Motif that draws on its own specific set of instruments and when woven together create a beautiful cacophony that Embraces the chaotic energy of the Multiverse itself but Above All Else across the spider-verse understands that the Multiverse is more than just a cool setting it's an opportunity to test the very Foundation of a story's characters a fun house mirror that distorts our world in such a way as to force us to reckon with the things about our lives we often take for granted a concept perfectly suited for for introspective stories that challenge our understanding of ourselves and our place in the universe across the spiderverse stands shoulder to shoulder with other legendary superhero sequels like Spider-Man 2 X2 and The Dark Knight exceeding the impossibly high expectations set by its predecessor to soar to the very Pinnacle of the genre hell it might just be one of the best films I've quite frankly ever seen period you know what [ __ ] it it is it truly is it's not just a great Spider-Man story it's not just a great comic book movie it's just a [ __ ] great movie Man a sharp Soulful exploration of heroism and Humanity told with passion and visual Flair it's a testament to what Cinema is capable of when talented artists are given the latitude to realize their Vision Without compromise and man we should be so lucky what makes us who we are and is who we are predetermined these two simple but profound questions of identity and Destiny lie at the core of across the spider verse like its predecessor the film is a Spider-Man story about Spider-Man stories what makes the Spider-Man story a Spider-Man story and by extension what makes a Spider-Man a Spider-Man or Spider-Woman or person whatever if the first film concludes that anyone can wear the mask then across the spider-verse seeks to interrogate that conclusion it primarily does this through Miguel O'Hara Spider-Man 2099 the futuristic semi vampiric future iteration of the wall crawler who has assembled a team of spider people from across the Multiverse to travel from Dimension to Dimension containing anomalies caused by incursions from other universes a zealous believer in predestination Miguel is convinced that certain events called Canon events must occur in in order to keep a universe stable for spider people these so-called Canon events are primarily the traumas that Define their story namely the death of an uncle a love interest and a police captain to Miguel these events are an essential part of what makes spider people who they are and must occur to every spider person lest it tear their Universe apart he believes these Interlopers threaten to disrupt the pre-ordained Canon of the universe they invade which has the potential to destabilize the entire Multiverse Miguel isn't a villain per se but he is certainly miles morales's primary antagonist for most of the story he sees himself as the Arbiter of order in the Multiverse and to him miles is the embodiment of the very instability he has dedicated his life to correcting Not only was the collider accident at the climax of into the spider-verse directly responsible for triggering the many multiversal anomalies he and his spider Society be work to contain but Miguel believes that miles is the original anomaly a random kid bitten by a spider from Another Universe a spider that was meant for someone else in Miguel's eyes miles shouldn't exist he is the chaos of the Multiverse incarnate someone whose existence defies the pre-ordained order of the Multiverse an existential threat to the order he preserves and Unworthy of the mantle he has misappropriated from a real Spider-Man in a classic case of Lord and Miller metanus Miguel's position reflects real world contention over miles's claim to the mantle for those of you lucky enough to not be familiar with online Spider-Man discourse and I'm sure there's probably like two of you there has been a long-standing debate surrounding whether or not Miles Morales should even be considered Spider-Man in the same way that Peter Parker is especially during the character's introduction in the comics back in the early 2000s as a Legacy character does says the title truly belonged to him a lot of this discussion is rooted in the racist idea that Spider-Man can't be afro-latino or really anything other than white for that matter or just really any person other than Peter Parker despite Decades of you know alternate Spider-Man that beg to differ but you know it doesn't matter it doesn't matter no he has to be white and he has to be Peter Parker the filmmaker is behind across the spider verse cleverly take this real world attitude and use it to inform the perspective of its antagonists building a story that aims to test miles's sense of self something I appreciated about the original spider-verse was the way it capitalized on The Angst that comes with being a teenager and the sequel is no different doubling down on this aspect in every regard and from a storytelling perspective it's not hard to imagine why because yeah being a teen sucks you're starting to feel like an adult and want to assert your Independence but are still being treated like a a kid by your parents and teachers the world is pulling you in every direction before you've even figured out who you want to be new hormones are making your emotions deep and unpredictable to the point where it feels like no one seems to get you and every problem feels like it's the end of the world it's hell now imagine all of that plus you're also leading a double life as a costume crime fighter it's a recipe for overwhelming anxiety and that anxiety is the lifeblood of the film previous Spider-Man films have flirted with the idea of teenage Spider-Man but seldom commit to it the way that spider verse does Toby Maguire's Peter Parker spent maybe 20 minutes in high school before he was off living as an adult in Manhattan while Andrew Garfield's Peter graduated at the beginning of his second film now granted that film managed to maintain the angsty teen melodrama despite that but not everyone took to it and yeah I mean look Andrew Garfield doesn't look like a high schooler for much of the second movie but when Tom Holland was cast his relative youth promised a more High School focused Spider-Man that would have to balance superhero problems with the angst of being a teen trying to maintain his social status but while homecoming despite my personal lukewarm take on the film mostly delivers on This Promise Hollins run pretty quickly succumbs to the MCU of it all and it falls by the wayside Peter's personal life takes a back seat to the stories involving Tony Stark and the Avengers so much so that by the second film there is basically no delineation between Peter's life and Spider-Man's and that's a shame because a key part of what makes Spider-Man's stories so compelling is his secret identity the private nature of it means Spider-Man is forced to be withholding with the people he loves the most he's only lying to protect them but that lie often serves to create an emotional Rift you can only flake on a date or if someone's birthday party so many times before they stop bothering to invite you beyond the spectacular melodrama of it all this struggle to reconcile both sides of his life makes the character more relatable While most of us can't understand what it would be like to have a literal Alter Ego we can connect with not being able to tell someone we love why we've been letting them down or the fear that comes with sharing your whole self with another person this angst is something that is particularly pronounced when you're a young adult insecurity is about who you are are a huge part of growing up and across the spider verse recognizes this when we pick up with Miles things are a little more complicated than they were at the end of the previous film his commitment to being Spider-Man means he misses classes and family gatherings he's constantly running late and leaving early and has started to drift away from his parents who don't know he he Spider-Man he wants to have it all to excel at school to get into an Ivy League college and make his parents proud but his life as Spider-Man constantly gets in the way the film really makes you feel the weight of this conflict particularly in miles's relationship with his parents Jeff and Rio love their son dearly and want nothing more for him to live the best life he possibly can but they're also struggling with the idea that he's growing up and that their relationship is changing as a result in response to this they helicopter parent him a little bit too much for Miles Spider-Man is an escape from that overbearing pressure but ironically in a lot of ways it just makes the situation worse the more time he spends on Spider-Man stuff the less he has for them which just causes them to tighten their grip on him he could easily resolve this tension by telling them his secret but this comes with its own own set of anxieties miles is afraid that telling his parents might mean he has to stop being Spider-Man all together a big part of their overprotectiveness is driven by a fear that miles is lost and at risk of falling down the wrong path like his Uncle Aaron so it wouldn't be a stretch to imagine them freaking out about the huge risk he's taking in putting a stop to his spider-maning for good of course you can't really ground Spider-Man so it would probably just mean a total breakdown in their relationship a relationship that despite the drama means the world to miles it would also probably push miles more towards that Uncle Aaron's side they're trying to prevent by him giving into his power and the idea that he can use this power however he wants he's not using his great power with great responsibility and that comes by his parents being too overbearing and tightening their grip especially if they know he's Spider-Man in this way the film almost Likens revealing his secret identity to coming out miles wants to be out and proud about who he is to be his whole self with his parents but he's terrified that they won't understand or Worse will reject him for it he fantasizes about his parents embracing his secret and maybe they would after all they're very upfront about the fact that they would love miles no matter what but at the same time he knows he's been lying to them for a long time and is unsure if they'll be able to forgive that dishonesty which is a big through line for most of the major players in this film that fear Amplified by adolescent insecurity about who he wants to be is what's holding him back from telling the truth keeping him in the superhero closet as it were and the longer he puts it off the worse the anxiety gets the worse his relationship with his parents gets as far as miles is concerned it's a terrible hatch 22 at their core Spider-Man stories are soap operas with spandex grandiose sweeping melodramas about interpersonal relationships and across the spider verse fully Embraces this in a way other Spider-Man movies including his predecessor haven't in a very long time it's so refreshing to be engaged in the lives of these characters Beyond just the thrill of the escapism the melodrama of it all comes to a head when Gwen suddenly reappears in his life having been sent to miles of Dimension by Miguel and the spider Society to investigate an anomaly miles has spent the last few years longing for people who can understand what he's going through his spider friends and in particular Gwen who he has a not very subtle crush on so Gwen's arrival only further complicates miles is already uneven priorities it's not a particularly straightforward situation for Gwen either while across the spider-verse is very much Miles Morales story Gwen is more of a co-lead this time around I'd also argue it's kind of her story given how she opens and closes the film which fills us in on the gaps in Gwen's story that were only ever alluded to previously if you thought the teen drama of miles's life was intense oh my God Gwen is all of that times a thousand like miles Gwen is struggling to maintain meaningful connections with those in her life she can't find friends who understand her and she won't try to let anyone in in her relationship with her father Captain Stacy has become fraught since the death of Gwen's best friend Peter Parker Captain Stacy blames Spider-Woman for his death not realizing that Peter had turned himself into the lizard after years of bullying racked with guilt over the tragedy and yearning for the brief moments of companionship she had felt while spending time with Miles and her spider friends Gwen jumps from band into band trying to find another group she can belong to but every band she tries doesn't work out because of her inability to open up but even if Gwen the character isn't willing to open up at this point her pastel watercolor World betrays her emotional instability serving as a personalized mood ring with colors constantly bleeding together fading away or intensifying to reflect the tone and emotions of any given situation when Miguel's spider team shows up to contain a vulture From Another Universe an incredible Da Vinci looking [ __ ] that continues to amplify the creativity on display Gwen sees an opportunity to finally be with people she can relate to a desire that has compounded when she's forced to reveal her identity to her father who doesn't take it well in a stunningly heartbreaking moment Gwen tries to reason with her father begging him not to jump to conclusions to not be a cop and be her dad but his anger over the death of Peter and his duty as a police officer overcomes him and in a moment of pure Instinct he raises his gun at his daughter in self-defense and continues serving her her Miranda rights ultimately shattering any trust left between them Gwen's story is the Ghost of Christmas future that Miles fears the worst case scenario in which coming out to his parents about his secret identity destroys their relationship this prologue is almost hard to watch in how gut-wrenching it is but it instantly made Gwen my favorite character in the film it's an insanely effective tone Setter that conveys the gravity of the themes being explored and the maturity with which they are she is such a human character seemingly aware that her refusal to let people in is what is pushing them away yet unwilling to let her guard down in moments like this Crystal lies that attitude why would she open up when opening up only ever leads to heartbreak true to her teenage angst Gwen's solution to this problem is to run away from home joining the spider Society a group of people she thinks understand her and will Embrace her and her individuality with open arms as a way to avoid having to confront the mess her interpersonal life has become at the beginning of the film Gwen tells her bandmates that she didn't join a band to talk about her feelings and that self-imposed isolation follows her into the spider-verse even surrounded by the people she thinks will understand her she's still keeping secrets whether it be from Miguel and Jessica Drew and even miles years of keeping her identity bottled up have closed her off to the possibility of genuine intimacy why bother talking when no one understands anyway but in doing so she denies herself the opportunity to be understood her review to let people in is self-defeating sabotaging her relationship with Miles Jessica Miguel and her Peter despite this Gwen's relationship with miles is the beating hearts of the film playing out like a classic teen romance there is a Charming innocence to their dynamic they both clearly like one another intensely but for one reason or another they won't let themselves admit it well at least Gwen won't I mean miles thinks he's slick but we all know that kid is crushing hard yet they can't stop being drawn to each other reconnecting over a flirty freeing swing through Brooklyn is a brief respite from the pressure of their real lives you get the sense they feel truly alive when they are together even if they realize it's only a fleeting moment it's only once Gwen shows up that we get a glimpse of miles's authentic self uninhibited by the rest of the world it's the moment he's been waiting for and thought he'd never get again but there's still a distance there on Gwen's part when miles take takes Gwen to his thinking spot to hang out literally you almost get the sense that Gwen wants to enjoy this moment in a vacuum the way miles is but that the gravity of her deception is weighing heavily on her visually conveyed by the upside perspective she teases him with the thought of running away together but is quick to backpedal deep down she realizes that what she knows about him is doomed to complicate their relationship the same way her secret identity broke her relationships with her dad or Peter so as she always does she bottles it up thinking it'll prevent the same thing happening with Miles She realizes that either way she can't have the relationship with him that she wants and even kind of points to Canon as a reason why Spider-Man and Gwen Stacy can never be together miles optimistically says well there's a first time for everything because he believes that anything is possible and that's the less and he eventually imparts on to Gwen but after everything that she's lost she'd just rather hang on to that potential than willingly compromise it if teen romances feel like the be-all and all of the world across the spider-verse literalizes that feeling for Gwen and miles and ultimately things don't start getting better for Gwen until she finally opens up to both miles and her father through Gwen and Captain Stacy's relationship one of the film's major themes is expressed most clearly namely that of control and autonomy the central questions the film asks what makes us who we are and is who we are predetermined are fundamentally questions of control are we in control of who we are as human beings we want to be in control of Our Lives of who we are in the universe but at the same time the uncertainty that implies is horrifying if we're in control then anything could go wrong for parents this existential terror is even more horrifying because it means surrendering the person you love most your child that little boy you've always looked after and cared for to random chance the natural response is to try and defy that disorder and exert control we see that with Captain Stacy who dedicates his life to hunting down Spider Woman after he believes she's taken Gwen's only friend from her he wants to make things right but when he's confronted with the reality that the situation isn't so simple that he can't just exert control to make the problem go away he cracks Miles parents are going through a similar struggle as well when miles was a kid they had total control over him they could nurture him guide him and keep him safe prevent him from making the same mistakes they perhaps did or saw a relative did but now he's a young adult he wants to break free spread his wings man as Spider-Man not so subtly explains to Jeff they want to believe he'll be all right but they also can't help but see his distance from them as a sign they're losing him completely so they tighten their grip even though it just pushes him away further this is as much a coming-of-age story for parents as it is for the teens here deep down they know what they need to do but much like the Journey miles went on in the first film it's a leap of faith not only faith in their son but faith in the job they've done raising him in perhaps the most emotionally raw scene in the entire film Rio tries to express her concerns to Miles She Wants to let him go out into the world and find himself but she's worried the world won't look out for him the way she and Jeff do the world can be so unfair and unlike home it doesn't have his best interests at heart she doesn't want to see it tear him down because she knows he deserves to be be there as much as anyone else but despite this in an act of pure selflessness Rio does the brave thing and stops trying to control miles giving him her blessing to go out into the world after Gwen and while this decision leads miles to jump headfirst into the Multiverse where he's judged and discarded by Miguel and his peers it's only through this experience that miles can finally learn for himself what his parents have been telling him his entire life that no one gets to tell him who he is and what he's capable of by placing her trust in miles Rio risks losing her son but she also gives him the opportunity to mature into a person and prove to himself that he can withstand the pressures of the world likewise Gwen's disappearance forces Captain Stacy to reassess his priorities if trying to control Gwen even with the best of intent means never getting to see her again it's not worth it and as the adults in the relationship it's his responsibility to take the first step in repairing the Damage Done this paternalistic attitude is also what drives Miguel's Crusade having transplanted himself in Another Universe in a desperate attempt to have a family only to lose them and their world to the chaos of the Multiverse Miguel wants to impose order he becomes the overprotective father of the Multiverse but to do that he needs to make sense of his suffering if the Multiverse is something to be tamed then surely everything must have a meaning even suffering thus the Canon events the filmmakers kind of show their hand a little by calling these fixed and defining events Canon rather than evoking a cosmic force of nature the name recalls nerdy pedantry about what counts and what doesn't it's a Sly linked to the audience that when Miguel says that Canon events all of which just so happen to be incredibly traumatic events are immutable he's full of [ __ ] it's clearly a trauma response Miguel and the other spider people need to believe that moments like Uncle Ben's death were essential and necessary in defining who they are because the alternative is that life can be cruel for no reason sometimes and that's a bitter pill to swallow in a meta sense the film is also commenting on our own fixation on Spider-Man's suffering playing like the biggest sub tweet of all time Miguel's position reflects the attitude of a lot of fans who believe Spider-Man is defined by his trauma and that a Spider-Man with no trauma is no Spider-Man at all we saw this attitude most prominently in the response to Tom Holland's iteration who notably lacks a lot of the suffering of previous incarnations he makes little to no mention of Uncle Ben has no Gwen Stacy is PALS with a billionaire and as a result lives quite a comfortable life with Aunt May now some of that comfortability was taken a bit too far in my opinion namely his receptiveness to Stark since his core beliefs as a person go against a lot of what the character stands for and I don't know just being allergic to mentioning Uncle Ben feels a bit weird but I digress for a lot of the fans this made Holland Spider-Man feel illegitimate how can you be Spider-Man if you aren't suffering the backlash to this interpretation was so pronounced that by the final film in his Trilogy the creative team deliberately put Hollins Peter through the [ __ ] ringer taking away his comfortable life his aunt his friends and his girlfriend like some kind of cosmic Penance a correction of the Canon if you will across the spider-verse questions this mentality why do we need Spider-Man to suffer is suffering all Spider-Man is in essence Miguel and the spider Society or us the audience asking miles to suffer to prove his legitimacy to maintain the Canon but miles rejects this notion he knows that predestined trauma isn't what makes a spider person who they are and he knows the Canon is [ __ ] because he himself proves it as he says earlier in the film having a story to fit someone's stereotype so it's easier to accept that person is gross trauma isn't what makes a Spider-Man it's their perseverance whether it's persevering through a tragedy or doing everything in their power to prevent one miles's refusal to accept the world view that Miguel clings to only further affirms his belief that miles is not a legitimate Spider-Man but his dirty little secret is that his aggression towards miles is driven more by self-loathing miles embodies everything Gail hates about himself as much as he tries to convince himself into others that miles is the original anomaly the truth is the Miguel is in fact the original anomaly while we don't know for sure what his origins in the film are just yet if it's anything like his origin in the comics it actively defies his position on Canon Miguel was not bitten by a radioactive spider nor did he lose a police captain or an uncle miles reminds Miguel that he's full of [ __ ] A self-righteous hypocrite and for that reason alone he needs to remove him from the situation this rivalry was a really clever way to frame this relationship given the real world origins of these characters in a lot of ways miles stands on the shoulders of Miguel a mixed race heir to Spider-Man but where Miguel is relegated to an offshoot the cyberpunk Spider-Man Miles gets to be the real deal Spider-Man with no caveats so it was a stroke of Genius to incorporate that context into the story itself translating Miguel's role as a precursor to miles into a paternal relationship in the film Miguel is miles's spider daddy attempting to exert his authority over miles with a characteristically 90 cents of self-importance because Spider-Man 2099 is like one of the most 90s things ever Miguel is an extension of the authority figures in miles's real life his parents or his guidance counselor trying to dictate how he should live his life and what his story needs to be Miguel's insistence that every spider person must adhere to the Canon is fundamentally no different from miles's guidance counselor gleefully telling him to fabricate a sob story for his college application because it's what he needs to do to get into a top school but miles just can't buy into it his parents haven't instilled in him a sense of self that simply won't allow him to buckle under the expectations of others he wants to do his own thing and he will but if Miguel exists on one end of the spectrum clinging to order and control to ease his suffering then at the other end is the spot a Malignant Force of nature inflicting his suffering on the world every World a victim of the collider accident miles caused at the end of into the spider-verse the spot has lost everything he's become a literal void alone broken and empty at first he tries to fill his holes with a new identity that of Spider-Man's arch nemesis but he's treated like a joke villain of the week so in retaliation he sets his sights on inflicting his emptiness on others the spot is The Logical conclusion of Miguel's mentality if everything awful that has happened to you was meant to happen to you then what's the point in ever trying to be good why not brace the void and give in to nihilism for the spot personal tragedy is an invitation to disassociate from the consequences of your actions and act selfishly and destructively we see this idea paralleled in Earth 42 when miles confronts an alternate version of himself who in a world without his father or a Spider-Man has become the prowler like the spot this miles has seemingly embraced fatalism his father wasn't there to guide him so he's taken after his uncle Aaron and chosen the easy path the path of self-gratification when our miles tries to reason with his shadowy self you get the sense he is completely disassociating in a manner similar to The Spot coldly telling miles that his father dying isn't his concern even though in reality our miles's father is just another version of his but he takes no solace in this fact because helping our miles save his world would not make up for his own suffering if anything it just serves to taunt him further he's the unluckiest version of himself the struggle against the pull of apathy and nihilism also informs the film's exploration of Spider-Man's relationship to Law and Order like most Superheroes Spider-Man has traditionally embodied the idea that lawfulness and virtue go hand in hand he's a crime fighter after all his whole shtick is upholding the law but as a vigilante he also operates outside of the law which directly contradicts his principle if law equals virtue and Spider-Man is virtuous then why does he work outside the law is that not a contradiction Miguel's spider Society personifies this tension turning the concept of spider-maning into a literal police force the cannon cops miles doesn't question this at first because he's just excited to be among peers but he quickly becomes uneasy when Miguel chastises him for saving inspect Dr Singh's life in mumbatin Miles knows this was the morally correct thing to do but Miguel's insistence that it was wrong because it violated the rules of Canon lays bare the contraction at the heart of the whole Endeavor if protecting order takes precedence over doing the morally right thing then what's the point of Spider-Man at all this confrontation forces miles to contend with what Spider-Man means to him and to us not only does a Spider-Man persevere but he fights for what's right even if it means breaking rules to do it he doesn't just stand by and let something horrible happen just because everyone thinks it's what's supposed to happen even if the everyone in question is other spider people miles believes that the spider Society should be the people saving the world from What Might Have Been it's this rebellious spirit that draws Hobie Brown spy fighter Punk to Miles almost instantly it would have been real easy to turn Hobie into nothing more than a cool aesthetic and an easy punch line he's cockney's Spider-Man with a mohawk miles is competition for Gwen's heart but the filmmakers don't do that instead they make him the MVP of the entire [ __ ] film well I mean outside of Gwen but you get it it's moral Center sure they still throw a few Jabs of his tendency to view everything through an anti-establishment lens foreign capitalism but nevertheless he is the only character in the film who gets it from the very start blazing a trail for both miles and Gwen to eventually follow Hobie pieces out of the uncomfortably authoritarian spider Society helping miles escape on his way out the door and setting Gwen up with a bootleg portal watch for when she's ready to join the good fight he's the embodiment of Spider-Man's punk rock Spirit Miguel may be right that Miles wasn't supposed to become Spider-Man but Hobie is there to remind us that Spider-Man has never been confined by rigid ideas like Fates or destiny nor does he impose order on the world around him becoming Spider-Man is random chance a roll of the dice a freak accident and imposing order on that is futile moreover what defines Spider-Man is what he does in response to the chaotic happenstance of his origin he chooses to do the right thing and help other others he chooses to use his great power with great responsibility it's an act of righteous Rebellion that Miles embodies the film's rejection of authority is made explicit and literal in Captain Stacy's Arc much like miles Hobie and Gwen Captain Stacy is caught between the law and what he knows is right as a police officer it's his job to hunt down Spiderwoman because she exists outside the parameters of the law he serves to uphold but as a father he knows his daughter is a moral person and that ultimately she is breaking the law to do good therefore the film argues that the only justifiable resolution to this tension is to side with what is right even if it means turning your back on the law Captain Stacy chooses to resign from the police force to save his relationship with his daughter while miles and Gwen turn their backs on the spiders Society so that they can pursue real Justice sometimes the only way to do the right thing in a broken system is to leave it entirely and start your own band across the spiderverse is a film as anarchic as the Multiverse it depicts and like its Central characters it resists being put in a box by Framing the concept of Canon as a restrictive ideology that robs spider people of their agency the film makes a far more profound point about art itself deferring to Canon and the expectations that come part and parcel with it reduces stories to a checklist of Beats that need to be met restricting storytellers and suffocating creativity like miles and Hobie and Gwen and Captain Stacy the film says [ __ ] all that man what's the point of an endless Multiverse if everyone has to play the same tune we'll do our own thing every element of of this film is a celebration of the Limitless potential of art when artists give themselves permission to throw away the rules and play freely in a world where almost every Multiverse story has felt specifically designed to check a series of boxes and score Cheap Thrills across the spider-verse Embraces the inherent chaos of the concept to illustrate the rebellious essence of its Central character if into the spider-verse changed the game across the spider-verse throws away the rules and we're all the better for it hahaha [Music] foreign

Channel: FilmSpeak

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Id: lHtX4t1ECVw

Length: 40min 42sec (2442 seconds)

Published: Thu Jun 15 2023