Listen now | Today’s movie is Spider-man: Into the Spider-Verse directed by Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey, and Rodney Rothman. A lot has been said about the impressive visual style of this movie, so in today’s podcast we don’t talk too much about that. We dive into the screenplay, and why we feel its problems are representative of the story problems that plague so many modern movies.
I enjoyed this movie when it came out, and I was initially surprised to hear that you had such a negative opinion, but as you described the plot and ostensible themes, I realized that I had completely forgotten almost everything you brought up. I think this movie gets a lot of mileage from its premise and aesthetics, but it was interesting to realize how thoroughly the actual story and themes failed to make an impression.
Apr 1, 2023·edited Apr 1, 2023Liked by Casey Muratori, Anna Rettberg
There's a single sequence in this movie that serves as a great representation of it as a whole. In the climax fight, Miles, Gwen, and Peter are standing together on top of the reactor thing, and Miles attaches himself to a piece of flying debris, jumps off of it, narrowly dives between two buildings, does a cool swing, and then ends up right behind where he started next to Gwen and Peter again. The epitome of looking cool but serving no purpose.
Also, the uncle is played by Mahershala Ali from Moonlight/Green Book/etc, so he was already a Oscar winner and famous actor by the time the movie came out. A lot of other fairly big actors in the cast as well, except for Miles as the main character.
Ahhhh, thank you for pointing that out! That explains it. I didn't know the actors in Moonlight - at the time, I recognized the playwright (I'd seen "The Brothers Size" on stage before), but I didn't recognize any of the actors so I didn't recognize Ali's name in the Spiderman credits. He was absolutely fantastic in Moonlight, but I didn't know it was the same person. I just responded to the performance from the uncle in Spiderman and could just tell that the actor was very good...
I guess he sort-of has been doing a bunch of things since Moonlight although not much that I've seen. I'm surprised he hasn't been the lead in more things, but I also didn't see "Green Book" which was Oscar-nominated and all that, so I suppose he has had another star turn and I just missed it.
Green Book is pretty bad, but he was great in it. But I would also have expected a bit more big leading roles post Moonlight from an actor as good as him.
I hadn't really thought about it since Moonlight, but now (accidentally) noticing his excellent performance in the minor Spiderman role, I am also wondering why I'm not seeing him star in more things. Of course I never really understand Hollywood so, maybe it makes sense if you know the people / system / whatever. But just from an outsiders perspective, it is weird.
I remember the 2002 Spider Man film w/ Tobey Maguire being my first experience of seeing a film that was getting insanely positive reviews, and yet thinking to myself: "This is incoherent, why do people like this?"
At the time I thought the whole superhero movie genre would surely die, or have to get better, because that movie was awful, and surely people will recognize that.
Fast forward to 2023, and it seems clear that we've learned nothing!
I enjoyed this movie when it came out, and I was initially surprised to hear that you had such a negative opinion, but as you described the plot and ostensible themes, I realized that I had completely forgotten almost everything you brought up. I think this movie gets a lot of mileage from its premise and aesthetics, but it was interesting to realize how thoroughly the actual story and themes failed to make an impression.
There's a single sequence in this movie that serves as a great representation of it as a whole. In the climax fight, Miles, Gwen, and Peter are standing together on top of the reactor thing, and Miles attaches himself to a piece of flying debris, jumps off of it, narrowly dives between two buildings, does a cool swing, and then ends up right behind where he started next to Gwen and Peter again. The epitome of looking cool but serving no purpose.
Also, the uncle is played by Mahershala Ali from Moonlight/Green Book/etc, so he was already a Oscar winner and famous actor by the time the movie came out. A lot of other fairly big actors in the cast as well, except for Miles as the main character.
Ahhhh, thank you for pointing that out! That explains it. I didn't know the actors in Moonlight - at the time, I recognized the playwright (I'd seen "The Brothers Size" on stage before), but I didn't recognize any of the actors so I didn't recognize Ali's name in the Spiderman credits. He was absolutely fantastic in Moonlight, but I didn't know it was the same person. I just responded to the performance from the uncle in Spiderman and could just tell that the actor was very good...
I guess he sort-of has been doing a bunch of things since Moonlight although not much that I've seen. I'm surprised he hasn't been the lead in more things, but I also didn't see "Green Book" which was Oscar-nominated and all that, so I suppose he has had another star turn and I just missed it.
- Casey
Green Book is pretty bad, but he was great in it. But I would also have expected a bit more big leading roles post Moonlight from an actor as good as him.
I hadn't really thought about it since Moonlight, but now (accidentally) noticing his excellent performance in the minor Spiderman role, I am also wondering why I'm not seeing him star in more things. Of course I never really understand Hollywood so, maybe it makes sense if you know the people / system / whatever. But just from an outsiders perspective, it is weird.
- Casey
I remember the 2002 Spider Man film w/ Tobey Maguire being my first experience of seeing a film that was getting insanely positive reviews, and yet thinking to myself: "This is incoherent, why do people like this?"
At the time I thought the whole superhero movie genre would surely die, or have to get better, because that movie was awful, and surely people will recognize that.
Fast forward to 2023, and it seems clear that we've learned nothing!