I said the other day how much I loved this movie, but I didn't really go into it. Saw it for the second time today, so I'm going to go into it now. Here is a bunch of what I loved about it:

  • First and foremost, Miles Morales had a personality for the first time! In Bendis's run, he was completely devoid of personality, was too perfect, and gave us no emotional attachment. This Miles wasn't cocky at all, but he had a little bit of swagger. He was also a bit naive, and you felt it when he was going through the training process.
  • Peter Parker was awesome. He was adept, just a bit out of shape, but still good at what he does. His relationship with Miles was pitch-perfect. Tired, but willing to help him out and it didn't take him long to get right into it.
  • I LOVE the animation! They made the movie into a comic book in every good possible way. The thought boxes, thought balloons, the occasional sound affects. I liked the way they broke the screen into a few panels, and they didn't overuse it.
  • They used all of the comic book and movie histories, including comic creators' names on the covers of the comics.
  • The Peter Parker of Miles Morales's home dimension was quite possibly actually his clone, Ben Reilly.
  • The Kingpin flashbacks where the stills and the animation looked like it was drawn by Bill Seinkeiwicz was so so so well done.
  • The animation occasionally went from computer animation to looking hand-drawn. Almost all of the movie had dot patterns. Sometimes it ranged from very subtle to looking like it was done by Roy Lichtenstein.
  • This did things that could not have been done with live-action (the hyperkinetic movement of the characters) and that couldn't work in a comic book (well, the same hyperkinetic movement).
  • The music was perfect for a movie about teenagers.

There was really nothing I didn't like about this movie, but I'm sure I've missed some of the things I loved about it. Has anyone else seen it?

You need to be a member of Captain Comics to add comments!

Join Captain Comics

Votes: 0
Email me when people reply –

Replies

  • Oh, and I also loved:

    • The Spidey-sense lines that would appear around the characters' heads when it was occurring.
    • The scene where Miles is webbed-up, and his dad comes to visit him. Dad thinks his son is still shutting him out, but Miles wants nothing more than to tell his dad he loves him. It was so masterfully done.
    • I should mention that Miles's father comes off far more likeable here than he did in the comic books. They didn't even need to show any of the previous interaction between him and his brother in order to create a strong bond between them.
    • The relationship between Miles and his uncle is SO Spider-Man. I know this came from the comics, but I felt it here more than ever.
    • Watching Spider-Ham take down the Scorpion was awesome. So was Scorpion's "*Translated from Spanish" box.
    • I noticed the different shapes of the different Spider-Men (and women) here. Clearly a conscious choice, but it was wonderful to see them in silhouette, slinging around each other, and as a cluster.
  • I keep remembering more about this movie that I love...

    • When asked if her friends call her Doc Ock, she replies that her friends call her 'Liv', but her enemies call her Doc Ock. Then, when she appears in Aunt May's house, Aunt May says, "Oh, Liv!" This indicates that they have a past relationship, much like Aunt May and Otto Octavius.
    • Spider-Gwen is perfect. I love that she's a dancer, which makes her move more like a dancer would.
    • I loved how this movie transcended the no-less important message of "With great power comes great responsibility." I don't think it's ever said outright. The important messages from this movie are "You're never ready. It's a leap of faith," and "Spider-Man could be anyone. Even you. If you didn't know that before, I hope you do now." Who knew there could be two more messages every bit as powerful as the original?
  • My cousin in California texted coming out of the theater that I had to see this movie. It appeasr to be pretty awesome. Will see it soon!

  • Good, because I can't wait to talk about it to someone on here!

    Captain Comics said:

    My cousin in California texted coming out of the theater that I had to see this movie. It appeasr to be pretty awesome. Will see it soon!

  • I noted over on the "Movies I Have Seen Lately" thread that we saw several in a recent stretch, including Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, and was entreated to discuss it here. 

    • I loved it. A few minutes in, I almost thought I was watching the perfect superhero movie. (I thought better of that before it was over, but not because I didn't like it. I still love it.) I was enraptured by the visual style. It was fresh and unique, with bright colors like a good comic and a way of making the foreground figures sharp and background figures a bit blurry, so your eye focuses on what is the center of the action.
    • I liked its vision of New York. Although one thing that yanked me out of the story: Miles' dad is in the New York Police Department, which for some odd reason is called "PDNY." Okay, fine. But his uniform and shield did not look like NYPD gear, a look anybody would know who watches Blue Bloods or Law & Order all the time. I get that in movies you don't always want to be exact and opt to make things look similar but not the same -- like Miles's dad's cop car, which had livery like NYPD's cars. It's a little thing, but it's the kind of thing that bugs me.
    • I didn't read the Spider-Verse crossover that this movie must have been based on, but I have read several of the Ultimates Spider-Man stories that this movie also must have drawn from. As such, I loved seeing this rendition of Miles Morales. The whole reason Miles Morales even exists was to give modern viewers point-of-view character in a coming-of-age story, one that Peter Parker can no longer be with 50-plus years of continuity behind him. Washington Post reporter David Betancourt spoke to that in this piece, "Miles Morales Is a Spider-Man Who’s Biracial Like Me. So Why Wasn’...
    • I loved the action. I loved that the movie embraced that it's a comic-book movie. The DC movies are so sour because most of them like to pretend they aren't, and their creators haven't figured out that comic-book movies still can deal with weighty themes, like loss and longing and grief.
    • I thought it was a bit weird -- no, a lot weird -- for the Kingpin to be the catalyst for this story, willing to destroy all time and space just to get his beloved Vanessa and son Richard back. But that's love, or obsession.
    • (Nice nod to Amazing Spider-Man #197, which I have read. In it, the Kingpin gets an ultimatum from Vanessa to give up his life of crime in 24 hours, or she leaves. So he spend most of the day divesting from his holdings and detangling from his criminal enterprises. He finds he has six hours left, and intends to spend every second of it beating the snot out of Spider-Man. In the comic, Vanessa walks in at the end of those six hours and asks Are you coming? This and only this stays his hand from striking the killing blow.
    • I was kind of trepidatious to learn that Jake Johnson was Peter Parker; he played my least-favorite character on New Girl. But he was fine here as the world-weary, heartbroken Spider-Man.
    • I agree that the moment between Miles and his dad on opposite sides of the door was well-done. 
    • One thing I don't get: How is Miles's last name "Morales" if his mother is the parent who is Latinx?
    • I liked Aunt May being the Alfred character with the secret underground lair full of equipment and alternate costumes.
    • I liked Miles's growth as a character, from bumbling awkward teen -- literally getting stuck to Spider-Gwen! -- to confident hero.
    • There's probably more, but it has been a couple weeks since I've seen it. 
    • So why did I stop thinking this was the perfect superhero movie? Well, as usual, I thought it was about a half-hour too long. I'd have cut back some of the grand cataclysm toward the end when all reality was falling apart.
  • So glad you loved this movie too. This was easily my favorite comic book movie of 2018. I cannot wait to own it. Just...so good in every possible way.

    The PDNY thing did strike me as odd too.

    As for Miles's last name, I have always assumed that for some reason he took his mom's last name? That would be a question for Bendis!

  • Saw it a few weeks ago.  A wonderful movie.  A wonderful "comic book."  I suspect I'll need to see it again just to catch everything I missed the first time through.  

    At first the PDNY thing struck me as odd and it did take me out of the movie, but then it drove home that this is an alternate reality and some things are just different.  But it was jarring, just as the alternate Coca-Cola logo was, and to audience not steeped in "multiversal" thinking it may have needed to be toned down a bit and the differences subtler.  However, we are really reaching to find a nit to pick; the movie was a lot of fun.

  • photo target.gif My thoughts exactly. So glad you liked it!

    Dave Palmer said:

    However, we are really reaching to find a nit to pick; the movie was a lot of fun.

  • I just saw this last night, and loved it so much. And the look of it! It's the most visually fresh -- in some places, beautiful -- animated film I've seen, at least among mainstream releases. In sheer terms of visual inventiveness, this outplays any other super-hero movie in the theaters. Hopefully it'll be taken as a challenge for everyone else to up their game.

    Sensei, I hope you don't mind, but I'm also going to move this discussion to Movies and TV, instead of comics. That might make it a little easier for people to find it in the future. 

  • No problem at all, Rob. Sorry about that! I was clearly pretty eager to post about it, as I'm sure you understand having seen it now.

    Rob Staeger (Grodd Mod) said:

    Sensei, I hope you don't mind, but I'm also going to move this discussion to Movies and TV, instead of comics. That might make it a little easier for people to find it in the future. 

This reply was deleted.