Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse makes Spider-Man spectacular again

Miles Morales (Shameik Moore) in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. Image courtesy Sony Pictures Animation.

There is always just a hint, if not more, of hyperbole when using descriptors like “best” or “worst”. So when I write that Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse is the best Spider-Man movie, it comes with some exaggeration to go along with some recency bias. In this case though, there is a more than a skosh of sincerity to the exclamation, as Into the Spider-Verse is very often brilliant in all definitions of that word. It's gloriously animated with a great cast and overflowing with heart and humor. Whether it's the best of the Spider-Man films is a fair statement to debate – Spider-Man 2 and Homecoming are both pretty great – but it's far more difficult to argue against this film's overarching excellence.

Into the Spider-Verse focuses on middle school prodigy Miles Morales (voiced by Shameik Moore), who opens the film transitioning awkwardly into life in private school. Everything changes though once he gets bit by a radioactive spider while hanging with his Uncle Aaron (Mahershala Ali), which results in some spider-related physical changes. Events get even stranger with the arrival of another Spider-Man, a 30-something Peter Parker (Jake Johnson), as well as Gwen Stacy, also known as Spider-Gwen (Hailee Steinfeld). They're pulled into Miles' universe due to experiments being done at the behest of mob boss Wilson Fisk (Liev Schreiber) and Doc Ock (Kathryn Hahn), who are exploring multiple universes to find other versions of Fisk's family. They are soon joined by more spider beings – Spider-Ham (John Mulaney), Peni Parker (Kimiko Glenn) and Spider-Man Noir (Nicolas Cage) – who need to return to their respective universes before they glitch out of reality. Meanwhile, Miles struggles to control his powers and meet the high expectations set by his father (Brian Tyree Henry).

So, yes, this is a superhero origin story. Even though this Spider-Man is relatively new – not debuting in comics until 2011 – the basics of the origin don't very too much from Peter Parker's. Yet in this case the familiarity with the structure is actually a strength, because it hammers down Into the Spider-Verse's theme of the universality of the human experience. Even removing the cross-dimensional spider bite that gives him his powers, Miles is going through a difficult time in his life, transitioning from the neighborhood he's grown up in to a wicked competitive environment. The new powers exacerbate the issue at first, but ultimately result in Miles finding himself. In his journey to discover who he is, Miles is the first spider entity to not go through it alone. The universe, or in this case the multiverse, is filled with the unexpected, and it's comforting to know there's someone out there who can empathize honestly.

Miles has his spider family to support his growth as a hero, but they exist in Into the Spider-Verse to check some of his worst impulses as well. The film contrasts how Miles, Peter, Gwen and the rest of the spider club process unexpected familial loss to Wilson Fisk. Fisk is a mountain of rage, fueled by an obsession to bring his family back to him no matter the cost to his wallet or to the very structure of reality. To paraphrase a poem, Wilson Fisk is filled with passionate intensity, driven not by the love of his family but by anger, revenge, and denial. For the arachnids, the death of a loved one is an occasion for mourning and introspection; they understand why life matters and devote their powers to making it better. Fisk wants to pretend his actions didn't result in his family's demise without learning from his mistakes. The film does a wonderful job of showing the contrast, allowing viewers to understand the differences without directly pointing out why one side is good and one side is bad.

 

Into the Spider-Verse finds a lot of interesting, fresh material from a well-trod story because it took the origin story as an opportunity to reinvent characters. It's a sign of terrific writing on the part of Phil Lord, as it shows he knows both who the characters are and what the characters can be. Lord – known for his work with Christopher Miller – wrings a lot out of Miles' struggles as a teen and as a new student, as well as the loneliness of Gwen and the misery of Peter's life. It's easy to relate to Miles, Peter, Gwen, and to a degree Wilson Fisk because their struggles are represented as human. The animation, action, sharp dialog, and voice acting make Into the Spider-Verse great, but it's that little touch of humanity in a superhero world that makes this movie spectacular.

Review: Four and a half out of Five Stars

Click here to see the trailer.

Rating: PG

Run time: 117 minutes

Genre: Animated

tl;dr

What Worked: Animation, Voice actors, origin story

What Fell Short: A tad long

What To Watch As Well: Spider-Man 2, Spider-Man: Homecoming, Spider-Man (1990s animated series)

Mummy reboot offers few redeeming qualities

Sofia Boutella as the eponymous Mummy in The Mummy. Image courtesy Universal Pictures.

Any sense of remarkable for the Tom Cruise starring iteration of The Mummy comes from how bad the movie is. Although it isn’t quite interesting enough to qualify as a trainwreck, it is a great example of how bad the screenwriting by committee method can get. There are six people who have their names attached to this thing, and it’s difficult to find areas where more than two of them agreed on a plot point or piece of dialog. The lack of cohesion is stunning and somewhat impressive in how it results in an otherwise unimpressive movie.

The messiness The Mummy exhibits starts with a random text opening quote followed by uninspired voiceover courtesy of a bored Russell Crowe. Then the movie starts in England circa 1127 A.D., then bounces back to present day England, then flashes back yet again to ancient Egypt before stopping for a while in the Middle East in modern times again. The writers in effect created four separate openings to this film, three of would be OK on their own but none of which work in unison with the others. What remains is a good indicator the movie lacks a single direction, a tone it wants to follow and an identity worthy of its predecessors.

What, then, is The Mummy supposed to be? Previous adaptations have worked as a horror film, using the supernatural aspects of the ancient evil to invoke terror. But no one involved in this version seems interested in having this movie be truly scary, and the trace elements of horror that sneak into this movie are subpar. The Mummy character has background comedies tracing back to the days of Abbott and Costello, and this movie does work best using the comedic elements. The writers mine solid material from the moderate silliness of the monster, with one scene involving Cruise, the monster (Sofia Boutella), a few henchman and an awkward entrance by Cruise's love interest (Annabelle Wallis) working as an entertaining example of awkward comedy. Appropriately enough the filmmakers abandon the intentional humor in the middle of the second act, leaving the one enjoyable part of this movie behind.

So what's left is an action-adventure movie, not too far off from the 1999 version, albeit with a slightly darker tone. Except the 2017 Mummy isn't particularly good as an action-adventure flick. The surprisingly sparse action sequences have little vigor and excitement to keep the viewer interested in the fates of Cruise and the far too young for him love interest Wallis. The adventure is limited to England and the early sojourn to the Middle East, making it a less than enthralling globe trotting journey. It's difficult to spend more than $125 million on a movie and come out with something this blasé.

The Mummy becomes remarkably stupid toward the end of the second act with the proper introduction of Crowe's character, the mysterious leader of a secret organization, Dr. Henry Jekyll. That's Henry Jekyll of Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde fame. The reveal is as dumb as it sounds, and the scenario only gets worse when Crowe hams it up when he inevitably transforms into Mr. Hyde. It feels like one of the writers or a few people from Universal decided threw that in there to kick off the Universal monster movie universe, and it comes across as awkwardly as it sounds. It also makes little sense to have a man as volatile as Henry Jekyll be in charge of any secret organization, but that's one of the lesser problems this movie faces.

If there's any single potentially interesting aspect to The Mummy, it's an ending that isn't as saccharine and easy as it could've been. A real sense of tragedy sneaks in for the final few moments that makes sense despite all of the messiness beforehand. But, again, this movie is dumb. It's not smart enough to end at the right time, favoring an ending with even more asinine voiceover and a similarly useless closing scene with Cruise and resurrected co-star Jake Johnson. The Mummy is the type of movie that not only isn't able to do anything right, but doubles down on doing the exact wrong thing.

Review: One and a half out of Five Stars

Click here to see the trailer.

Rating: PG-13

Run time: 110 minutes

Genre: Action

Ask Away

Target audience: Tom Cruise followers and viewers who want to see the start of a monster universe.

Take the whole family?: This'll probably be a little intimidating for kids younger than 8.

Theater or Netflix?: Once again, stay at home and let it come to you.

Is the film sexist?: It is with its treatment of Sofia Boutella's character. Having the monster as a woman is fine and kind of cool, but the filmmakers portray her as a Jezebel creating mayhem for the men around her. That the filmmakers literally bind her at one point is troublesome for a whole host of reasons as well.

Watch this instead?: The 1999 Mummy with Brendan Frasier and Rachel Weisz isn't great, but the action is solid and the characters are fun enough. It also has one of the cooler haboobs ever depicted in a movie.