I’m actually one of the first few people to groan when I hear that they’re going to re-make another Spiderman movie covering his origin story, but this movie was an exception. For one, it was about the different versions of Spiderman and it had parallel universes in it, which was a huge deal for me. I also like animated movies and I think they’re not just for children, so I definitely had to put my bum on a seat and go watch it.
Miles Morales has just switched schools and feels like his uncle understands him better than his father. One day, while out tagging a wall in some remote part of the subway, Miles gets bitten by a spider and has to contend with his new powers, effectively replacing the Peter Parker in this universe, who is dead. At the same time, a dastardly evil villain has managed to warp reality by making different realities collide. And that’s where the Spidermen — and women — come in: they have to save the world.
Warning! Spoilers ahead! Blah blah blah. You know the drill.
It is very clear that this movie’s plot is trite and done before–Miles’ uncle is working for the bad guys, Miles has to learn how to use his powers and there’s a teacher-student bonding moment between him and a Peter Parker who is down on his luck. At the end of the day, the bad guy gets defeated and all is well. Kind of. Oh and the girl he has a crush on, Gwonda or whoever, is Gwen. Spider Gwen. No surprises there.
But what made the movie good?
Firstly, the animation is out of this world. Literally. For every type of world that clashes with Miles’ world, there is a different look and design. It must have been a pain getting the animation together and I bet the creative team had to use a lot of different tips and tricks. Coupled with that is the use of action lines and panels in comics, which made the animation fast and snappy. The colours are vibrant and it’s a joy to see Spiderman glide across the screen.
I also enjoyed that Miles was of mixed race — he’s African American and Latina. I hear smatterings of Spanish from his mother and him, and it feels natural, not forced. The writers did a good job by bringing out his interests, such as tagging, listening to music, and his crush on Gwen is really quite relatable, even if it’s quite typical. Everything about this character showed that he was a person, and nothing felt tacked on. This is what representation is — showing someone of a different race and not having the cultural markers reek of tokenism. Having the character develop his own identity, especially by spray painting a logo on his spider suit, is a huge plus.
If the story is oh-so-typical, then why is it worth watching?
It is because we care enough about the characters to want them to have a happy ending. We want them to be happy and return to where they belong. The other Spidermen (including one woman and an animal) are there for comic relief, but Peter and Miles have enough emotional depth to carry the story forward. We know that Miles wants to be a good person and make his father proud without compromising who he is, and we know that Peter wants to get back together with Mary Jane — and of course we hope he gets his act together enough to want to get back together with her. We want to confirm if the missing uncle is one of the bad guys, and we laugh at Miles’ dilemma when he meets his father in a suit — he wants to show gratitude, but he can’t, because he’s Spiderman. All of this enabled the audience to garner empathy and laughs.
Go into this movie expecting it to be a typical bildungsroman, but appreciate the art style and the repsentation. We need different styles of animated movies, and more representation, and this movie delivers in those two aspects.