Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse

2018

Directed by Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey, and Rodney Rothman

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, based on the Marvel Comics character Miles Morales (one of the characters known as Spider-Man), is a movie about Spider-Man (and Spider-People). The film cleverly situates itself as a meta-commentary—of a kind—on the ever-growing genre of superhero movies; the animation, incorporating multiple styles, is as impressive as anything else recently made with computers; and the central idea, deftly combining a sci-fi premise with a coming-of-age story, works well, but the film loses track of its own thematic premise part-way through, weighted down by plot mechanics and one-off jokes that outwear their welcome. The film, nonetheless, is an achievement.

Would see.

Black Panther

Black Panther

2018

Directed by Ryan Coogler

Black Panther is a superhero film. Much of Black Panther is thoughtful, exciting, surprising, and new; much is the familiar soul-deadening forced humor, forced tie-ins, and forced conflict that has come to define the Marvel (soon to be) monopoly. Black Panther is mostly allowed to exist outside the Marvel “cinematic universe,” but it is not allowed to exist outside the Marvel brand. The result is that Black Panther is a good but uneven movie. I wanted Black Panther to be more than a Marvel movie. It is not. Much of the writing about the film is better than the film itself.

Would not see.