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Review / ‘Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse’ (PG) **

DRAT! I forgot to pick up the spray-can of insecticide before leaving home to see joint directors Bob Persichetti and Peter Ramsay’s foray into fantasyland in search of a serious message delivered by an arachnid with human form.

Purists may cavil or quibble with the word “insecticide” in connection with spiders. Spiders are not insects. But insecticides work as efficiently on spiders as they do on insects.

The target audience for Spider-Man movies rather depends on the viewer’s movie-going experience and tastes. Its live-action Spidery predecessors are straight-out actioners in which a human, having been bitten by a spider, learns to morph into a comic-book hero whose penchant is to run around the city confronting and destroying wickedness. Comic-book heroes can do anything their creators want, on either paper or film. Credibility isn’t a problem.

When comic-book users grow up, hopefully they will discover real books that tell stories with words, not pictures, and live happily ever after. People, for whom translating all those words into narrative is difficult, find it easier to get their stories from pictures. Persichetti and Ramsay have crafted an animated thriller that takes 117-minutes to deliver the kind of movie with which members of that group feel comfortable.

If that’s you, don’t be embarrassed. Enjoy the movie, as the box-office person routinely implores you to do as she or he takes your money and delivers your ticket. I spoke with such a person as I moved from the cinema showing this Spider-Man to the one screening the day’s next movie. We agreed that we’d found animated Spider-Man to be tedious, even soporific.

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Dougal Macdonald

Dougal Macdonald

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0 Responses to Review / ‘Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse’ (PG) **

Mal Briggs says: 29 December 2018 at 8:35 pm

Did you watch the film at all Dougal?
Even your one star review of Bumblebee showed you understood the basic premise. This review just shows that you dislike people who read comic books (and you kill spiders with insecticide.)

Zero mention of the plot. (But for some reason you do mention the plot of previous live action films)
No mention of the voice acting, the innovative animation style, the hip hop soundtrack. No snide comment on the hero being purveyor of graffiti.

I didn’t expect you to like this film Dougal, but if you are to review it idI appreciate you watch it first.

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Ben says: 30 December 2018 at 1:31 am

That’s not really a movie review. If you are getting paid you should deliver slightly more thorough and better thought out reviews. I still know nothing at all about this film.

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Matthew says: 30 December 2018 at 7:22 am

No actual info on the movie itself, did you watch it? I would have thought you’d have something to say on the multiple plot lines going on.
Your assertion that comic “users” like simple or easily digestible stories and plots shows your ignorance of the subject, I would recommend popping into your local comic store and getting an education on subject matter before disparaging it.

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