Sad night tonight. After 80-odd years, this was the last film to show in my local cinema before it closed down. Doubly sad because it’s also not actually very good. The conceptualisation behind the hybrid styles of animation is spectacular and executed in an highly polished fashion - as you’d expect. The story is all over the pace though, and the proliferation of Spidey’s seemed designed more to allow the narrative to become more culturally inclusive (and bankable) rather than to develop any meaningful characterisations. What personas there are spend their time wallowing in a mire of unrequited and/or confused familial love, or teenage angst more suitable in a soap. The dialogue has it’s moments - assuming you can catch it - and there’s a bit of humour to be found but I found the audio mix made following all that was said became a bit wearisome after a first hour that really does depend on your having watched (and remembering) the first - in my view far better - instalment. This whole “multiverse” theme can keep on recycling itself ad nauseam but if the writing remains at this unremarkable level then I’m not sure I’ll be bothering with the next set of repetitively set-piece adventures for “Miles” and his parents, love interest and fellow Spider-folk.

I don't know, but in my humble opinion, the punk Spider-Man really needed to look like Johnny Rotten, Sid Vicious, someone from the Sex Pistols. He sort of screamed them in the way he was depicted, right down to the multi-media used around him. They really missed an opportunity for if not a great pop culture reference, but at least an in-joke for the punk community. I mean, throw us a bone here. He spent half his time mocking us anyway (in a pretty hysterical way) at least give us the laugh when they do the face reveal. Anyway, it's not bad. Miles is less... boring in this cartoon than he is in the comics where he's developed the moniker "Mild Morales." He actually has more depth of character here and is forced to face some serious choices and turning points (Hey Marvel, you could learn a lesson here). But he also took a bit of a back seat to Stacey, who seemed to be the star of the show until there was an abrupt switch... which irritated me. It sort of screamed ensemble cast, but really it just shifter from one lead to the other a bit abruptly. As far as complaints go, that's pretty bare bones. It also gave Spidey 2099 a sort of bad spin despite being the most beloved of the 2099 line and the coolest costume design of any spider. So for us Gen-Xers, it sort of burned. At least I'm old enough to have been looking forward to his inclusion only to be a little disappointed. And I am still very upset over how Peter is portrayed, but they are slowly redeeming his character. Over-all though, it's not bad. It's better than just about all of the current Super-Hero movies and, honestly, it's probably the only cape franchise that people are still interested in... because it isn't totally political BS.

“It’s like if The Raid met Into The Spiderverse”

<em>'Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse'</em> surpasses the original for me, though there's more to that statement than meets the eye. I watched the first film four years ago (almost to the day, weirdly) and remember enjoying but feeling a little nonplussed by it. I think the main reason for that is that I don't have any connection or knowledge to the comics and/or the general world of these characters, therefore last time out it was a barrage of information and characters; not much of which stuck. So it makes sense why I only mildly like it. This time, however, I did have a fair amount of fun. I had more of an interest in the characters that carried over from the 2018 flick, while the new additions worked for me too. The story does feel more conventional than previously, which is a plus to me given the aforementioned. Other prior drawbacks were the characters of Kingpin, Green Goblin and Prowler; their designs and voices failed to hook me. Here, I did appreciate the characters away from the leads. The Spot, Hobie and Miguel are onscreen peeps that I will remember with fine fondness. Speaking of Shameik Moore and Hailee Steinfeld, I enjoyed both. Another aspect I enjoyed was the music and, of course, the animation. I actually found myself feeling kinda hyped by the ending too, which is a positive sign for <em>'Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse'</em>.