GENERATING GREATNESS- Spider-Man Into The Spider-Verse- Defying expectations with the basics

GENERATING GREATNESS

DEFYING EXPECTATIONS WITH THE BASICS

Spider-Man Into The Spiderverse pretty much redefined animated movies and the superhero genre. Of course a lot of people fail to realise its potential because it’s a “kids movie” but the people who have watched it always praised it for its unique art style, humane and lovable characters, the outstanding story telling and how it feels like a motion comic. It made animated films be more than just a “lesser form” of cinema. It proved that the superhero genre can do much more in a world where big action set pieces dominate while heartwarming scenes fail. This begs the question: what DID make spiderverse so special? How did a kids movie, an animated movie AND a superhero movies bring back a whopping 375 million dollars with a 90 million budget and all the cards stacked against it? Well, I’m here to answer that question, in this month’s issue of Generating Greatness.

REVERSALS

Reversals exist in various forms. What this movie masters are emotional reversals and comedic reversals. To better understand this topic we need to know what these two reversals are. Emotional reversals refer to scenes where you enter with one emotion and leave with another. Comedic reversals play with the audience’s expectations and is perfected by following the art of unpredictability. One of the best examples of emotional reversals can also stem from a character. The best way to display this is Peter Parker’s death. Throughout the years, our brain has been convinced that no matter what Spider-Man always gets up regardless of the struggles. This movie turns that on its head and kills off Spider-Man in the first few minutes of the movie. This is an emotional reversal. We entered the scene with hope, knowing that Spider-Man will survive but we leave the scene shocked and distraught as our idea had been altered drastically. Similarly, we enter the tool shed scene with adrenaline, expecting a pumped up action montage but again, we leave on a rather sad note as our titular character has been consumed by his fears and doubts, more on this later. Now, comedic reversals. Comedic reversals is difficult to begin with but this movie goes the extra mile to give us VISUAL comedic reversals in a day and age where dialogue comedy dominates. Directors like Wes Anderson and Edgar Wright are of course keeping visual comedy alive but the glory days of it died with the end of the Chaplin & Keaton era. Instead of relying on dialogue comedy, the movie dares to defy expectations visually. To better understand visual comedic reversal I’ll have to remind you all of the god awful box office flop, The Lone Ranger. Now, there are plenty of flaws in this movie, and I mean PLENTY, but one thing that it succeeds in is its visual comedy section. Let’s take the train scene for example. Our main character stands gloriously with a pistol in his hand and then the door behind him falls off and he finds himself staring down the barrel of multiple guns. A lazy director would’ve relied on exposition and dialogue and even though it may work it won’t carry the punchline to the end. In ITSV, one of the finest examples is Peter B Parker getting Miles hyped up for training only for them to go eat a burger. This isn’t funny just because of the sudden polarizing transition but because the comedy stems from the character of Peter B Parker. Spider-Man, the saviour of New York City just preferred to eat a burger over training his apprentice. That’s out of character, that shows that this person is someone entirely different, this DEFIES THE EXPECTATIONS OF THE AUDIENCE and that’s why the joke lands as well as it does.

REALISM

This may be a personal preference but here goes. Most movies nowadays focus on the extremities of getting powers. The high highs and the low lows. The thing I love about ITSV is that Miles getting his power isn’t cool or a tragedy. His first moments with his powers is just embarrassing and that ups the relatability factor for the character. Lets say you wrote a wattpad fan fiction that did extremely well. Most movies would focus on you failing to cross that bar or being appreciated by everyone. The way ITSV works, it would’ve showed you being more embarrassed of your achievement than proud because it’s a wattpad fan fiction. This very realistic play on teenagers, their insecurities, them thinking their achievements are nothing less than glorified shortcomings is very well reflected in that particular scene and I, for one, could feel myself going through something similar if put into that position.

IMPORTANCE OF EVERY SCENE IN THE NARRATIVE

The reason ITSV holds so well and had people watching it twice or thrice is because of how every scene has a payoff. Miles struggling with his powers on various instances throughout the movie culminates in the leap of faith. The shoulder trick humiliating him leads to his eventual victory. Peter B Parker’s pessimism slowly fades as he becomes the only person to believe in Miles after Prowler’s death (besides Jefferson). Kingpin’s family is the reason behind the death of Spider-Man but the memories of his family eventually saves Miles. I could go on for days regarding how every scene ties into another but let’s get to the meat of the topic, the first reason that popped up in your head when you read the word “scene”. The art. Every scene in spiderverse is so intricately designed and detailed that you keep see the movie as a series of screenshots and it would make sense as it would feel like a connected piece of art. Every scene looks like it belongs in an art museum. While the start of the film is more grounded and simplistic in its art style, it eventually evolves into something three dimensional, just like Miles’ character development. As Miles develops, the art style changes accordingly. This is what makes each of these scenes so damn special. It takes the age old saying, “A picture speaks a thousand words.” and amplifies it to an immeasurable extent.

BENIFITING FROM CLICHES

When people came to know that Kingpin would be the main antagonist alongwith a butt load of other iconic villains, they were scared more than excited. Kingpin just had a fantastic run over at Netflix’s Daredevil with a performance that’s impossible to top. The insane amount of notable villains just gave most fans flashbacks of Spider-Man 3 and The Amazing Spider-Man 2. So, how? How did Phil Lord balance all these characters in a simple and efficient way. The answer surprised me when I thought about it and I honestly have no idea how he pulled this off but he made the most GENERIC villains personable. Kingpin’s need for revenge and getting his family back as been done over a hundred times. So, what’s the difference? The difference is that half of his goal is achieved in the first few minutes of the film. His motivation is also understandable. Any family man would do anything in his power to bring his family back, hence making him personable. Doc Ock is the cliché scientist bad guy that we’ve seen for a decade or so now. The movie chooses to introduce her as a dork (going into my statement about reversals), someone we can see ourselves as but subverts expectations so drastically that it tricks the audience into buying her. Scorpion is random muscle but he gets dialogue unlike other henchmen in usual movies which gives him at least a glimmer of personality. Prowler is also generic, a bad guy choosing to do what’s right. The movie makes him great by, not only exploring his personality, but his regret and guilt over failing to live up to his nephew’s idea of him. All these simple elements is what makes these characters work. We’ve seen them a hundred times over but we’ve never seen them with this much character, personality, humanity and relatability. This also applies to a few of the scenes. Miles’ final swing is great its fantastic but we’ve seen that glorious final moment of embracing your true self over and over since the first Raimi Spider-Man movie. This movie changes that by making Miles’ swing a copy of Peter’s in terms of expressing himself while also managing to make him an independent character by adding his own unique flair to said swing.

REDUCING CHARACTER FATIGUE

Look, I love Peter Parker. You love Peter Parker. Everyone LOVES Peter Parker. Which is exactly why its so important to preserve that love so that people don’t get sick of it. Its also important for the mantle of someone as inspiring as Spider-Man to passed down to someone that can represent the people that Peter Parker can’t. Miles Morales is a wonderful character that retains enough of what made Peter so lovable, adds his own unique twist while also inspiring people of colour all over the world. He is Spider-Man and that’s great because we all know we don’t want to see the same character on screen over and over again. We don’t have to follow Clark Kent becoming more human than alien. We don’t need to see Batman being molded out of trauma again. Most of all, we don’t need to see what makes Peter Parker Spider-Man again. Once in a while, you need something fresh, something new. Something that maintains the purity of the mantle while telling a different story. Now I know that some people might find this to be unnecessary and “Hollywood giving into the SJWs” and “against character” (whatever that’s supposed to mean, when did race start defining a character). So, to prove to you all the necessity of characters like Miles I’ve drawn up this simple analogy. Let’s say everyone in the world is either a sphere or a cone. You walk into the movie hall and you see all these iconic and inspiring characters and they’re all spheres. Suddenly, a movie is dropped where among the spheres there’s a cone. As a sphere, it seems unnecessary. It seems forced, right? But, as a cone, it seems necessary. It feels necessary because you want to go back home to your cone family and show them this movie where the cone is as inspiring as the sphere. You want the baby cone in your house to believe that not all heroes are spheres and we’re all equal. It’s ridiculous to a sphere but it means the world to a cone.

EMOTIONAL ROLLERCOASTER

You know that I know that you know that this breakdown is way too long so I’ll try to wrap this segment with one sequence. When it comes to emotional rollercoasters, nothing in the movie strikes me as much as the scenes between the house fight and prowler’s demise. Here’s why. We enter the scene with a sense of dread and uncertainty as Miles has led the villains to Aunt May’s doorstep. The ensuing battle spells out chaos. Everything is moving too fast and intensely but then Miles gets his hand on the device. Ominous music starts playing. The movie slows down and lets us absorb the thoughts racing through Miles’ head. The best way to sum up those thoughts? Fear of being killed and fear of letting down someone you look up to. Prowler is merciless. Even though the scene is fast paced, it lets us feel every second of it with the growing sense of fear. As Miles dangles from the roof, a new feeling enters our head. Calmness. Not just any calmness. The calm before the storm. The sequence ends with Prowler’s death. Grief, loss, regret, guilt, you name it, you felt it. So, in about 5 minutes, Into The Spiderverse made you feel 5 polarising emotions. You see my point?

LEAP OF FAITH

Most superhero movies nowadays have regressed to entertaining the audience. There’s nothing fundamentally wrong with that but I always found cinema to be something that instills certain emotions. I didn’t have high hopes for this film I’m being brutally honest. I think the main reason this movie appealed to me and a lot of people so much is because of how emotionally driven it is. It reminded me of Spider-Man 2. It reminded me of my childhood. It reminded me of the time when realistic and optimistic takes of the character hadn’t taken away the inspiring tale of Spider-Man. This movie, is very dark. When you actually think about it. For a kids’ movie its extremely dark. It deals with betrayal, grief, regret, insecurity, depression, the feeling of having the world’s weight on your shoulders but by the end, you feel this rush. This rush of happiness and bliss because you believe that just like Miles, you too can become a better person by giving your pain a purpose and a direction. Some may argue that the most powerful scene is Miles standing up to Kingpin and using his late uncle’s advise to overcome this monster of a man. Some may say its how Miles ends up teaching Peter about life. But for me, that special scene, where the movie made me feel more than just human, was the leap of faith scene. This scene works so well considering what Miles had lost right before this, how he lost his uncle, his sense of purpose but most importantly, he lost his faith in himself. The leap of faith shows how failing and breaking down is human. The only thing that makes you a monster is giving up. And that message resonates with me, and a lot of people, on a personal level. This is what makes ITSV so respectable among fans. It neglects being entertaining and chooses to be inspiring. It chooses to do what superheroes were made to do. Inspire.

CONCLUSION

Yeah, I got a little sentimental right around the end. Can’t find me talking about Spider-Man without being a little too emotional about it. All in all, please don’t let the fact that it’s animated stop you or anyone you know from watching this film. Watch this with your family, your crush, your childhood bully, I don’t care but please have a second viewing and watch it with YOURSELF. I hope you enjoyed this month’s issue of Generating Greatness. I’ll see you next month with something fresh and exciting once again. Until next time. Excelsior!