#I was inspired by the recent spider-verse poster and of course I had to make a ghostface version

[bakhtaks-blog]

Ghostface: Across the Scream-verse

Shout out to this site for showcasing the history of the Ghostface mask and some of the different versions of it.

[theinquisitivej]

Animated Movie Double Review – ‘Ralph Breaks the Internet’ and ‘Into the Spider-Verse’

Last weekend I saw two animated films. One of them was visually striking, with every frame being memorable and reinforcing the film’s distinct aesthetic. On top of that, it told a well-paced story that is sure to resonate with audiences from a number of different backgrounds for countless reasons. The other was a disappointing hodgepodge of average filmmaking with above-average animation backing it up which only made the misguided character-writing, lack of solid comedy that elicited no more than an occasional “…mmheh.”, and unclear focus feel that much more of a shame. I’m ever the force of positivity who likes to end on a happy note, so let’s get the lesser of the two out of the way first.

‘Ralph Breaks the Internet’

A sequel to the 2012 videogame inspired Disney film, Ralph Breaks the Internet picks up some time later when the inhabitants of the arcade are introduced to the internet. After a fault occurs with Vanellope’s arcade machine, Ralph and Vanellope decide to venture into the internet to find a replacement part before the machine is taken away. Internet references and hilarity ensues.

         The animation is of course as smooth and technically impressive as it always is. There’s a lot of variety to the character designs and styles of movement that are on display throughout the movie. Whether it’s the blocky, 8-bit stilted movement of some of the classic game characters who return from the last film, the glimpses we get of people in the real world moving in an impressively naturalistic fashion, or the crisp yet eclectic movements of the Google stand-in character Knowsmore as he rushes to finish people’s sentences, there’s a lot to sink your teeth into if you enjoy studying animation.

         I also enjoyed Vanellope as a main character you follow throughout this film. In Wreck-It Ralph, Vanellope is someone you slowly warm to as she goes from being this deliberate nuisance to Ralph and his goal of bringing a medal back to his own game to someone who means the world to him by the film’s final shot. In the sequel, Vanellope is unsatisfied with her day-to-day life and wants a little change, which resembles Ralph’s motivation at the start of the first film, and I was engaged with her journey throughout the film as she continues to be a very appealing and entertaining character to spend time with. Also, seeing her play off of Gal Gadot’s character who is this tough and capable but also down-to-earth source of wisdom and perspective is pleasant to experience, especially as this reinforces the general reputation that Gadot has right now as this inspiring female role-model that you just love to be around.

         But other than that, I didn’t care for this movie. Few of the jokes land and the ones that do only elicited brief, unenthusiastic chuckles. Part of this can be attributed to the internet-focused humour going for surface-level observations that either ring hollow or feel dated right out of the gate. To be fair, I don’t think there’s anything fundamentally wrong with centring a movie on websites; I can’t say that videogame iconography inherently has more value than internet iconography, so it’s not as simple as saying “this sequel went wrong the moment it decided to be about the internet”. Maybe it would be too subjective of me to say I felt more of the warmth that comes from the creators’ passion for videogames that was shown in Wreck-It Ralph than I do here with Ralph Breaks the Internet and its connection to the world it tries to replicate. Instead, I’ll say that it rarely feels like the film has more to say about what it’s showing us than “this is a thing that exists”, and when we’re dealing with something as universally known and omnipresent as the internet, you’ve got to have more up your sleeve than that. We all use the internet, we all know how these sites work and what place they have in their lives, so give us more than just the novelty of seeing it depicted within a fictional animated world.

         Apart from the soft-hitting comedy, the most egregious part of watching this film was Ralph’s character. Ralph is an unlikable ass in this film. In the first movie, Ralph is self-absorbed to a point in that he runs away from his game to get a medal so he can feel appreciated at the cost of the rest of the inhabitants of Fix-It Felix Jr. In this sequel, that negative aspect is dialled to 11. He rarely makes any effort to see things from his friend’s point of view and he childishly acts out for attention so that he can feel validated. The arc he went through in the first film where he gains some self-acceptance and realises it’s not always about him never comes across through any of the character’s actions this second time around. As a result, he feels very much like he’s regressed which makes him flat-out unlikable for 90-95% of the movie. Of course, this is all part of the film’s thematic point. You’re meant to know that Ralph is acting wrongly and that some of the things he’s doing are bad, because it becomes a major focus of the film’s finale and works into the emotional ending that the film is building up towards. The problem is that it overeggs the pudding, and, much like that clip we all saw in the trailers where Ralph overstuffs the bunny from the mobile-game with pancakes to the point of making it explode, the film does too much of this and blows up any attachment I had to this character. Ralph’s first story made it easy to understand where Ralph was coming from and why he felt the way he did, even if he acted selfishly at times. There were even moments where he did bad things because he truly thought it was for the best for someone other than himself. You get his decisions and know that he didn’t mean for the negative repercussions to happen, even if you can see where he went wrong along the way and what he must do to make it right. Here, it’s just not put together with as much of a steady hand to keep things level, so I’m not with him for the majority of the runtime.

         In all fairness, I did appreciate the film’s closing moments. The last 10 minutes gives us a strong ending that tugs on the heartstrings and shows us a healthy outlook that both children and adults can learn from as they go through similar hardships in life. It also doesn’t pull its punches and back down from showing us that, yes, things do change. That can be hard, but it’s also okay. I like that the film gives us that emotional close, but I just wish it had earned it throughout the rest of the movie.

Final Ranking: Stone.

The plot structure is messy and flat-out abandons certain threads, the humour is weak, and one of the main characters acts obnoxiously for the majority of the runtime. It’s a disappointing sequel to a lovely film that comes across as being mostly hollow.

I did like seeing the princesses though, that was fun.

 ‘Into the Spider-Verse’

Just as the story of this film gives us multiple versions of Spider-Man who are all animated with a unique style and are wonderful to look at, Into the Spider-Verse is a Venn diagram of multiple film categories that it sits high at the top of.

         It’s one of the best animated films of the year, constantly demonstrating masterful understanding of posing, dynamic movements, and how to draw out these perfect little moments of humanity from every one of the characters inhabiting this movie. If this isn’t the most visually impressive and striking film of the year, then it is unquestionably the second best looking film of 2018. The combinations of colours are diverse and consistently reinforce exactly what that moment in the story requires, whether it’s a palpable sense of energy, an immediate impression of the atmosphere of the location we’re taking in, or the keen emotion being experienced in the moment. The angles we see things from and the clever techniques the film uses to make certain parts of the shot look blurred to emphasise the things that are in focus work together to create this visual style that calls to mind the panels from a comic-book. Into the Spider-Verse even qualifies as a contender for the best Spider-Man film, full-stop. It certainly taps into the ethos of the character, his world, and the numerous alternative versions that have become big heroes in their own right with a confident familiarity, as well as a deep affection and respect for what Spider-Man is and what the idea of the hero means to us. And yes, in case it wasn’t obvious by this point, this also happens to be in the running for the best film of the year as well.

         The film is set in New York on an earth similar to our own, but with slight variations on the things we see in our world like the NYPD being referred to as PDNY. This leads to cute little visual references and puns like a poster for ‘From Dusk Till Shaun’ and an advert for the band ‘Red Man Group’. In this New York, we follow Miles Morales, a teenager from Brooklyn who has just transferred from a school he was comfortable in to a prestigious school where his dad has high hopes for him. Around here the audience starts to get that the thing troubling Miles more than anything else right now is the immense pressure he’s feeling on multiple sides, whether its from the demanding workload heaped onto him by his new school or from his father’s insistence that he can do great things if he only pushes himself hard enough. One of the books he’s set at his new school is even ‘Great Expectations’ to hammer this point home. After a series of fated coincidences, Miles is bitten by a radioactive spider, develops powers, and is given a task of utmost importance by his universe’s Peter Parker before he is left alone to figure out how he can possibly face the biggest responsibility heaped onto his young shoulders yet.

         But he’s not alone for long, as recent events have led Spider-People from multiple universes to all converge on Miles’ Earth, including an even more down-on-his-luck version of Peter Parker who’s older, more jaded, and far less suited to mentoring Miles than the one he is familiar with. Over time, more Spider-People join the team, with the most notable being Spider-Gwen, a version of Gwen Stacy from a world where she got bitten instead of her best friend Peter, who she would later lose due to a tragic set of superhero circumstances. With their help as well as a few other very fun versions of Spider-Man, Miles must face an assortment of sinister forces and do his best to live up to all the people who are counting on him.

         As joyful, funny, and entertaining as the film is, and how can it not be with a premise like that that’s backed up with some masterclass animation, Into the Spider-Verse makes the stakes and the tension feel weighty by emphasising the real sense of danger to the heroes’ encounters with the villains. I won’t spoil who the main antagonist is in case you’re familiar with your Spider-Man characters and genuinely curious to see who it is. Suffice to say, they scared the hell out of me. My first impression of their design was that it looked a little goofy, but soon enough, through a combination of deeply ominous music and cinematography, the huge, black frame of the character came across like a spectre of death. Whenever they showed up, I was scared for the characters’ lives. In addition to the main antagonist, there is another villain who I had not heard of called Prowler, and the film does a great job of making this character seem like a stalking beast that Miles is woefully unprepared to face. But as effective as these villains are at making you tense up in your seat, and again, I still won’t give anything away, the film manages to give them enough to humanise them in one or two key moments that make this story feel like it’s not about virtuous heroes and black-hearted monsters, but about people. Some people give in and do terrible things for what they feel are justifiable reasons, and some people face the pressures of life and keep trying to do the right thing, even and especially when it’s hard.

        But as hard-hitting as the heavy moments can get, the writing also ensures that the humour is there when it needs to be to balance things out. There are moments when the film goes to some heart-breaking territory, depending on what your level of attachment is to certain characters. It lets the scene play out, it uses the performances of the voice actors and the animators to their full effect to create the biggest impact it can, and, only after it has fully delivered on the emotional beat, it will deliver a perfectly timed joke that helps diffuse some of the tension without compromising the poignancy of what’s just happened. In fact, while these jokes may seem like a fun whiplash from sincere drama to goofy yet very naturalistic comedy, they often double as a way to reinforce the themes of the movie. There’s a point where a random civilian of New York intrudes on a very personal and significant moment for Miles to say something that comedically deflates the seriousness of the scene, and yet what the civilian says is actually a direct statement of the film’s central message. It’s an example of how much the film believes in what it’s saying that it can joke about its own themes and still have the ability tell an affecting story that comes across as charmingly sincere.

         And the message that it believes so genuinely in, what every frame of this gorgeously vibrant movie works together to say, is that anyone can wear the mask and be Spider-Man. It means so much for a film to show that the relatable kid who grows into a superhero that we can aspire to be like isn’t always Peter Parker. Miles is a biracial teenager with an African-American father and a Puerto Rican mother, and just as Aunt May and Uncle Ben form the moral backbone of Peter’s life, we see how Miles has taken aboard different characteristics from each of his family members. He has the compassion of his mother, the strength and resolve of his father, and the style and charm of his uncle. It’s touching to see this family and realise just how important they are to Miles and how much they’ve positively shaped his identity, even as they make mistakes in their efforts to give him the best life they can. When Miles reaches the culmination of his journey and he sets out to be what his family believes he can be, it’s a soaring, inspiring moment. It’s the kind of story that superheroes lend themselves so well to, because the point isn’t to marvel at how super a select few can be; it’s to see them and know that we all have the power to be super, to do good, and to go out there and prove to ourselves that the faith of the people who love us isn’t misplaced. The different artstyles used to animate each of the Spider-People literally illustrate the point that, whoever you are and whatever you look like, you can be Spider-Man. And yeah, any film that sells you on that message is going to be close to the heart for a lot of different people.

         Into the Spider-Verse is more than a neat twist on the well-catered superhero movie genre. It’s beautifully striking, features impressive writing that deftly balances sincerity and a sense of playful humour, and weaves all its elements together to create one of the most unique examples of animations, superhero films, and hell, films in general that I’ve seen in a long while.

Final Ranking: Gold.

See it on the big screen, then see it again on Blu-ray.

[aion-rsa]

Andrew Garfield’s Spider-Man: No Way Home Denial Game is Strong

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Spider-Man: No Way Home has kept crucial details about its plot opaquely secure under a proverbial mass of webbing, even as the threequel’s scheduled Dec. 17 premiere inches closer. However, the realm of rumors has seen plenty of activity on this front, with the reported return of Alfred Molina’s Doctor Octopus and Jamie Foxx’s Electro—each of whom are supervillains from the two previous franchises—signaling a Spider-Verse story that would presumably unite the heretofore unconnected existing Spidey films. However, a key component to such a notion, Andrew Garfield, is not budging in his denials.

As one of the previous two big screen Spider-Men, Garfield is likely bombarded on a daily basis with questions regarding a prospective return in No Way Home, the third solo film of current Wall-Crawler Tom Holland. Thus, a nerve appeared to have been struck during an appearance on the Happy Sad Confused podcast of MTV’s Josh Horowitz when the conversation inevitably touched upon Spidey. Garfield, of course, starred as Peter Parker/Spider-Man in Sony Pictures’ 2012 reboot, The Amazing Spider-Man, and its numerically-titled 2014 sequel; an iteration that was abruptly abandoned upon the 2016 debut of Holland’s Marvel Cinematic Universe-adherent version in Captain America: Civil War.

“There isn’t anything to ruin, bro,” exclaims Garfield, frantically laughing after the host cautiously posed the Spider-Man question. “I had to just quickly cut you off—there’s nothing to ruin! It’s so crazy! Dude, it’s fucking hilarious to me, because I do have this [secret] Twitter account, and I see how often Spider-Man is trending, and people freaking out about a thing.”

The universe-crossing 2018 hit animated feature, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, seems set to inspire a live-action take with the presumption that a trio (maybe more?) of onscreen Wall Crawlers will work in tandem in December’s Spider-Man: No Way Home. The film will have the aforementioned return of Doc Ock (from Spider-Man 2) and Electro (from The Amazing Spider-Man 2), and Benedict Cumberbatch is confirmed to make an appearance as Doctor Strange, presumably bringing his brand of plot-driving dimensional magic. Plus, the very title of the film’s closely-scheduled MCU successor, sequel Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, seems to solidify a connection to No Way Home, despite Tom Holland not yet being confirmed for that film. Moreover, Elizabeth Olsen’s Wanda Maximoff—now fully-realized as the Scarlet Witch—is confirmed to bring her WandaVision-refined chaotic, reality-weaving powers. It’s a potentially exciting storyline, which leaves one to wonder why Garfield hasn’t been signed.

Notably, the topic of Spider-Man has to evoke mixed feelings for Garfield, since it represents the biggest break of his career, which came to a humiliating end. While 2012’s The Amazing Spider-Man was hardly a box office dud, having grossed $757.9 million worldwide, 2014’s The Amazing Spider-Man 2, failed to follow an expected upward trend with its $708.9 million take; a development that, along with its collectively unimpressed reviews, would see the franchise—and Garfield himself—kicked to the curb. Compounding that, Sony’s disappointment in Garfield’s angstier, skateboarding, conspiracy-unraveling reinvention of the Wall-Crawler was so strong that it became a catalyst for a historically uncharacteristic concession to collaborate with Marvel Studios to properly bring Spider-Man back the big screen—a mere two years after his last appearance. Ouch!

Read more

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Consequently, the current influx of excitement over a prospective return as Spider-Man has to feel surreal for the Garfield, who subsequently parlayed prominence from the failed superhero platform to Oscar-nominated glory as the star of 2017 World War II drama Hacksaw Ridge. If Garfield is being deceptive, then one might think that he is simply taking time to emotionally process a prospective offer from Sony and Marvel to reprise the role. However, his denial takes a convincingly sincere turn when he further states, “I wish I could just be able to speak to everyone and say, like, ‘I recommend that you chill.’ Listen, I can’t speak for anything else apart from myself, like, they might be doing something, but I ain’t got a call.” Indeed, if Garfield turns out to be keeping one of Marvel Studios’ typical tight-kept secrets, then it would very well be one of his best acting performances.

Of course, Garfield is hardly alone on this front, since his immediate cinematic Spider-Man predecessor, Tobey Maguire, also happens to be the focus of this barrage of speculative return rumors for Spider-Man: No Way Home. Yet, in his case, the evidence—anecdotal as it may be—is actually a bit stronger, notably since the film will manifest under the creative auspices of Sam Raimi, who famously directed Maguire in the genre-groundbreaking trilogy of films, 2002’s Spider-Man, 2004’s Spider-Man 2 and 2007’s Spider-Man 3, which reaped worldwide grosses of $825 million, $788.9 million and $894.9 million, respectively. The 2007 final entry may have been notably divisive, and lacked a cohesive vision due to the director’s clashes with the studio, but Maguire’s Spider-Man run is fondly looked upon by posterity. Thus, while plans for Spider-Man 4 were derailed, Maguire’s run came to a natural conclusion, and a prospective return wouldn’t have the same emotional baggage attached as Garfield’s.

Sony Pictures

Interestingly enough, rumors over Maguire’s also-unconfirmed return for No Way Home recently gained significant momentum when Spanish language voice actor Roger Pera, who dubbed Maguire’s lines in Raimi’s Spider-Man Trilogy, seemingly slipped out a potentially crucial bit of information on podcast El Sotano del Planet, on which he claimed that he’s been talking with Sony for more Maguire-Spider-Man dubbing. Said claim was conspicuously edited out of said podcast after an initial deletion, ironically lending more intrigue to the rumor. Pertinently, while Maguire and Garfield are hardly connected at the hip, one would think that Sony and Marvel wouldn’t be satisfied with just one former Spider-Man for this ambitious-sounding, presumably-multi-movie-spanning storyline. Thus, if Maguire is eventually confirmed to have been procured, then the chances of Garfield joining will seemingly have increased.

Nevertheless, Garfield remains resolute in his increasingly artful denials. Dipping into the world of video games, he even compares his situation to certain role-playing franchises, stating, “I feel like I’m in a game of fucking Werewolf (or Mafia,) where I’m like ‘I’m not the werewolf. I promise you I’m not the werewolf,’ and everyone’s like, ‘You’re the werewolf, you’re the fucking werewolf!’” Indeed, after the skepticism of the podcast host was apparent, the actor reiterates, “I DID NOT get a call. I would have gotten a call by now. That’s what I’m saying.”

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Spider-Man: No Way Home hits theaters on December 17, with Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness quickly arriving afterwards on March 22, 2022. We’ll know by that time if Garfield is owed an apology or not.

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