I was excited for this film and was exceptionally pleased when Limitless announced it would be doing a preview showing; however, this feeling of elation was greatly hampered by the fact it was in 3D. I don’t like 3D for a number of reasons the main three being:
- All of the exciting colour seems drained by the dark 3D glasses.
- It often gives me a headache.
- For all of the extra money spent on it, it doesn’t really add anything to the viewing experience.
Nevertheless, as I hadn’t seen a film in 3D in years; I thought that my feelings towards it may have changed. Therefore, I went in hoping that: the 3D wouldn’t distract me and I would love the film.
What is it about?
Peter Parker (Jake Johnson) is the only known Spider-Man in the universe and he does exactly what you would expect: save the world. Time after time he fights alone in a vigilante battle against evil; that is until he finds out he isn’t the only spider-man. Miles Morales (Shameik Moore,) was just an ordinary kid; but when he gets bitten by a radioactive spider, his world is flipped upside down and he develops a similar collection of powers as the great Spider-man. Peter promises to train him in developing his powers; but almost the instant he does things get even weirder, as Spider-people continue to turn up all over New York City. The question on both of their minds is: where did they all come from?
What did I think?
Although it’s what I expected, the 3D was pretty rubbish. Sure it added a bit of depth that wasn’t there before; but it actually detracted from my enjoyment overall. The whole film is animated fantastically with bright, brilliant colours making up extraordinary landscapes; but, the 3D glasses just seem to tone down the effect of everything, which made it feel a little dingy at times. Early on in the film, I even took my glasses off to see whether I would prefer it without them on, (needless to say I didn’t.) Moreover, later on in the film, even once I had got used to wearing the glasses, I felt that, at points, the images didn’t always seem to tie together. The weird red/blue colour shown, that generally appears when you don’t have the glasses on, showed up on numerous occasions when it shouldn’t have. Therefore, it is a credit to the film itself that I managed to enjoy it so much, even with all of the issues I had with the 3D.
As I have already touched on above, the animation is wonderful and the way it is edited with onomatopoeic words shooting across the screen, just as they do in the comics, was awesome. Even through the glum filter of my 3D glasses, I thought the sprawling explosions of colour that made up the city were incredible and meant you never wanted to look away from the screen, (or even blink at the climax of the film.) Despite this being a constant source of engagement what I enjoyed most about the film were it’s characters. I loved all of the different Spider-people and thought their backgrounds were fascinating; hence, I especially liked the scene where the stories behind each of them are told in slick and speedy fashion. I think my favourite new character was Spider-Man Noir (Nicolas Cage) because his backstory was intriguing, his suit was awesome and his demeanour was reserved but funny. However, Spider-Gwen (Hailee Steinfeld,) who was a more active part of the narrative, was also very cool and I really liked her quick wit during interaction with others. This film is also extremely funny and had me laughing out loud on a number of occasions with: sections of dialogue, as well as hilariously comedic sequences throughout. Finally, the narrative was very engaging. The number of plot twists and subversions throughout the film meant you were constantly on edge and couldn’t wait to see what would happen next. Nevertheless even now I know what happens I can’t wait to see it again just to experience the thrill once more, but this time definitely in 2D.
My Rating: 9.5/10
Although some may say, “It’s just a kids film how can you like it so much?”, my answer is simple, this is “kids film” that has: an enthralling narrative, great characters, fun jokes, fantastic animation, cool music, emotional depth and a Stan Lee cameo. So my question to you is- Are you going to deprive yourself of the joy of watching this film just because it’s a “kids film”? I would hope not.
My Top 3 of the Year:
- Call Me by Your Name
- Spider-man into the Spider-verse
- The Social Network
P.S. If you were interested in what I thought of ‘Ralph breaks the internet’, I will just say that it’s a great film that effectively builds on the world set up by the first one. It is definitely worth the watch; but is not quite as good as ‘Creed II’ and is not even close to ‘Spiderman into the Spider-verse’. My Rating: 8/10
Jude's Film Reviews 