erstwhile, you are here

One of the most important parts of this film is the design of each individual character. Due to the sheer number of characters introduced in this film, the way each character is presented visually provides development and world building that would otherwise be glossed over for the sake of time. By incorporating the Sex Pistols font, lace code (blue meaning killed a cop), bold colors, and other symbols representative of the 70s English Punk scene into Hobie's character design, a backstory is given to an otherwise enigmatic character. Including watercolor-style backgrounds that changed along with the mood of the scene Into Gwen's world, emotions could be conveyed without the use of dialogue which contributed to the complexity of the character. Interestingly, Miguel's design was very discordant. While his suit was futuristic, electronic to the point of glitching out and staticing when Miles overloaded it with energy, his face noticeably still had its sketch lines, giving him rough and unfinished feel. I believe this is a stylistic choice that plays into the ongoing theme that Miguel is not quite where he is supposed to be, as seen in Peters joke about how he is the only unfunny Spiderman or the fact that he's seemingly using synthesized venom to act as Spiderman. Ultimately the best design character was the Spot. I am astonished that the writers and directors of this movie developed a villain that was only in a handful of TV show episodes and comics, never being taken seriously, into a genuinely frightening character with a serious vendetta. Much of this is done through the development that the Spot's design has throughout the movie. As the characters style shifts from that of Miles' own Earth to 2D schizophrenic crayon drawing, it demonstrates that the character has developed from the typical bad-guy-of-the-week to a serious threat, without having to take too much time actually focusing on the character. The character jarringly pops out against the otherwise bright and three-dimensional animations in the rest of the film. I am excited to see the 2D version in action in the third film.