#viralish

that one scene in spiderverse when miguel pulls out the silly expository lady for some silly exposition time. and he starts talking about the universe and webs and canons and you’re like oh boy this is getting complicated. time to get exposited. but then he starts talking about how your dad HAS to die. and you’re like wait this feels kinda…wrong. isn’t it really sad that this is a necessary thing for every spiderman? isn’t it really sour that pavitr didn’t let that man die, but now everyone in his universe is suffering for it? why does it have to be this way? and then miles starts to realize, my dad is next. but he’s my DAD. and you’re like this is jeff we’re talking about. and this scene that’s framed like, here’s the exposition, now let’s go punch some bad guys—miles is like no. stop. this can’t be right. and we’re also like this can’t be right. and then the movie starts breaking down. and the problem stops feeling like it can be solved in 140 minutes because suddenly the problem is so very big and baked into the foundation of the universe. and then miles starts running. and then you’re like oh…the exposition was supposed to feel wrong cause it wasn’t exposition by the heroes, it was a villain speech.

There’s a scene in Spiderverse when Miles sort-of beats the villain, Spot, when Spot accidentally kicks himself into a different dimension. Miles is standing there in front of his dad and is like “I guess he kicked his own butt.” For some reason I was expecting him to say “kicked his own ass,” but then I thought no of course he didn’t, this is a kids PG rated animated movie. But then not 5 minutes later he’s talking with Jeff and sort of mutters under his breath “maybe you could get off his ass” and I’m like HUH??? that’s ALLOWED??? and then they proceed to drop swears here and there for the rest of the movie and it’s amazing.

this is a post about spiderverse spoilers. so you know how toy story is one of the greatest animated trilogies (when it was a trilogy) of all time right. like each of its movies built on each other in really satisfying ways and felt like natural evolutions of the other. you know how kung fu panda did this as well. you know what both of those trilogies have? all of their movies have happy and self contained endings. they leave room for growth but otherwise the villain is defeated, the lesson is learned, etc. this is something spiderverse does NOT do. in fact it goes back to that really classic idea that the first is the introduction, the second is the continuation (which includes a rock bottom point), and the third is the conclusion. the spiderverse ending ROCK BOTTOMS our protagonist in such a cool way. kind of! while also showing us how’s he gonna get out of this one! it’s a massive cliffhanger! can you name another animated trilogy that’s done this story structure? not to mention the “crap”s and “hell”s and “ass”es uttered by the characters? modern dreamworks could never. this movie is something special lads. oh and it’s really refreshing to see a superhero trilogy that FEELS like a trilogy in terms of story structure, and doesn’t just get a new movie Because We Can.