![]() In a post-“Avengers: Endgame” world, Peter Parker must press on without the mentorship of a now-deceased Tony Stark - but with the high-tech resources of Stark Enterprises (represented by Jon Favreau’s Happy Hogan) and the gruff encouragement of S.H.I.E.L.D. Worse, this sporadically impressive but discomfortingly overstuffed extravaganza concludes with a brazenly shameless “To Be Continued” cliffhanger that could very well inspire members of the audience to shout rude things at the screen. Trouble is, the start-and-stop pacing required to accommodate so many new folks makes for a bumpy ride, as turbo-charged action sequences that often recall the framing and flamboyance of the original comics are interspersed with buzz-killing stretches of backstory spinning and meandering character development. Spider-Woman - and adds to the mix a veritable army of distinctive Spider-People, who each do derring-do in their individual corners of the multiverse when they’re not banded together in a Spider Society designed to maintain borders and discourage interlopers. ![]() The second animated “Spider-Man” feature focuses on neophyte Spidey Miles Morales, slightly older and marginally wiser than he was in “Into the Spider-Verse,” but also gives near-equal time to his sweetie, the equally arachnid-enhanced Gwen Stacy, a.k.a. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (2023)Ĭall it too much of a good thing and you won’t be far off the mark.(A nice touch: Gwen is the slightly better science student.) On the debit side: The conspiratorial subplot involving Peter’s deceased scientist father is a great deal less than fully baked, and the villain of the piece (The Lizard, played by Rhys Ifans while in human form) is too obviously a CGI construct. (Spoiler Alert: He eventually gets some big laughs with a few wink-wink, nudge-nudge allusions to his status in the Spidey-Verse.) But give him due credit: Garfield strikes the right balance of callowness and cockiness throughout the “origin story” of this reboot, and he’s downright charming as director Marc Webb (“500 Days of Summer”) dramatizes the first blush of romance between nerdy Peter Parker and Emma Stone’s equally brainy but intimidatingly attractive Gwen Stacy. ![]() But the ten theatrical features - movies in which Spider-Man is the star, not an ensemble player - are our focus here in this revised least-to-best ranking.įairly or not, Andrew Garfield likely will be recalled as the George Lazenby of the Spider-Man movies, given his relatively short stint as the second star of the franchise. Naturally, the Spider Dude also continues to attract legions of the faithful to animated TV series and direct-to-video product, all-star MCU group gatherings - and, yes, the comic books that started it all. “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse,” the latest episode, a follow-up to the Oscar-winning animated feature “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” (2018), likely will delight many long-time Spidey fans with its mythos-expanding plotting, quicksilver universe shuffling, abundant Easter Eggs, wide-ranging inclusivity, and audaciously variegated visuals - even if it totally confuses, if not actively annoys, newbies unfamiliar with the minutiae of what someone here aptly refers to as “the canon.” Jonah Jameson, the “Spider-Man” film franchise has been wildly inconsistent, yet remarkably indestructible. Throughout two decades of web-slinging, rebooting, reversals of fortune, immersions into the Marvel Cinematic Universe and sporadic reappearances by the Spidey-hating J.
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