Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
Saw it this past Sunday and Monday. I gotta say, this film is an absolute work of art. It seems that any single frame of this movie could be hung up on a wall and marveled at. The animation is gorgeous and they go into it with every universe. The opening moments of the film automatically captivate you, and it rarely lets up. I must admit that I was not
too emotionally impacted by this film, but I will chalk some of that up to this story feeling a bit incomplete until the sequel comes next March. It's the one big hindrance of the film for me.
At 140 minutes, I do see where I could trim some scenes and take nearly 20 minutes out of the film, but the runtime is not at all a problem either. With many Easter eggs and cameos that I'm sure I have no idea of, they always serve the story and never get in the way, which is the way I like it. The antagonists absolutely work but some characters took a moment to grow on me. Gwen and Peter B. Parker have solidified themselves as my favorite characters in this franchise, but I love seeing Miles do his Spidey action on screen.
This movie is also an audial delight. Both the score and soundtrack vibe so well with the on-screen visuals, and the voice acting is on point. Somewhere, somehow this movie deserves Oscar recognition (outside of animation and visuals), and I don't know where it is but I could see something along Best Picture, Director, Cinematography, or Editing. I doubt they'd acknowledge the middle two for an animated film, but they sure timed their sequel right around Oscar season perfectly and will probably receive the same accolades next time out. I do hope they dial back a little bit for the trilogy capper when it comes to scope and character count, but this was a super fun sequel and is absolutely worth checking out in theaters.
I gotta do an official Spider-Man ranking, but Sam Raimi's SM2 is on the top and the two Spider-Verse movies are right below it.
Transformers: Rise of the Beasts
First of all, I found all of my initial impressions for each film before it:
1,
2,
3,
4,
5
It appears that I did not leave impressions for Bumblebee. I have only seen it once, and although I found it "cute" it didn't leave the same impact as the Michael Bay movies did, messy as they are.
Rise of the Beasts is good. Not very good or great, but solid. It was a wonderful time out for a summer blockbuster. It shows what somebody can capably do with the franchise without Bay. I don't miss the Bayisms when it comes to characters, comedy, and coherence, but there was some spectacle that they often had that this doesn't seem to as much, or maybe just that we have seen other films since 2007 do a lot more with CGI and action and this franchise hasn't evolved visually the way I thought it would.
I'm also more a fan of the people being involved than anything else. I wouldn't care to watch a Transformers movie that only takes place on, say, Cybertron. I'm more interested in people seeing these aliens for the first time, the robots transforming to and from vehicle mode, placing them on the streets and with buildings, etc. This film has some of that, but a lot less than Bay's films. I think that is likely the difference. This will work better for others, but not myself.
Even still, this movie really works and could serve as an entry point for people who haven't seen any of the other TF films. Since this takes place in the 90s I can't tell if they are willing to say that this operates in canon with Bay's films (and a lot of continuity would be broken if so), but this does work with Bumblebee before it and there are clearly plans to make future films in this universe after this one.
It has moments that I think they go a bit too far in one direction, but I think after watching the film in its entirety I'm okay with it. Jokes also land a lot more than Bay's cringe attempts, but I don't need these robots taking on too many human characteristics. It's something that TF1 avoided that still makes it the best one to me. This one is cool though, and I do hope they can find a way to improve visually for any sequels.
My rankings:
Transformers
Transformers: Dark of the Moon
Transformers: Rise of the Beasts
Bumblebee
Transformers: The Last Knight
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
Transformers: Age of Extinction
The last three on the list are far below the top three, and Bumblebee sits in the middle (good movie, okay Transformers movie).
EDIT: I just rewatched TF1 and TF3 to solidify those rankings. Bay does something different in those films, man. TF3 takes a while to pick up (from the freeway chase scene onward it just doesn't let up), and as I mentioned regarding the CGI it may have looked different then but they haven't
evolved it much. Bay's action hits much different than Rise of the Beasts does, and I prefer that much more as well. Even still, this new one was cool, but it's missing something that I hope sequels will bring to the table.
06-07-2023, 01:54 PM
. Especially this movie where there’s A LOT of action. 
