Anyone Can Wear the Mask
PC: Levi Ventura
Nicflix
Spider-man: Into the Spider-verse” came out Dec. 14, 2018 and you still have a chance to see one of the most original movies of the last year—animated or otherwise—in all its glory.
Go. See. This. Movie. If I could pay for all of you, I would, but I have zero dollars. We could sneak in! Spidey-style. Shhhh … With three separate depictions of Spider-man made into film already, you’d think it’d be impossible to come up with a fresh take on his story.
Think again, suckers! “Into the Spider-verse” not only tells this not-so-original story in a completely original way, but they do it in style. Sony’s challenge was creating a completely new style of incredibly detailed 3D animation that utilizes techniques from 2D comics like ink dot-shading and thought bubbles integrated into scenes, essentially making a moving comic book.
This movie hits “never seen or done before” on so many levels it’s ridiculous! The visuals are insane, the music is dope and the characters and story just hit home.It’s easy to distance ourselves from superhero movies because they’re so unrealistic, how can we possibly relate, right? WRONG AGAIN.
This Spider-man movie focuses on a new hero—Miles Morales—who struggles to measure up to the expectations placed on him and while the movie’s telling his origin story, they’re really telling all of ours. Expectations bulldoze us from every direction—society, family, ourselves—and it’s exhausting. Others tend to recognize our potential before we do and their blinding expectations make it seem almost impossible to find or reach that potential for ourselves.
The witty misquote, “with great ability, comes great accountability,” is a burden we all carry at some point. It’s cool because “anyone can wear the mask.” Everyone has that potential, but like with Miles, the pressure from that potential overwhelms us and brings up the question: “How will I know I’m ready? What if I can’t do it?” Wise old Peter B. Parker A.K.A the great Jake Johnson A.K.A. Nick from New Girl answers that question for us: “It’s a leap of faith—that’s all it is.” A lot of times the crippling fear of failure and the guilt of letting others down keeps us from taking that leap, but as Michael Scott says, “you miss 100% of the shots you don’t take. -Wayne Gretzky.”
“Spider-verse” taught me anyone can be a hero. And heroes fail. But failure is not what defines someone, it’s how they react to failure that defines them—how many times they can get knocked down and still get back up. Let’s take that leap of faith in 2019. Maybe we’ll fail spectacularly, but we might just find a little more of ourselves in the process.
-Your Friendly Neighborhood Movie Guy
“That person who helps others simply because it should or must be done, and because it’s the right thing to do, is indeed without a doubt, a real superhero.” - Stan Lee
Nicholas Morrison is a senior studying graphic design.