New 'Spider-Man' will capture viewers in its web



“In our own way, we are all Spider-Man,” says Mary Jane, Spider-Man’s longtime romantic partner in the latest film to feature the superhero spawned by a radioactive spider bite.

And in this movie just about everyone really is Spider-Man, thanks to nefarious plan by the villain, Kingpin. It involves a high tech contraption that opens a portal to other universes, and ultimately other Spider-People, of different sizes, genders, and eras.

They show up to help the newest Spider-Man in this universe, a young man named Miles Morales, who comes by his newfound powers in the same way as Peter Parker did way back when.

If everyone can be Spider-Man, it takes much of the film for Miles to learn how to become Spider-Man, and along the way we see a lot of familiar faces to the Spider-Verse, including the man who created this legend. Stan Lee may have recently passed away but those predictable cameos continue in this film.

The movie, in a word, rocks. The story does hit a lot of familiar notes for anyone who has watched superheroes take over the multiplexes for the last decade or so. But the fast pace of the flick, the creativity, along with the humor and clever writing, succeed in putting a living, breathing comic book on the silver screen.

This presentation, more so than the live action movies, reveals the sweet spot for a web slinging superhero who just wants to protect the people of New York.

And by putting us in the shoes of Miles, we learn what it takes to be a friendly, neighborhood Spider-Man.

With a little help from a radioactive spider, we learn that any of us really could put on the tights and save the day.