Diva's Movie Review - Spider-man: Across The Spider-verse Is A Dazzling Work Of Art

Just after two weeks of its theatrical release, SPIDER-MAN: ACROSS THE SPIDER-VERSE raked in an impressive USD 400 million at the global box office. Achieving this box office number is no mean feat for a superhero animated film, and ACROSS THE SPIDER-VERSE, the sequel of 2018's SPIDER-MAN: INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE, is now Sony's highest-grossing animated release in history. The film continues its money-making gains at the international box office by crossing the half a billion (USD) mark this week.

ACROSS THE SPIDER-VERSE follows about a year after the events of the first movie. Back at her own world, Gwen Stacey/ Spider-Woman (Hailee Steinfeld) has been dealing with her personal demons. She is feeling emotionally fraught after losing her best friend Peter, and being not able to reveal her secret identity to her dad. Later on, Gwen is roped in to join the Spider Society, which is headed by Miguel O'Hara (Oscar Isaac), the intense and intimidating Spider-man 2099 from Earth 928B. The secret society had been created mainly to prevent the collapse of the multiverse, and consists of numerous Spider-variants as members.

Diva's Movie Review: Missing Is A Riveting And Twisty Screenlife Thriller

Sony Pictures' Missing is the next installment of their critically acclaimed 2018 screenlife film, Searching. In this film genre (also know as desktop films), the audience is led through a series of events which unfolds mostly in front of a computer screen or smartphone. Directed by Nicholas D. Johnson and Will Merrick, and a screenplay by Aneesh Chaganty and Sev Ohanian (the creators of Searching), Missing is not a direct sequel to older film, but it does follow the same formula. To its benefit, Missing manages to supercede its predecessor with a tauter and twistier thriller, and a touching mother-daughter relationship.

In Searching, Daniel Kim (John Cho) is a frantic father looking desperately for his missing teenage daughter Margot (Michelle La) via her online activities. The situation is somewhat reversed in Missing, with June (Storm Reid), a Gen Z teenager trying to trace the whereabouts of her mother Grace (Nia Long).

Spider-Man: No Way Home Is A Fun Treat For Spidey Fans Young and Old

Sony Pictures' SPIDER-MAN: NO WAY HOME, with the adorable puppyish Tom Holland back as Peter Parker/ Spider-Man, is the best comic book movie of the year. This is not counting ZACK SNYDER'S JUSTICE LEAGUE, which was more of a one-off special event than a blockbuster movie release. SPIDER-MAN: NO WAY HOME is a load of fun, and an absolute treat for Spidey fans of all ages.

The movie continues immediately from SPIDER-MAN: FAR FROM HOME'S ending. Just before supervillain Mysterio died, he was able to throw Peter Parker's life into chaos by revealing Spidey's true identity as well as framing him for murder. As The Daily Bugle's relentless journalist J. Jonah Jameson (JK Simmons) and the authorities go after Peter, all whom he loves - Aunt May (Marisa Tomei), his girlfriend MJ (Zendaya) and bestie Ned (Jacob Batalon) - are bearing the consequences of his newfound notoriety. He naively seeks Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) for help, requesting that the wizard cast a spell to make the world forget that Peter Parker is Spider-Man. Unfortunately, the powerful spell got bungled, and all goes awry.

Ghostbusters: Afterlife Oozes Nostalgia But Needs A Fresher Take

Gen X-ers have been getting lots of attention from Hollywood studios these days as popular franchises of the golden era keep coming back to the screen. Star Wars, Star Trek, Scream, Jumanji, He-Man, The Muppets, The Karate Kid, Indiana Jones... you name it, they have it. And if not, they are probably already planning on it. There are the reboots, the re-imaginings, the tributes and the sequels, all in an attempt to drown the ‘forgotten generation’ (of which Red Dot Diva is a proud member), with a flood of nostalgia.

In that aspect, GHOSTBUSTERS: AFTERLIFE is not short on the feel-good nostalgia, as Jason Reitman, son of “Ghostbusters” director Ivan Reitman, pulled out all the stops to win the hearts of the original fans. The 2016 all-female Ghostbusters remake by Paul Feig created a lot of backlash that consisted of mostly racist and sexist complaints. Red Dot Diva liked the 2016 movie, and it was empowering to watch the cast of wonderful comedians kicking ass as women ghostbusters. Unfortunately, it goes to prove that society is still not ready to accept when a script is gender-flipped.

There are no such thorny issues with GHOSTBUSTERS: AFTERLIFE. The sequel is likeable, family friendly and provides a great starting point for new fans of the franchise.

Why “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” is THE Best Spider-Man Movie

Sony Pictures' animated movie “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” has created waves across the geek world with its simple yet iconic storyline that has a lot of heart and chockful of easter eggs, accompanied by eye-popping dash of colour and a snappy pace. Red Dot Diva loved the movie too, and thought it was the best animated movie of the year.

“Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” translated the characters from the 2D comic book pages to animated form, by fleshing out the characters whom we love, like Peter Parker (Jake Johnson for the scruffy 'B' version), Gwen Stacy (Hailey Steinfeld), and the latest Spidey hero Miles Morales (Shameik Moore) in such a delightful manner. It made us even feel a little for the villain, Kingpin (Liev Schreiber). 

The animated feature is also a beautiful, heartfelt tribute to Spider-man's creators Stan Lee (who passed away a month ago), and Steve Ditko. For those sniffle-worthy moments, do not forget to stay on for the movie's post-credits, for which there are two.

Red Dot Diva's fellow geek pal Wayne Rée watched the movie and loved it as well. Here's Wayne's review of “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse”:

-------------------------

I’ll just say it right up front. “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” isn’t just my favourite movie of the year, it’s also one of my favourite superhero movies ever, one of my favourite Spider-Man stories in any medium, and easily my favourite Spider-Man movie.

Your mileage may vary on all the Spider-Man live action movies thus far. I personally think that Sam Raimi and Marc Webb’s respective series were both flawed overall, but with moments of brilliance, and while Homecoming very much got the spirit of the character right, a lot of the action was pretty choppy. (Don’t @ me, guys.)

Why Into the Spider-Verse tops all of them for me, however, is that it’s the one that didn’t just nail the spirit of the character, but it also tapped into the idea of why we al love Spider-Man.

Pac-Man Celebrates His 35th Birthday Celebration, Plus the "Pixel" Movie in August 2015!

Raise your hands, all those who remember spending hours in an arcade, steering a hungry yellow round creature round a maze, and having him munch pellets and fruits, and escaping from his relentless enemies named Blinky, Inky, Pinky & Clyde.

Well, that famous creature is PAC-MAN, and he turned 35 years old on 22 May! Doesn't that one feel nostalgic (and old)?

PAC-MAN is a classic when it comes to arcade video games. It is the #1 arcade game in the world, and on his birthday, fans in various cities will be celebrating it in true PAC-MAN fashion.

In his birthplace Japan, over 350 participants wearing yellow raincoats gathered at Tokyo Tower to attempt to break the Guinness World Records title for the Largest Human Image of PAC-MAN. And they succeeded! The image of PAC-MAN was 10.5 metres in size. Check out the NHK news article and video of the feat here. Celebrities like actor Shingo Yanagisawa and creator Professor Toru Iwantani also joined in the festivities.

Diva Watched "The Amazing Spider-Man 2" - Cluttered, But More Entertaining Than The First

Red Dot Diva was pleasantly surprised when Sony Pictures Singapore e-invited her and a small group of local bloggers for an exclusive snippets preview of "The Amazing Spider-Man 2" a few weeks before the movie opens at local cinemas on May 1.

During the preview, the introduction by director Marc Webb and the specially selected movie snippets had already hinted of the spectacular 3D imaging used for the movie as well as of the exciting sequences in store. Red Dot Diva had a gut feel then, that the sequel was going to be a way better movie than the first installment.

And she was not wrong.

Based on her 3D experience of "The Amazing Spider-Man 2" media premiere held on April 24 at GV Vivo (which has an amazing Spidey promo area, by the way - see pic below!), the following consists of Red Dot Diva's opinions about the movie.

Warning: Mild Spoilers!