Thank you for this post! There is a tension between the facts which are presented in the course of the story - facts which seem to support Miguel's interpretation of things - and the emotional/dramatic impact of the second half of the story, culminating in Miles' "magnificent moment of defiance" as you put it, which makes it impossible for us to simply accept Miguel's version of reality without question. You did a great job of dissecting this aspect of the film.
There's another bit of dialogue in that same scene which also strikes me as significant, the moment when we first (as I remember) see that Gwen is beginning to distance herself from Miguel's view. Gwen says something like "but my gut says..." and Jessica Drew says "then use your head". Now, if that exchange were taken out of context, it would be impossible to say which person is right, just on the basis of those words. After all, both gut feelings and rational considerations have their place. But in context, at that moment in the film, is it possible to doubt that Gwen is right? That was my reaction, anyway.
Another fun and thorough post! I don’t know if it is worth mentioning that there’s a quick black-and-white shot in ATSV of the spider seemingly about to bite a relevant character in its native universe. Perhaps you didn’t feel the need to bring it up since it is likely a detail that will be confirmed or not in BTSV.
I can understand why it wasn't, but another thing that wasn't brought up was the references in the film to Doctor Strange, Tom Holland's Spider -Man, Tobey Maguire's, and Andrew Garfield's. There's even an image in the movie that's similar (if not the same) as the "multiverse tree" from the Loki show. I'm not trying to be a smart-aleck, but whether we like it or not, these connect the Spider-Verse to the MCU, which has certain implications.
Great series of posts. Thanks for explaining this, it's in really easy-to-understand terms and I've enjoyed your analysis...it pinpoints all that I've felt uneasy about regarding the multi-verse and indeed much of the godlike power that the MCU gives to creatures and science. A thoughtful read.
Thank you for this post! There is a tension between the facts which are presented in the course of the story - facts which seem to support Miguel's interpretation of things - and the emotional/dramatic impact of the second half of the story, culminating in Miles' "magnificent moment of defiance" as you put it, which makes it impossible for us to simply accept Miguel's version of reality without question. You did a great job of dissecting this aspect of the film.
There's another bit of dialogue in that same scene which also strikes me as significant, the moment when we first (as I remember) see that Gwen is beginning to distance herself from Miguel's view. Gwen says something like "but my gut says..." and Jessica Drew says "then use your head". Now, if that exchange were taken out of context, it would be impossible to say which person is right, just on the basis of those words. After all, both gut feelings and rational considerations have their place. But in context, at that moment in the film, is it possible to doubt that Gwen is right? That was my reaction, anyway.
Another fun and thorough post! I don’t know if it is worth mentioning that there’s a quick black-and-white shot in ATSV of the spider seemingly about to bite a relevant character in its native universe. Perhaps you didn’t feel the need to bring it up since it is likely a detail that will be confirmed or not in BTSV.
I can understand why it wasn't, but another thing that wasn't brought up was the references in the film to Doctor Strange, Tom Holland's Spider -Man, Tobey Maguire's, and Andrew Garfield's. There's even an image in the movie that's similar (if not the same) as the "multiverse tree" from the Loki show. I'm not trying to be a smart-aleck, but whether we like it or not, these connect the Spider-Verse to the MCU, which has certain implications.
Great series of posts. Thanks for explaining this, it's in really easy-to-understand terms and I've enjoyed your analysis...it pinpoints all that I've felt uneasy about regarding the multi-verse and indeed much of the godlike power that the MCU gives to creatures and science. A thoughtful read.