{"id":178352,"date":"2018-12-26T19:00:00","date_gmt":"2018-12-27T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2018\/12\/26\/according-to-the-customs-of-my-people-chinese-and-a-movie-on-christmas\/"},"modified":"2018-12-26T19:00:00","modified_gmt":"2018-12-27T00:00:00","slug":"according-to-the-customs-of-my-people-chinese-and-a-movie-on-christmas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2018\/12\/26\/according-to-the-customs-of-my-people-chinese-and-a-movie-on-christmas\/","title":{"rendered":"According to the Customs of My People, Chinese and a Movie on Christmas"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"border: 1px solid black; float: right; margin: 0px 10px; padding: 5px; text-align: center; width: 340px;\"><i><a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt4633694\/\">Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Cast:<br \/>Shameik Moore  &#8230;  Miles Morales (voice) <br \/>Jake Johnson  &#8230;  Peter B. Parker (voice) <br \/>Hailee Steinfeld  &#8230;  Gwen Stacy (voice) <br \/>Mahershala Ali  &#8230;  Uncle Aaron (voice) <br \/>Brian Tyree Henry  &#8230;  Jefferson Davis (voice) <br \/>Lily Tomlin  &#8230;  Aunt May (voice) <br \/>Luna Lauren Velez  &#8230;  Rio Morales (voice) <br \/>Zo\u00eb Kravitz  &#8230;  Mary Jane (voice) <br \/>John Mulaney  &#8230;  Spider-Ham (voice) <br \/>Kimiko Glenn  &#8230;  Peni Parker (voice) <br \/>Nicolas Cage  &#8230;  Spider-Man Noir (voice) <br \/>Kathryn Hahn  &#8230;  Doc Ock (voice) <br \/>Liev Schreiber  &#8230;  Wilson Fisk (voice) <br \/>Chris Pine  &#8230;  Peter Parker (voice) <br \/>Natalie Morales  &#8230;  Miss Calleros (voice) <br \/>Edwin H. Bravo  &#8230;  Brooklyn Visions Security Guard (voice) <br \/>Oscar Isaac  &#8230;  Interesting Person #1 (voice) <br \/>Greta Lee  &#8230;  Interesting Person #2 (voice) <br \/>Stan Lee  &#8230;  Stan (voice)<br \/>Jorma Taccone &#8230; Green Goblin \/ Last Dude (voice)<br \/>Joaqu\u00edn Cosio &#8230; Scorpion (voice)<br \/>Marvin  &#8220;Krondon&#8221; Jones III &#8230; Tombstone (voice) (as Marvin Jones III) <\/p>\n<p><i>Directors:<\/i><br \/><i>Directors: Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey, Rodney Rothman<br \/>Writers: Phil Lord, Rodney Rothman<\/i><\/i><\/p>\n<p>Yes, it&#8217;s better than the trailer<br \/><iframe loading=\"lazy\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen=\"\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"180\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/tg52up16eq0\" width=\"320\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p>This is a spoiler free review, of <i><a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt4633694\/\">Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse<\/a><\/i>, and I will not go into the minutae of the plot beyond what you can see in the (attached) trailer.<\/p>\n<p>Charlie and I saw this, while Sharon<sup>*<\/sup> and Nat saw <i>Mary Queen of Scotts<\/i>, because Sharon<sup>*<\/sup> was not interested in seeing an animated superhero movie, and I have always had a visceral loathing of Mary I of Scotland, so I did not want to see the movie.<\/p>\n<p>Natalie was up for both, but went, and enjoyed, <i>Mary Queen of Scotts<\/i>, which was probably best for her.<\/p>\n<p>The basic plot is that Wilson Fisk (The Kingpin) is engaging in dimension spanning experiments to further his nefarious (but understandable) aims.<\/p>\n<p>This threatens the very fabric of existence, and brings other Spider beings into Miles Morales&#8217; universe.<\/p>\n<p>Miles Morales must learn how to use his powers and work with other Spider folks in order to do this.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s a rather ordinary Spider-Man plot with a multiverse thrown in, but really, you don&#8217;t go to this movie for the plot, you go to the movie for the characters and the art direction.<\/p>\n<p>The characterization, and dialogue, are very good.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;How good?&#8221;, you ask?<\/p>\n<p>So good that I did not find Nicholas Cage, who voiced Spider-Man Noir, annoying.<\/p>\n<p>The performances are all top flight, with Kathryn Hahn&#8217;s performance as Doc Ock, and Hailee Steinfeld&#8217;s performance as Gwen Stacy being the strongest.<\/p>\n<p>As to the art direction, it was magnificent.<\/p>\n<p>First, they had a clear vision, and a reason to use animation as a result.<\/p>\n<p>Second, their vision recreated the medium of the printed comic book to a degree I have never seen.<\/p>\n<p>In addition to using the classic boxes for internal dialogue, they treated the background in a way that evoked the occasionally problematic color registration issues present in comic books, along with the occasional captioned sound effects.<\/p>\n<p>One health note here:&nbsp; If you have an issue with flashing lights,&nbsp; migraines or a seizure disorder, it might be triggering.<\/p>\n<p>Nat was having a mild migraine yesterday, which is why it was good that she saw <i>Mary Queen of Scotts<\/i> instead.  You probably want to make sure that you are ready for what is a very vibrant style on that day.<\/p>\n<p>One final note, it has what will be one of&nbsp; Stan Lee&#8217;s final cameos, with him telling Milo that about his Spider-Man costume, &#8220;It always fits &#8212; eventually,&#8221;&nbsp; pulls at the heart strings.<\/p>\n<p>There is also a blink-and-you-miss-it call out to Steve Ditko.<\/p>\n<p>Finally, (do I need to say this for a Marvel Studios Film?) <b>SIT THROUGH THE WHOLE CREDITS<\/b>.&nbsp; Seriously.<\/p>\n<p>Overall rating: 9 of 10.<\/p>\n<p>As to the Chinese food, we had dinner after seeing the movies, and I shared Peking Duck with Sharon<sup>*<\/sup> at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.davidchuschinabistro.com\/\">David Chu&#8217;s<\/a>, a local kosher Chinese eatery, which I highly recommend.<\/p>\n<p>That duck is why I did not write the review last night.  It&#8217;s delicious, but it is perhaps the best sleeping aid that I have ever encountered.<\/p>\n<p>I was sleeping like a baby at 8:30 pm. <\/p>\n<p><sup>*<\/sup><span style=\"font-size: xx-small;\">Love of  my life, light of the&nbsp; cosmos, <span style=\"font-variant: small-caps; font-weight: bold;\">she&nbsp; who must be obeyed<\/span>,  my wife.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse Cast:Shameik Moore &#8230; Miles Morales (voice) Jake Johnson &#8230; Peter B. Parker (voice) Hailee Steinfeld &#8230; Gwen Stacy (voice) Mahershala Ali &#8230; Uncle Aaron (voice) Brian Tyree Henry &#8230; Jefferson Davis (voice) Lily Tomlin &#8230; Aunt May (voice) Luna Lauren Velez &#8230; Rio Morales (voice) Zo\u00eb Kravitz &#8230; Mary Jane (voice) &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[686,497,496,518],"class_list":["post-178352","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-animation","tag-cinema","tag-reviews","tag-science-fiction"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178352"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=178352"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178352\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=178352"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=178352"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=178352"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}