Spider-Noir

A marvelous mesh of style, homage and deconstruction, “Spider-Noir” is the year’s top TV treat so far.

That the series houses its mad science experiments and cartoonish fight scenes in familiar packaging goes a long way toward keeping it accessible, but the charming eccentricities and their astute implementation add up to a Spider-story worth investing in — bring on the strange.

The whole is fast enough and fun enough to get away with it. Everything is shot with style and confidence, while the script contains just enough sharp dialogue and witty banter (even if it does occasionally veer into screwball comedy territory when it occurs between men and women) to keep it aligned with the templates of the past.

Nicolas Cage gives a four-star performance in a three-star Spidey-adjacent series that is almost but not quite as gloriously unhinged as he is playing a 1930’s gumshoe who’s 70 percent Humphrey Bogart and 30 percent Bugs Bunny.

Not only in terms of the action, which was never expected to be quite on the same level as movies with much bigger budgets, but also in how certain emotional moments did not have quite the same punch, or a few villains ended up being more generic than expected. Still, Spider-Noir is a winning story for this new live-action side of Spider-Man, and, hopefully, it can continue to improve with a second season and more.

Periodically, Spider-Noir is, indeed, a hoot. It’s too bad you have to wade through so much nondescript storytelling to get there.

This is the same ecosystem that gave us “Kraven,” “Madame Web,” “Venom,” and “Morbius,” films that kept mistaking supporting-player novelty for the foundation of a real story. “Spider-Noir” makes the same mistake, and Cage’s oddball charm can’t save it.

Amazing, nuff sed this show has some great moments and really feels like an old cheesy detective show from the mid 1900s. if youre a spider man fan, it nails that too with A LOT of spider verse references and Nick cage plays him in both so yeah. its pretty good

The very definition of mediocre and at times annoyingly cliche. Such a shame.

The Boys is finished, Daredevil is on hiatus, Penguin, seems so long ago. There hasn’t even been a recent Spider-man installment lately. So Noir is here to fill that gap. Nick Cage is the last major actor that you’d think of to play a super hero, but he did a fantastic Dracula so let’s keep the fantasy going, even though overacting seems to be the main assignment here.

Most importantly, it's a bland show. Nothing happens, the dialog and story meanders - and you end up still not knowing what's going on because it bores you to death. In one line: "Cheap meandering chaos that goes nowhere and delivers boredom". I wanna be clear, I am not a Zoomer. I have seen a fair share of old detective movies and shows (actually I am a fan). And I like the O.G. MCU stuff and Cage. So this should be my show. But it is the absolute opposite. Because this is a full-fledged disaster, let me be brisk: - Flat dialog and delivery - Line delivery of some minor characters are good and with an attempt to period adjust (kudos). But the rest mostly does plain flat colloquial modern English. - Boring plot development and delivery - Not faithful characters (race-swaps, china audience swaps, body positivity swaps etc.) - and as usual with these, these agenda actors bomb - Generally, this was created by acolytes of "The Message" ;) - Instead of a noir detective focus, this is some ensemble cast attempt that does not fit and adds to the meandering of the show - Cinematography is abysmal. People rant because "uh look black and white" but the shots are far too bright. The sets are horribly plain. In color you see it worse, but even in black and white - rain during the brightly lit day does not invoke a "noir" feeling. It's just rain dude. And why put a rain shot in that scene to begin with? To pad! Blade Runner is in color and far more moody and noir that this stinker. - This also means that the black and white (hype) is nothing else than a surface level trick in an attempt to elevate bad material and delivery - and it seems to work. Nothing else is done to elevate or match the material to the time - beyond the surface. So. Boring. Dull. Bad to look at (in color even worse). One of these typical modern "Could maybe be a movie, but we want to stretch it out for steaming" things, that usually ends up being a time waster. But somehow it seems to work to create a hype. So yea, the bad state of TV and movies continues. That said, better than any other Spider man since Sam Rami - I know of. Still very bad - and still has a "Message" stink to it.

How did this old man get this job? His acting is wooden at best. His face is so full of Botox that the digital de-aging got even further into the uncanny valley then was comfortable. He walks like an old man should walk. He’s a sixty two year old! This story should be from a much younger perspective. Nicolas Cage should make sure they get more consistent de-aging software that makes him walk and generally move like a younger man too. This really just doesn’t work.