Spider-Noir Review – Nicolas Cage’s take on the superhero as a 1940’s police officer is absolutely hilarious | Television

As is increasing, boring, the story in which the Marvel Cinematic Universe continues to expand / explode / chase the dollar in a dull and unprofitable way – remove according to taste – Prime Video’s new series, Spider-Noir, requires you to put aside some stories and save some metal. So I must say that the arachno-inflected character is brought to you here and has been played by Nicolas Cage but no the spider that played in 2018’s Spider-man: Into the Spiderverse, although it sounds the same. That one was called Peter Parker, as usual. This one is called Ben Reilly. Why you would still play one of the most controversial actors in the history of modern cinema – who is no more distinguishable from his past parts by the average human brain than the idea of ​​bitterness can be associated with lemons, the sweetness of honey, or Nigel Farage’s face from a melted frog – is beyond me, but I …

As the title suggests, Spider-Noir was taken as an homage to the steamy films and science fiction of the 1940s. Everything was filmed in black and white with digital color afterwards, so that viewers could choose the color they wanted to watch. I look forward to the internet wars that will break out on this issue, while I remain in Switzerland. Apart from saying that choosing to paint a noir homage was important in the first place – don’t give people what they want! – and the decision to watch such a version is worse.

However. The show is full of shadows and cigarette smoke, sassy secretaries and shadowy dames, and celebrities and celebrities. Reilly was a hero – known as Spider, apparently, not Spider-Man, perhaps for different legal reasons – keeping New York unharmed until five years ago, when he failed to save the woman he loved from death. He’s hung up his mask – a story of impressive fur, because we’re in the Depression Era and Lycra was still invented – and now it’s more. Sam Spade than Kangaude, who earns a living as a PI.

When we first meet him, Reilly has been hired by an unseen client to investigate a man named Addison. When she does, Addison is able to transform herself into a human torch and set fire to everything in her path – but that doesn’t stop the bullets that are fired into her chest and another piece of gum, also written by an unseen client to find her. What was the most important thing for this guy and why is this client invisible?

Reilly’s metaphorical spidey-sense be warned. What should not be confused with his true sense of the spider, which trembles whenever violence is about to be done to his character, although it is usually too late to prevent the audience from fighting further. One person, Flint Marko (Jack Huston) – the bodyguard of Cat Hardy (Li Jun Li), the darkest, darkest madam – seems to have turned into sand – yes, sand! A man made of sand, can you believe it? – when insulted. Aren’t Spider and Addison the only men in New York with hidden talents? When Flint goes missing, Cat hires Reilly to find him, so she’s drawn into – ahem – a web of crime and danger. (Which I just realized makes the Spider look like a fly, but let’s just skip that.)

At its center is a criminal, Silvermane (Brendan Gleeson), who has been taking over the city for the past five years. He has various policemen and politicians in his pocket and the latest crisis in his style is someone’s attempt to burn down his mansion. But who? But who?

Lots of information, lots of characters, hidden abilities and plot twists are on offer – and if nobody’s the wiser, it’s all fast-paced and fun enough to pull off. Everything is shot with style and confidence, while the script has sharp and witty dialogue (even if it sometimes veers into screwball territory when it comes to gender roles) to match the classic templates. And Cage fans, of course, will have Cage to carry them through as well. Non-Cage fans (hi!) need not fear either. For us, they should always appear in movies that are made as creatively and respectfully as possible, so that what we can’t help but describe as negative emotions is less visible, and, better, starts to look more credible. And he is well supported / his hidden weaknesses by the great performance of Karen Rodriguez as the sassy secretary, Janet; Actor Lamorne Morris as Reilly’s hard-working friend Robbie Robertson; and Gleeson as a terrifying villain – mostly because of his reliance on horror rather than superpowers.

If it were blond, Spider-Noir wouldn’t have managed to make a bishop drill through a stained glass window. But that would make him think about it.