Published 2024-09-23
tag(s): #film-tv #retro
This weekend kiddo and I went to a screening of Spider-Man: Across the Spider-verse with live music. I saw an ad for the event on Instagram[1], then gave in and decided to check out prices and dates, the rest is history.
We love these movies. I used to follow every single animated release and
event from the late 90s to the mid 00s, but then it became a bit too much (too many releases
all the time).
Also after becoming a parent with less time available to go to the movies, I got even slower.
Lately I haven't even been watching shows that I started and liked[2]. I
still have Soul in my to-do list.
Welp, got distracted there. The reason Juan and I have a very strong relationship to these movies is because of how the first one (Into the Spider-Verse) impacted us. He was six, and I didn't know much about it except that it had a cool visual style. A younger version of me would have read and seen too much about it beforehand, but instead parent me just saw a few posters and was like, let's do it.
We were just blown away. Juan watched the whole thing in one go, without moving (unusual for a
6 year old). I was on the edge of my seat. The animation style is brilliant, it really
stretched the medium in new directions. The characters are well written, you really care about
them.
Then the movie was on Netflix for a while and we watched it so many times.
The premiere of the sequel was a huge event for us, filled with anticipation. We only watched the first trailer and held off on getting more info about it. It definitely delivered, at least, for us it sure did.
A while ago kiddo and I watched some Buster Keaton shorts in YouTube, and that led to us
talking about silent movies. How at first it was only images, then live music, before
"talkies"[3].
At some point this week, as I was building anticipation for this screening, I remembered that
conversation and I found the whole idea funny, that we are now making an event of something
that used to be normal. A bit like the comeback of vinyl? Or how I make my coffee using a pour
over instead of just pushing a button in a machine.
There's something funny about the whole deal, if I were a comedian I would take this observation to a good punchline, or play with the parallels to other old timey things until I land on something witty. But in this blog, you just get the raw observation :)
Regarding the screening, it was awesome. I've seen these kind of events advertised for a other
movies and I would attend another one in a heartbeat. This one in particular had a great
atmosphere: tons of people in costume, families with kids, we were encouraged to cheer and
clap. Overall good vibes.
Even if it were a more subdued audience, the live music aspect is very cool, there were small
flourishes and variations here and there that made it fresh.