Spider-Noir Series Review:

When one thinks of Nicolas Cage, the endless renditions of imitations strike our minds, immediately. The slow magnetic drawl is often doled out, with equal halves of satire and admiration. This is an unusual balance to achieve as the polarising nature of the two halves teeters the story in falling either into the hill of homage or the pit of mockery. Fortunately for Cage's latest superhero venture, Prime Video's Spider-Noir, the former is the case. Oren Uziel deftly balances in using the tropes of the American Noir films of the black and white era, and combining them with the flashy storylines of the Spider-Man comics to create a stylish story of a man trying to find his place in the world.

Showrunners: Oron Uziel, Steve Lightfoot

Cast: Nicolas Cage, Li Jun Li, Lamorne Morris, Brendan Gleeson

Streamer: Prime Video

In Spider-Noir, Cage plays Ben Reilly/The Spider, a World War I soldier and private detective, who is continuously haunted by the ghosts of his battles. Reilly drowns in alcohol in order to not be suffocated by his past. He is self deprecating, nihilistic, and on his own words, down-on-his-luck. As Reilly, Cage delivers the essay-like dialogues in dramatic moments with flair, propping up the emotional intensity easily. But Cage still maintains the brand of humour that comes with being Spider-Man, by diving into his eccentric vocal range.

Accompanying Cage's PI is a host of stock noir characters like, a sassy secretary, a pragmatic journalist, gangsters, and scheming politicians. But the supporting cast take stock to sky. Li Jun Li shows Cat Hardy's survivalist flaws in a manner that gathers empathy, to an otherwise one-dimensional femme fatale role. Lamorne Morris and Karen Rodriguez, as reporter Robbie and secretary Janet, are excellent as anchors for Reilly's morals and soul.

Spider-Noir is a story that shows the dual nature of its world consistently. Physical strength and persevering love, renunciation and acceptance, and even colour and black and white. Uriel's focus in dualities helps in preventing Spider-Noir becoming a dated show with some dated capablities. The characters from Spider-Man comics are metahumans whose origins lie in the science world, post 1960. So what happens when you want to adapt characters that are in conventional modern memory, you innovate without taking audience out of the experience. Whether it is something as simple as Reilly's webs, which look like ropes, or his Spidey sense, which in this scenario is a gnawing headache, the noir elements aren't compromised for the science fiction elements. This uncompromising approach to full submitting to both genres helps Spider-Noir in maintaining its intrigue.

But it is the technical crew that towers in creating the immersive watching experience. Cinematographers Darran Tiernan and Peter Deming use unconventional camera angles to symbolise the shift of narratives. Tiernan and Deming use Dutch angles with characters to show where power lies, and add in closeups to create claustrophobic environments for the viewers, so as to feel the tension as the character on screen. Apart from the angles, the use of colours in the True Hue full colour version also elevate the flavour of a scene. During a scene at an underground bar, the foreground is filled with colours while the background remains black and white. This small detail, used in multiple scenes, also holds up the dual nature of the story, properly. Kris Bowers' use of modern electric styles in a noir show also fits like a glove.

Spider-Noir could have just been just another superhero detective story. But in diving into the psyche of its characters and the weight they carry from their past, the story seperates itself from every other superhero project, by using fundamental filmmaking techniques and elevating them with with the individual voices of every member of the cast and crew. But apart from all the hue and cry Spider-Noir is a great binge watch.