It bares repeating that Sony have not done a great job with the Spider-Man IP. The only great bunch of movies are the "Home-Trilogy" with Tom Holland (a joint venture with Marvel) and these "Spider-verse" movies. With the recent release of 'Venom: The Last Dance' which was ok (better than the second but not better than the first), 'Morbius', which was not good, 'Madame Webb', I hear was terrible and now, the soon-to-be released, 'Kraven the Hunter', nothing seems to be as close and/or as great as this Spider-verse franchise of yet, and as I have stated before in my last review and I quote "if they stick the landing in a third film, this can quite possibly be, the BEST Sony Spider-Man trilogy project Sony has ever done or better yet, the best Trilogy in film, period (I do not believe I am exaggerating here either)...because this film remains to be simply incredible. And under a live orchestra, the film is elevated to levels unknown.
If you do not know much about 'Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse', it is about a student named Miles Morales who was bitten by a radioactive spider, becomes Spider-Man but then realises there are different universes that have a Spider-Man in them. He continues to be Spider-Man after the end of the first film "Spider-Man: Into the Spider-verse", trying his best to balance his life as the wall crawler and a student. He wants to be the best person he can be, a good son to his wonderful and supportive parents and Spider-Man, but not unlike all spider-men, he is struggling to find that balance. When Gwen Stacy comes back into this reality to stop a villain who is intrinsically tied to Miles, Miles has to figure out who and what type of Spider-Man he will continue to be going forward and if he is going to follow the crowd or create his own path.
I saw this movie once in the cinema and I will repeat myself here again, the film was Incredible. They set a high standard and bar for the first movie 'Into the Spider-Verse' so announcing a sequel was going to definitely raise eyebrows and the sequel, not only levels up but goes above and beyond the original in many ways detailed in my review...but an live orchestra? Such a phenomenal experience.
I experienced an orchestral concert with the first Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse movie and I loved it, but to experience this again for the second movie is amazing. I cannot promote this experience enough as I sat and watched the movie to a live orchestra who played the music in the movie, throughout the movie.
So how does it work? You sit and watch the movie as normal like in a cinema, but you have your introduction to the composer and such but when the movie starts, so does the orchestra and they do not stop until the credits have finished rolling.
There are moments in the movie the orchestra is not playing and the DJ might be scratching, but all the musical cues are played by the orchestra.
If there is one annoyance and negative I had about the experience, was that some of the quieter moments with music cues are barely heard because in front of a live orchestra is very loud, but...you don't go to a movie with an live orchestra to see the movie for the first time, that is ridiculous.
I have no idea when the third film is due out, but I will be watching that, THEN watching/listening to the live orchestra when they do that again. It is such an experience for such a great movie, it would be silly to watch the movie, love it, but not watch it again with a live orchestra. Silly. Next time you hear of something like this with a movie you love, indulge yourself.
You can only appreciate the artistry and many hands that were involved in this project. This is a must experience, experience.
