Spider-Noir

A big swing — oh, yes — that pays off from start to finish, this is an irresistible concoction, an utterly insane stew that somehow makes perfect sense. It is total joy.

"Spider-Noir" is one of the most exciting and creatively fertile superhero works to be released in the last couple years, and while it may be a bit batty, I think it's the bee's knees.

By the end of its eight episodes, Spider-Noir does what it set out to do: prove that a superhero adaptation can still take risks.

Stylish, amusing, and action-packed, it’s a stand-alone tale of spectacular proportions.

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.

Spider-Noir hews closely to the familiar tropes of the detective tale, but it never feels like parody. It just feels like the answer to the question “What if someone made a 1930s noir about a P.I. with spider powers?” I cannot express how much pleasure I take in typing those words. It still makes no sense that this show exists. But it’s wonderful that it does.

You can excuse the anachronism, largely because Cage channels his inner Bogie with such gusto. .... “Spider-Noir” can be funny and fun. And yet, as the name suggests, it comes in a shade of darkness.

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.

In Spider-Noir he [Nicolas Cage] is free to be his finest, most absurd self. If only all superhero shows were as serious about being silly.

The writing and the acting boldly flirt with cliche and caricature, which, as the show is about 100% pastiche, drawn from films more than three-quarters of a century old, could scarcely be avoided and isn’t really a problem. (In a way, it’s the point.) .... But the overall what and why of the story is clever and the conclusion satisfying.

Spider-Noir is a good looking show, that should be fun to watch in either black-and-white or color, but it’s boosted by Cage’s performance and a knack for nailing the classic detective noir genre.

It’s a sharp, often funny binge-show anchored by Nicolas Cage’s go-for-broke performance as Ben Reilly, aka The Spider.

Fortunately, there’s enough to the show’s plucky protagonists and rich sense of style to make up for its storytelling shortcomings. In fact, Spider-Noir is far better than such a frivolous spin-off has any right to be, with Cage deserving of high praise as the lynchpin that holds it all together.

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.

At first glance, “Spider-Noir” may seem too stylized for mainstream audiences and too detached from traditional lore for die-hard fans. But anyone willing to meet the series on its own terms will likely be surprised by how effective its odd combination of noir fatalism and comic book storytelling ultimately works.

The various and intertwining plot lines in “Spider-Noir” aren’t as gripping and visceral as, say, the recent “The Penguin” series. Much of my enjoyment stems from the consistent nods to the films of the period, from the music choices, e.g., “Dream a Little Dream of Me,” to the atmospheric cinematography, to tributes to films such as the pre-code “Below the Sea” (1933) starring Ralph Bellamy and Fay Wray, to the James Cagney vehicle “Great Guy” (1936).

The story it all adds up to is numbingly free of surprise or real excitement; its one bid for honest emotion, the inevitable attraction between Reilly and the chanteuse, is a washout. (To put it in noir terms, it’s D.O.A.) “Spider-Noir” does have the advantage of being easygoing and in on its own jokes; that, along with the production design, can lull you into submission. .... What does come through, because of the relative restraint of the performance, is Cage’s inherent likability — the quality he sometimes seems to be running away from. Overall, it’s a pleasure spending eight episodes in his company.

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.

Cage's effortless charisma and undeniable likability alone are enough to hold interest. It may not be for everyone, especially for hardcore comic fans expecting something much grittier, but it's also hard to deny that Spider-Noir is just a heck of a lot of fun.

A boldly bizarre mash-up of film noir and comic book action, "Spider-Noir" commits to the bit but gives us too little substance along with all the style.

It finally gives Nicolas Cage the kind of lead superhero role (eccentric, weird, and aptly quaint) he's meant for. If there's any hallmark here, it's his committed (if slightly restrained) performance that could've been much better with a bolder and less derivative script altogether.

In black and white or in color, Spider-Noir is basically a collection of gimmicks in search of a better story and writers who’ve seen “The Maltese Falcon,” “The Big Sleep” and “Double Indemnity,” or more importantly HEARD them.

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

The best you can say about Spider-Noir is that it’s a noble, but ultimately failed experiment. Its lead clearly set out to create a character who didn’t feel entirely like a human being; what he got was one that never really feels like a person.

Cage isn’t boring to watch here — he’s never boring — but the rest of the eight-episode MGM+/Prime Video series around him certainly is.

Though beautifully shot in both color and black-and-white — the viewer chooses which one — “Spider-Noir” is a lackluster, repetitive retelling of the same old vigilante tale audiences have seen time and time again.