Sony/Marvel's Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse Review

With the year ending, Spidey’s universe has gone on a resurgence in media and pop culture after his successful return into film as a part of the MCU in Homecoming, with the fantastic PS4 game celebrating and establishing a game universe for the Web-Head and Venom scoring big all over the world.  Now, his entire universe is making a splash on the animated front with this cross-dimensional, adventure film Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse, with many of the creative teams from The Lego Movie as well as 21/22 Jump Street from directors Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey, and Rodney Rothman along with Phil Lord and Rodney Rothman as writers.  You would think with the overabundance of Spider-Man related media would feel like a cash grab or cynically made at this point, but that is not the case with this animated adventure that not only captures the heart and spirit of the series/characters well but establishes in a big screen format, Miles Morales as a Spider-Man that belongs in this series more effectively than the sluggish but eventual fandom for the character via comics, TV animated shows, and Insomniac game.  Let’s swing into this multiverse adventure and explore how these Spider-Men and Girl got caught up in this mess.

We are introduced to Peter Parker (Surprise Cameo-C.P.) doing his superhero routine as Spider-Man in a universe where Miles Morales (Shameik Moore) exists and he is headed to a new school away from his family and his Brooklyn roots, egged on with the support of his mother Rio Morales (Luna Lauren Velez) working as a nurse and his father Jeffery Davis (Brian Tyree Henry) an NYPD officer.  Morales deals with trying to fit into a school where he doesn’t feel comfortable being in to, whereas his uncle Aaron Davis (Mahershala Ali) always provides that creative spark through his graffiti work, living on through his nephew.  However, during one night out with his uncle, he is bitten by a radioactive spider and gets caught in the middle of a battle between Spidey and the Green Goblin (Jorma Taccone), trying to shut down the dimensional collider, built by Doctor Kathryn O. (Kathryn Hahn) and financed by Wilson Fisk AKA The Kingpin (Liev Schreiber) to open a rift into another version of New York.  It backfires for everyone and creates a temporal discharge that sends a few unlikely characters to end up in Morales’ dimensional world of New York.

After a promise and tragedy occurs from the incident, Morales is forced to learn how to become Spider-Man only to stumble into Peter B. Parker (Jake Johnson) who comes from a different world/timeline where he is middle aged, packing a slight beer gut, divorced from Mary Jane Watson (Zoë Kravitz), and does not want to be burden with being a mentor or settle down with kids.  Learning of this, they discovered that anyone that does not belong in a person’s dimension, will start to disintegrate and disappear out of existence.  Not only has a different Peter Parker landed in Morales’ dimension but also a series of different Spidey heroes from Gwen Stacy/Spider-Gwen (Hailee Steinfeld), Peter Porker/Spider-Ham (John Mulaney), Peni Parker (Kimiko Glenn) and Spider-Noir (Nicolas Cage) ended up here as well.  It is up to the team of Spider heroes to team up and use the collider to get back to their respective dimensional homes as well as destroy it before it annihilates everything from existence.

While there are numerous callbacks and homages to previous incarnations of Spider-Man, this is Morales’ story front and center, as the bright yet introverted high schooler caught between being a model student or a creative artist until he has to learn how to become a Superhero.  He is the heart and soul of this story, as we get a remix of his origin story as well as defining how unique he is as Spider-Man from Parker.  Not only that, this is a proper and well-crafted celebration of Spider-Man as a whole, honoring what came before, trending now, and what may drive the series forward into the future.  It also establishes Miles Morales wonderfully as one of the Spider-Man Incarnations that feels well-earned and a proper introduction for those interested in seeing Miles Morales properly adapted for the big screen.  His cast of characters, world, and story arc will truly define Morales not by his race or name but as another Spider-Man for a new generation in this outing.

The other Spider heroes and characters are also fantastic and just as compelling in their small storylines as well as provide larger scale to the overall series, along with providing an evenly dramatic yet campy tone throughout the whole film.  It balances out those moments extremely well, allowing for the heavier, tragic moments to hit hard but also having zany, creative fun with the concept of the multiverse as it is now becoming another story device for future installments of Superhero films in general.  However, it also establishes how different Morales is from the other Spidey heroes, with the emphasis on Brooklyn and the vibrant but underground street culture that exists within the sleek shine of the Big Apple.  This is done through the creative and effective use of hip/hop songs from contemporary artists that are utilized well to showcase Morales identity and world.  Make no mistake, this is a Spider-Man origin story done well for a new character in the mask as well as honoring and paving the way for new possibilities for this series to move forward in animated and live-action form.

Let’s get into the cast, starting with the lead character we follow the most throughout this story named Miles Morales played by Shameik Moore.  He brings to the character a great sense of vulnerability and Brooklyn based style, that resonates throughout his origin story from his introduction to his emotionally satisfying transformation into the webslinger.  His interaction with the other characters always provides for some fun interactions with the Spidey heroes of the other dimensions.  The writing for his character really provides a great origin arc that allows for newcomers to learn about this character and his world, as well as how he fits into the larger Spiderman universe.  He is able to make the character his own from the creatively strong script from Lord and Rothman, along with the compelling and tragic character development that defines this Spider-Man for fans of the characters and new viewers to the character’s story and world.

                          It would not be a Spidey film without the original himself, Peter B. Parker played by Jake Johnson as the very first of the Spider-Man heroes.  He is played and written to be an older, worn out take of the iconic character from years of crime fighting and personal tragedies that have befallen him over time.  He is also the first of the interdimensional Spidey incarnations and yet the most cynical out of the heroes that end up in Morales’ NYC dimension.  As essentially the mentor of the story, he brings a great sense of familiarity to the legacy character as well as establishing a different spin on Parker as an older, jaded adult in contrast to his younger years.  Johnson captures the experienced yet snarky webslinger perfectly with his laidback yet confident performance of the very first webslinger.

We are then introduced to the team of Spider-Heroes from different dimensions both grounded and outlandish.  We have Hailee Steinfeld as Spider Gwen and she is mainly the friend/crush Morales has but she stands on her own as a Spidey, as well as a rounded interpretation of the character if Gwen Stacy was Spider-Woman and not Parker.  Then we have the uniquely anime version of Parker named Peni, with her emotive yet cool robot partner which provides some really inventive action beats for the character.  Then, we have Nicholas Cage as Spider-Noir, who goes for a Humphrey Bogart impersonation that provides some humorous moments and endearing qualities to the character.  Finally, we have comedian John Mulaney playing the parody interpretation of Spidey, Spider-Ham and it provides some truly funny yet clever jokes as well as cartoonish humor that allows for levity at the proper moments in the film.  All of the other Spider-Heroes are truly fun, refreshing, and prove that Spider-Man is more than just Peter Parker.

Let’s get into the rest of the supporting cast, starting with the allies and characters connected to the two Spider-Man’s being Parker and Morales.  Aunt May is played by Lily Tomlin, providing the gadgetry and team foundation for the Spidey heroes while Mary Jane voiced by Zoë Kravitz is perfectly fine as the iconic love interest for Parker.  As for Morales’ family and uncle, with Jeffery Davis (Brian Tyree Henry), he provides a few of the big emotional moments with Miles that are profound and truly define Miles’ characteristics for his Spider-Man.  But the one character that stuck out was Aaron Davis played by Mahershala Ali, whose cool demeanor and ultimately tragic motivation for Miles Morales really conveys how similar but different Morales is in becoming Spider-Man.  Most of the supporting cast really capture the characters from the comics perfectly for the big screen and really matter to the story in meaningful ways.

For the last of the cast, we have the villains of this story, with the prominent and cursory appearance for this adventure.  The Kingpin played by Liev Schreiber is fantastic in the role, with a natural Bronx gruff to this character and has a very compelling yet destructive reason for wanting to join the dimensions together to regain what he had lost emotionally.  There is also a Doc Octopus played by Kathryn Hahn in this universe that happens to be the Morales version of it, providing some standard if fun villainy action and interactions for most of the beats.  We also have The Prowler, a contract killer for hire and does he provide some truly tense action beats as well as a tragic one in relations to Morales’ story.  We also have little moments mainly with the Morales’ version of Scorpion (Joaquín Cosío) and Tombstone (Marvin "Krondon" Jones III) that serve to be nothing more than just goons for the hires to fight.  The cast is filled with a tremendous cast that all fit their parts perfectly and truly make the origin/multiverse tale work.

Finally, let us explore the colorful yet uniquely crafted technical elements of the film starting with the cinematography and editing throughout the film.  This is the one superhero film that embraces and utilizes the look of a comic book come to life, emphasizing on the cell-shaded 2D animation along with the clever use of comic book panels and wording to make this world different from other animated films.  It is a vibrant and beautiful film that relies on its multitude of stylistic traits for each character and blend them together in imaginative ways.  This was edited by Robert Fisher Jr. and the film just moves briskly as well as energetic during the action set pieces by giving many of the characters get a chance to highlight their action abilities throughout the film.  The comic book visual aesthetics as well as the briskly balanced and engaging editing to make this exciting without feeling too long or dull between the comic book style action and the dramatic, character moments.

Next up, the visual art direction and character/costume designs of the cast in general, starting with the look of the NYC in animated form.  The focus is on the graffiti and specialized charter school and the culture that defines Morales’ world in such vivid and colorful ways that make it distinctive to the reliably grounded palettes of the MCU or even the gritty yet world charting look of the recent DC films.  The characters themselves are all differently designed to their respective series but reflect faithfully to the comic books they are adapted from, especially the iconic looks of street wear Miles’ Spidey as well as his full-on Spider suit.  All the other heroes look like their counterpart and are redesigned appropriately to look just right for the animation but the villains all look familiar yet distinctive, particularly using Scorpion’s design from the Morales’ series as well as a unique Kingpin look that comes from the design work of Bill Sienkiewicz from his run of Daredevil, for those interested in learning where his oversized yet powerful figure comes from.  The entire frame and moments in the film are filled with homages, tributes, fan service, and iconic comic book designs that truly makes this Spider-Man universe seem much larger than what we have gotten from the live action films.

Lastly, the sound design and musical score/soundtrack utilized for the film that is just as meticulously crafted as the look of the film.  The sound design really adds to the cartoony, hyper reality of this NYC, particularly how it plays with the action beats coming across as a great mix of pulpy style action with the grounded look of the world they inhabit.  As for the score done by Daniel Pemberton really handles the different tones for the characters extremely well, mixing in the electronic synth scoring with the booming brass instruments along with familiar hip-hop beats and samples to make each theme standout for all of the heroes.  The soundtrack is absolutely a love letter to NYC’s Hip/Hop street culture and historical Brooklyn art, with bands/artists like Post Malone, Swae Lee, Nicki Minaj, Anuel AA, Juice Wrld, Lil Wayne, Ty Dolla Sign, Thutmose and XXXTentacion providing different songs that work in defining Miles Morales and his transformation into this dimension’s Spider-Man.  Sound Design with the score and soundtrack are used effectively throughout this film, adding to the world the story is set in as well as defining this different yet familiar cinematic take on Morales as Spider-Man. 

Which leads us to how it all comes together, and it is one of the pleasant surprises in animated films to be released in quite some time.  This is yet another quality and lovingly crafted Spider-Man adventure since the PS4 game that came out just 3 months ago, created by the same passionate team of The Lego Movie and Lego Batman minus Chris Miller but still showcasing their love for comic books and the Superheroes they have adapted in their films.  It is also one of the most unique, one of a kind visual treat to those that want to see a comic book come to life on the big screen, right down to the comic book panels or annotations of actions (like a scientist getting hit with a bagel as an example!).  All of the actors and actresses really fit the characters perfectly with Johnson and Moore being compelling as the leads and Nicholas Cage really being the show stealer with his take on Spider-Noir.  All of these combinations including the stellar and fitting sound design work, have created the finest and most memorable Spidey cinematic adventure yet.

Score: ***** out of *****

Sony Pictures/Marvel’s Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse is a remarkable introduction and establishing origin story for Miles Morales as well as a fun, zany multiverse story done right on the big screen.  With a stellar cast and fantastic script to boot from Phil Lord and one of the 3 directors for this film, they managed to not only adapt each of the characters right but made them just as funny, compelling, and cool to watch as Parker himself (and two of him as well).  The animation style and look is truly a work of art, representing a hyper stylized version of NYC and Brooklyn along with the uniquely designed yet comic accurate depictions of the villains and heroes, from the different art work from comic artists to their character traits from their respective series.  It rides a fine line between campy and dramatic, to really handle it with such a deft touch for the material, that the creative team have proven once again what they are capable of in breathing youthful, creative life into familiar series or properties.  This is one trip worth jumping right into, especially for fans of Spider-Man and the worlds created over the past half century.

Bohemian Rhapsody Review

It seems like it was inevitable to finally get a biographical film on the legendary rock band that still resonate with people to this day, Queen named after their most iconic song Bohemian Rhapsody.  This has been a long, chaotic production for some time now, with stars coming and going to play the front man himself, Freddie Mercury along with the production troubles involving Bryan Singer getting fired for misconduct on set with Dexter Fletcher (actor/director of the upcoming Elton John Biography musical drama, Rocketman) replacing him for a good chunk of the film’s production.  It is a miracle that this film finally made it to the big screen in a presentable fashion for the audiences to watch and enjoy in its completed form, despite the drama that has engulfed the film’s production for years now.  Does it come together as a compelling and insightful rock odyssey that captures the reason behind the memorable music of Queen or does it miss a few notes in key creative areas that keep it from being just as fantastic or memorable as other music biographical films?  Let’s rock the night away and play our way into the story for the film.

We follow prominently the front man of the band, Freddie Mercury formerly Farrokh Bulsara (Rami Malek) as he works a dead-end job at an airport but writes out some songs for himself to sing soon.  His family are fine with him drifting to figure out where he wants to go with his life except his father Bomi Bulsara (Ace Bhatti), who urges him to find some way to help the world with his voice and make his mark on the world but disapproves of his son’s unwavering belief that music is the way to do that.  He comes across the band Smiles at a local college gig and notices Brian May (Gwilym Lee), lead guitarist and Roger Taylor (Ben Hardy), drummer of the band along with their singer Tim Staffell (Jack Roth).  They unfortunately lose him and Farrokh takes this chance to become the new singer of the band as well as meeting his future wife/longtime friend Mary Austin (Lucy Boynton).  They would eventually rename the band Queen and would play a few songs that would put them on the radar of the crowd that heard them and eventually the record executives of EMI that would eventually give them their big break.

This would lead to a quick run-through of many of the popular songs that they would create amongst themselves as well as obtain their bass player John Deacon (Joseph Mazzello) eventually and the band was off to success.  However, as the band grew famous and popular, Farrokh would change his name to Freddie Mercury and would become driven by his desire to reach many people as well as his desire to be heard as a musician.  This would lead to a struggle of identity crisis with Mercury and his sexuality as well as the rampant drug use that would affect him emotionally but would drive him and the band to create their best work through the 70’s and early 80’s.  Mercury would go on to continuously have arguments and struggle with his gender role, especially when it is affected negatively by his boyfriend/manager Paul Prenter (Allen Leech).  It becomes a tale of finding the notes in their work and life that would define who they are and eventually become the rock band that was truly innovative to cross genres and barriers in ways that are still felt today.

From that summary alone, that sounds like an epic, fitting take on the iconic band but in reality, it was made and written in such a conventional matter that lacks a committed focus and passionate drive for this story to be exciting to sit through.  To get to the heart of why the film has been criticize for being a typical biographical rag to riches, is that the story really zips through so much history on the band (15 years to be exact) that it was always going to be challenging to remain faithful to their story and rely heavily on embellishment/rearrangements of time to convey the band’s style of music.  This is done with mixed results as they do cover the main beats of the band’s history but mainly on Freddie Mercury as well as his struggle regarding drug abuse and sexuality.  It is touched upon and appreciated that they mention it despite kind of hand waving him admitting his bi-sexuality and just out right saying he is gay (informed that the dialogue was based on the wife’s account of him coming out to her, one of the few effective dramatic scenes) as well as not showing him doing drugs (which makes no sense since in another Bio Pic recently Ray, we see Ray actually shoot up heroin visually in a PG-13 rated film, so no excuses here for sanitizing Queen’s story this way).  It is also kind of odd and missed opportunities to provide any form of character development to the band members outside of their interactions with each other and their capabilities as musicians/writers.

However, the film does shine in a few spots that keep it from being a complete mess of a film, especially in recreating the stylized looks and feel of Queen’s music in their concert montages and the climax of the film, Live AID.  That climatic concert recreation is one of the finest sequences for this type of story as well as literally getting many of the small details scarily accurate from Mercury’s movement throughout the performance, playful energy with the camera guys, and the different hits improvised into each other for their performance that day.  This goes for the montages as well, replicating the look and energy of the concert performances extremely well to what was documented of their performances.  These sequences as well as Malek memorable performance is what keeps this film from being a complete waste of time as well as really capturing the excitement and energy of their music perfectly in an entertaining way, even if the story is shallow and does not offer any meaningful insight into the band themselves outside of Mercury and the odd yet creatively miscalculated liberties taken with their history in the songs as well as the whole 3^rd act itself, revolving around the dramatic beats in them.

Let’s get to the cast now, and we must start with the man leading the charge, Freddie Mercury played by Rami Malek. In portraying the iconic rock star on the stage and through the music, he absolutely nails the persona pitch perfectly and even gets his mannerisms down to a science.  He truly makes each of the montage sequences and the Live AID concert climax truly pop out with his commanding and energized performance.  He is the biggest positive of the main cast that he truly outshines the majority of the performances in this film in positive but also negative ways ironically enough.  This is truly worth praising and appreciating the acting talent and effort put into channeling the best of Mercury on stage.  However, it isn’t quite as pitch perfect as many believe to be, specifically in the scenes when he is not performing on stage to reflect the man behind the persona.

This is where the criticism for his performance will be mentioned, starting with the obvious and certain questionable choices and elements that keep it from a major contender for award recognition.  The obvious is the odd placement of his enlarged front teeth, as Malek clearly is using a prosthetic but it gets in the way of the first half of his performance and clearly leads to some unintentional goofiness but he does get used to them in the latter half of the film.  There was much discussion and arguments over the way to display his sexuality and love life with the focus on Austin and Mercury being the most carefully and effectively handled part of his story but anytime it focused on his gay life immersion, it comes across a bit garishly flamboyant and over the top to the point where it really feels a bit disingenuous and narrow sighted as to how his sexuality drove his desire to be reserved and private about his bisexuality.  That and they may have shown that side of Mercury to be too outlandish and comes across as an assumption rather than a truthful account on part from the writer Anthony McCarten and the accounts of May and Taylor influencing the story to its own detriment.  It is still an incredible performance from Malek when capturing his stage persona with flying colors but not so much the man behind the curtains as they went for something more conventional and ultimately unengaging to sit through.

As for the band themselves, there are a few times where they do provide the necessary interactions with Mercury and amongst themselves respectively.  The most prominently featured band member throughout the film is Brian May played by Gwilym Lee and he is the best lookalike for the actual guitarist as well as getting his mannerisms down pat as well as showcasing his amazing guitar skills, despite disappearing with the rest of the band in the middle of the film for Mercury’s personal story arc.  The other is Roger Taylor played by Ben Hardy, providing much of the internal band conflict with the musical direction of the band and is provided with some notable dramatic scenes in the film.  The last prominent member is John Deacon played by Joseph Mazzello (the adult actor that was actually the dinosaur enthusiast kid from Jurrasic Park) and he portrays the bass player of the band and he is mostly in the background, further displaying the hollow nature of the story being told here.  The actors portraying the band are reliably good but are not given much to know more about themselves outside of their abilities, interactions, and contribution to many of the songs they created individually and together.

The love interests and villain of this story range from being remarkably likable to worth despising in regards to their roles in this dramatic version of the story.  Mary Austin played by

Lucy Boynton plays the most important figure in Freddie’s life and she handles it well enough but really shines in her scene with Mercury coming out, despite the creative choices made in regards to that storyline.  His personal manager and eventual lover Paul Prenter played by Allen Leech provides much of the conflict with Freddie’s personal life as well as his sexuality during his later years and while a necessary story to tell, it is approached very conventional in regards to the romantic story beats and does not resonate as strongly as the story arc with Austin and Freddie.  His last and prominent lover Jim Hutton played by Aaron McCusker, is only featured in the last act of the film and was given some brief moments with Mercury despite being a major part of Mercury’s life until his untimely passing.  The supporting cast for the love interests were mostly fine despite their character stories being truncated or condensed through the script, direction, and editing.

The remaining actors in the cast, are the bit players that appear throughout the film, mainly the managers and a brief mention of Mercury’s family despite never truly exploring that part of Mercury’s personal life.  We first have Aidan Gillen as John Reid, Queen’s main manager for most of the film’s story and he seems to be suitably in a role requiring him to be a planner as usual, along with Tom Hollander as Jim Beach (lawyer and eventual manager of the later band years), making for proper and dependable casting for those managers.  His family are only in the film for a few brief scenes and it feels like a missed opportunity to explore Mercury's life with his family, despite giving the overall goal for Mercury in his journey.  There is the odd casting of Mike Myers as an EMI executive, mainly there for fan service and puts on a ridiculous Irish accent that is reminiscent of his pervious caricatures.  The cast are mostly good with at least a few standouts from the supporting cast but mainly, Rami Malek is the one who leads this cast and provides one of the most energized performances from a lead role, this year.

We finally get to the technical elements of the film starting with the cinematography (Newton Thomas Sigel) and editing (John Ottman) of the film.  There are extensive use of sets and studios to recreate the concert setups and time period of each song as accurately as possible.  They mostly get it right in that regard but where the film does get a bit flimsy is the editing as it relies heavily on flashy, fast music video style energy and look to capture the rhythm and energy of the songs to mix results.  However, it does have some gorgeous recreations and shots in the film as well as the editing being effective for some of the montages along with the amazing climax and exclusively, the Screen X version utilizes the border projectors to good use, to give more information and stylize the montage sequences for each song with their own unique visual flair to them.  It does get a bit annoying and exhausting for each transition to be connected via a musical montage in a flimsy way but it does provide some quality to the editing that might attract newcomers and fans of their music in this film.

Next up, we have the use of art direction and costume designs utilized in this film, especially for a time period piece as well as the unique clothing they wore for the time.  The art direction is very much on point with the appropriate settings captured during the years of 1970’s and 80’s, especially in regards to the concerts and the Live AID climax.  Each of the sections really showcases the band’s rise in fame and fortune as well as a part of that stylized hair metal looks popular during the time.  Julian Day was the costume designer on this and each look that Malek wears especially in the concert montages are nothing short of amazingly accurate and capture the stage presence perfectly.  She was able to really showcase the visual changes of each of the characters and really add to the believability of their performances with how close the band members looked to their real-life counterparts and the visual aesthetics of the music performances.

Lastly, the most prominent section of a film to explore, specifically for a music biographical film, the sound design and music itself.  The mix for the film is actually very bass heavy in a quality theater sound setup and does it really show, especially in hearing their music on the big screen.  There is the obvious use of lip-synching involved, which is expected for this type of film but it is not too distraction or detrimental to the film in any major way.  Most of the songs used in the film are mainly their big hits with a few of the lesser known ones used during their beginning years.  However, some of the iconic music they did do was left out, not explored, or strangely not mentioned due in part by time constraints, rights limitations, and from the questionable changes made to the timeline for each song’s creations.  It’s still a solid effort to encompass the best of Queen through sound design and the music used for this film.

Ultimately, what it comes down to is expectations and what the viewers wants out of a Queen centered biography drama? Was it to get a best of compilation of their lives and music that celebrates the band in a fun, entertaining popcorn way or an insightful, compelling drama of what drove each member of the band as well as Mercury to create music that would not only reflect themselves but shape the style of music for generations? You are getting more of the first than the second, despite a few scenes and sections that seem to touch on those personal memories of the band members and acknowledge them but unfortunately approaches them in a broad matter and lacks the emotional punch needed to give viewers an understanding of how the band become not only popular but created music that is still heard and replicated to this day.  It plays it safe by making an entertaining crowd-pleasing greatest hit medley of the band itself, and no more than that.

Score: *** out of *****

Bohemian Rhapsody is a fun encapsulation of the band at their best and most iconic, even down to the struggles of Freddie Mercury as the lead singer and his conflicted life style.  However, the film is only concerned with showcasing the band in general, and not bother with the details which ends up not really giving viewers an understanding of the band personally and providing information that would shed better light on their lives in the band as well as how they are this skilled/talented in their respective roles in the band.  What keeps it from completely falling apart is the visually stunning, energetically edited musical montages in the concert transitions and the meticulously recreated Live AID performance that serves as a bookend to their story.  When the music is playing loud and strong along with the actors playing up to the stage personas, the film fires on all cylinders and it makes for a rollicking good time.  However, the dramatic and personal moments are either lacking and only touch upon them in regards to how it shapes their characters in the story and real life.  This is a best of look into the iconic band and for big fans and regular viewers, it is still a good time to rock out but do not expect to learn or feel anything meaningful about the band by the time the party comes to an end.