Bless the pop entertainment industry. There to give focus to our vague fears in time of constant low-level stress, there to uplift and give hope in times when the world really seems to go to shit. Spider-man animation comes just at the right time to cheer up people to whom Trump's presidency is a never-ending cruel joke with concrete consequences. It encourages and aims to inspire and manages to feel genuine.

Weren't superhero movies described as having grown up, back when the trend was for gloom and extreme violence? I'd say the genre is truly growing up now, to balanced adulthood, with movies like Into the Spiderverse. All those grumpy, dark, angsty renditions of super heroes were a probably necessary teenage phase. But at the moment, for real-world reasons, mentally tormented lonely men on an aggressive revenge rampage don't offer the same pleasures on screen as they once did. (Though there is Venom and it was quite successful, what to make of that? I guess I should watch it to find out what it wants to say to the audience.)

Different realities existing side by side and then violently colliding – is it far-fetched to take this as a metaphor of what's going on in the US right now? Does feel quite familiar here as well. There are people who see human rights, gender, environment, our duties and obligations as human beings towards other human beings entirely differently from what I see, and people I hang out with. We pass each other daily, but hardly ever interact, we can live quite comfortably without being aware there's this other world just close by, where up is down and circles have corners. But we can't maintain this separation indefinitely, at times these worlds must intersect, and it's more often ugly and messy and uncomfortable and threatening, than opening great new horizons.

Into the Spiderverse takes this source of stress, through dream logic of superheroes and movies makes it into a coherent storyline and grants us a happy end, where all the worlds go back to where they were: happily separate, but with expanded knowledge and understanding. If only it was so in the real world! But the world needs soothing, encouraging and optimism, and I am thankful for Into the Spiderverse for providing that.

It also looks amazing!