Spider-Noir review: Nicolas Cage's Spider-Man show nails the one thing WandaVision never could

Nicolas Cage's new series pulls off a level of immersion that other superhero projects rarely even attempt

“Someone once asked me what universe this was. Strange question that’s stuck with me all these years later,” begins Nicolas Cage’s web-slinging hero at the start of the new Prime Video series Spider-Noir. “All I could say for sure was it was the only one I knew of, and that was as true then as it is now.”

From there, Cage reveals much of the backstory of Ben Reilly/The Spider, his Depression-era Spider-Man variant who retired five years ago after the death of the woman he loved. The opening monologue also, essentially, says not to worry about the multiverse stuff in the Spider-Verse films. Spider-Noir is definitively its own thing.

While this version of the character seems incredibly similar to the version Cage voices in those movies, little details — like his name being Ben Reilly vs Peter Parker — don’t exactly line up, and Spider-Noir makes that clear from the start. More significantly, the soliloquy sets the tone for the entire show. The words are funny, verbose, and perfectly capture the voice and moodiness of the classic noir films the series emulates. That commitment to the genre, which is seen in the opening and continues throughout the entire season, is what’s most impressive about Spider-Noir. The show isn’t just typical superhero fare with a touch of noir. Instead, it looks, sounds, and feels like noir from every angle, accomplishing a level of immersion that other superhero projects rarely even attempt, much less succeed at.

Executive produced by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, and developed by Oren Uziel (a screenwriter whose credits include 22 Jump Street and The Cloverfield Paradox), Spider-Noir is an action-drama set in 1930s New York City. Reilly is a private eye who used to be “The Spider,” New York’s web-slinging, fedora-wearing protector. He's since sunk into a stupor of depression and booze, but a new case draws him back to superheroism.

Going in, it’s important to know that Spider-Noir is as much a vibe as it is a show. If you dig film noir and enjoy watching movies like Casablanca and The Maltese Falcon, you’ll probably like it. If you don’t, you probably won’t.

Compared to other superhero movies and TV shows, there’s a lot less action. There are some great shootouts and fist fights — the best of which features Reilly in a drunken bar brawl — but in keeping with the noir genre, it's much more about the story, characters, and setting. The central mystery may not have any truly mind-blowing twists, but the season features a solid story arc that perfectly hits the mark of the genre it's going for.

The best thing about Spider-Noir is its bold commitment to the noir genre, seemingly unconcerned with who it might alienate in the process. The production design brings you totally into the time period with period costumes and vehicles. The lighting is deliberately harsh with bright lights and deep shadows.

The boldest thing about Spider-Noir, though, is the acting. Back in the 1940s and 1950s, acting was just different. Before actors like Marlon Brando brought a more subtle realism to cinema in the 1950s, there was a certain heightened nature to film acting. To an unfamiliar modern audience, it may read as over-acting or stage acting, but it's just the way movies were done at that time.

Cage’s performance in Spider-Noir nails that kind of acting, and all the other actors follow suit. While the writing and directing also have a lot to do with it, the way Cage speaks and emotes is incredibly precise, as it's very difficult to do without falling into parody. Spider-Noir is often very funny, but it’s not a parody of film noir. Instead, it is film noir with humor (which a great deal of those classic films have, too).

This kind of genre immersion is particularly rare in superhero media. While The Dark Knight is a legit crime thriller and Logan is a solid Western, superhero movies usually play it far more safe. Ant-Man wasn’t a comedy heist film — it was a superhero movie with elements from comedy and heist films. Spider-Man: Homecoming wasn’t a teen comedy, it was a superhero movie that included some of the tropes from teen comedies.

Even Marvel's big genre swing with WandaVision wasn’t so bold, though I wish it had been.

Don’t get me wrong, WandaVision was a good show that did depart from typical superhero fare, and for that, it should be applauded. However, as the show moved decade-by-decade through different sitcom types, it did more to parody those genres than actually embrace them. Taking the first episode as an example, which was heavily influenced by The Dick Van Dyke Show. The actual jokes and farce-like comedy of the “boss comes to dinner” story isn’t really the part played for laughs. Instead, it’s more about “look how cheesy this kind of storytelling is” with all kinds of winks to the camera.

It would have been far more interesting to just do that kind of story rather than mock it. WandaVision showrunner Jac Schaeffer should have found some old sitcom writer and crafted a tight, 22-minute farce with legitimately sharp, funny writing, just like The Dick Van Dyke Show featured. Because, as far as I’m concerned, The Dick Van Dyke Show was a good deal funnier than the WandaVision episode lovingly poking fun at it.

That critique carries through to the rest of WandaVision's episodes. They were parodies of the thing, but they didn’t just do the thing, which could have elevated WandaVision from merely great to spectacular, just like Spider-Noir is. Or, at least, spectacular for those who like film noir or maybe don’t know they like film noir. For those who aren’t into what it's doing though, they’ll probably tune out halfway through that opening monologue.

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Spider-Noir premieres May 25 on MGM Plus. The entire season will be available on Prime Video starting May 27.