At Least Nicolas Cage Is Having Fun

by

Look, I’m a big Nicolas Cage fan, and I’ll tell you, the guy always commits to a role – even in movies like Adaptation or Bangkok Dangerous. But something about Spider-Noir is different. Whenever his character puts on the Spider mask, and we switch to this slick, animated Spider-Man swinging around the city, and Cage just does voice work… it feels like he’s just going through the motions with the dialogue. It’s not that Cage is bad – he’s never boring – but honestly, the rest of this eight-episode series on MGM+/Prime Video? It’s pretty dull.

Nicolas Cage stars as Ben Reilly in his first leading role on television. Reilly is a World War I veteran who’s fallen on hard times and now works as a private detective, with a secret past: he used to be a masked vigilante with spider-like abilities. This version of the character is different from the Peter Parker Cage voiced in the Spider-Verse movies – a funny, black-and-white, trench coat-wearing hero who primarily served as a joke. It’s also distinct from the Ben Reilly voiced by Andy Samberg (though the connection is playfully ironic, considering Samberg famously impersonated Cage on Saturday Night Live). This Spider-Noir character exists independently of the wider Spider-Man universe – for now, at least. Marvel is known for its multiverses, so anything could happen! The show presents itself as a classic detective story with a superhero twist, reminiscent of old-fashioned serials.

Showrunner Oren Uziel, known for films like 22 Jump Street and The Cloverfield Paradox, throws together classic detective story tropes with superhero elements, creating a familiar yet chaotic world. The series centers on a struggling private investigator, Reilly, and his witty receptionist, Janet (Karen Rodriguez). Haunted by the loss of a loved one, Reilly has abandoned his Spider persona, making trauma a key part of the story. The series begins with a rushed and clumsy explanation of the setup before the plot truly gets going. We’re quickly introduced to Silvermane (Brendan Gleeson), an Irish mobster, the mysterious Cat Hardy (Li Jun Li), and a group of war veterans with superpowers, all operating in a 1930s version of New York City. Reilly, with help from Janet and reporter Robbie Robertson (Lamorne Morris), a character from other Spider-Man stories, must find a way to save the city from chaos.

The show’s executive producers, Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, agree with Nicolas Cage’s description of Spider-Noir as a mix of Humphrey Bogart and Bugs Bunny, but it feels overwhelmingly like the latter. Think trench coats, cigars, and overly dramatic camera angles, complete with the classic Bugs Bunny vocalizations – ‘Myahhhhhhh, see? Myahhhhhhh!’ While this cartoonish style could be entertaining, the series leans into it so hard that it reminded me of the overly ambitious, chaotic film the character from Tim Robinson’s ‘1,000 plastic meatballs’ sketch was trying to make. The show often feels overly eager to signal its noir influences; for example, a random gangster growls a line that feels like a writer emphatically underlining ‘THIS IS NOIR’.

The show’s oddest choice – releasing both a black-and-white and a full-color version – feels like trying too hard, and unfortunately, neither version looks very good. The black-and-white cut makes dark areas appear blurry and undefined, while the color version heavily emphasizes the bright, cartoonish costumes, reminiscent of the 1990 film Dick Tracy. This over-the-top visual style seems intended to highlight the show’s artificial, comic-book origins, but it mostly makes you wonder who the target audience is.

Nicolas Cage is the best part of Spider-Noir, and he almost saves the whole show. His famously stoic face has become even more captivating over time – it’s like watching something ancient and unchanging. Cage’s natural awkwardness and unusual physicality – he always seems like an alien pretending to be human – make him perfectly suited to play a character with spider-like powers. There’s a great scene where his character is nervously fidgeting in his apartment, moving his limbs in jerky, insect-like ways, trying to relax. The show aims for a broad comedic tone, which doesn’t always land, but Cage’s unique voice – both flat and strangely smooth – delivering lines like “Well, well, well, if it ain’t Mr. Whiskers, searching for some cheese” is occasionally brilliant.

Spider-Noir is the only project to come from a group of ideas developed after the success of the Spider-Verse movies. Those films were designed to launch many different Spider-Man spinoffs, and Sony tried for years to capitalize on that potential with various projects. One of these was a live-action series called Silk: Spider Society, led by Angela Kang (from The Walking Dead), but most of these ideas never got off the ground. Spider-Noir did make it to completion, but it feels like a watered-down version of what it could have been. There are moments where you can see hints of a much more creative and daring show, like in a flashback showing how the main character, Reilly, got his powers – a sequence that briefly explores unsettling body horror. This suggests Spider-Noir could have been a truly unique and shocking series.

Honestly, I’m starting to feel unsure about what I even want from Spider-Man stories, whether they’re movies or TV shows. Another Tom Holland film is coming soon, and the next Spider-Verse movie is struggling to finish production. Plus, there’s a general feeling of fatigue with Marvel and superhero content overall. Is anyone truly hyped for Doomsday? And how many different versions of Spider-Man do we really need? When it comes to TV, I just want something that feels energetic. Spider-Noir is often slow and dull, but it’s almost enjoyable thanks to Nicolas Cage’s performance. Is it a worthy project for his first leading role on television? That’s almost a silly question. Cage has had such a prolific career, doing both critically acclaimed work and a lot of lower-budget films. To question whether a project is ‘below’ him misses the point of why people love him. Spider-Noir is ultimately just another way to keep the Spider-Man IP active, but it’s mostly memorable as another interesting stop on Nicolas Cage’s incredibly diverse and fascinating career journey.

Read More

2026-05-26 17:55