Sony’s sloppy Spider-Man universe gets even messier with Spider-Noir

索尼混乱的“蜘蛛侠宇宙”因《蜘蛛侠：暗影》变得更加一团糟

Spider-Verse aside, it feels like Sony is just throwing everything at the wall to see what sticks. 撇开《蜘蛛侠：平行宇宙》不谈，索尼现在的做法感觉就像是在胡乱尝试，看看哪一个能火。

After years of it seeming like the Spider-Man film rights might be better off in Marvel’s hands alone, Into the Spider-Verse came along and proved that Sony was still capable of telling phenomenal stories featuring everyone’s favorite webhead. Into the Spider-Verse’s sumptuous visuals and focus on a different web-slinging New Yorker made it unlike any other Spider-Man adaptation. And it was genuinely shocking to see Sony follow the film up with a bigger, bolder, more imaginative sequel just a few years later. 在经历了多年“蜘蛛侠电影版权或许交给漫威更好”的舆论后，《蜘蛛侠：平行宇宙》的出现证明了索尼依然有能力讲述关于这位“人气蛛蛛”的精彩故事。《平行宇宙》华丽的视觉效果和对另一位纽约蜘蛛侠的聚焦，使其不同于以往任何一部蜘蛛侠改编作品。而索尼在几年后又推出了一部规模更大、更具野心且更具想象力的续集，这着实令人震惊。

Part of what made the first two Spider-Verse features so much fun to watch was the way they cleverly incorporated many of the lesser-known Spider-people Sony can legally use in its projects. Normies (read: people who don’t read comics) came to love Hailee Steinfeld’s Spider-Gwen, John Mulaney’s Spider-Ham, and Nicolas Cage’s Spider-Man Noir. And Sony took the films’ success as a sign that it could re-create a similar kind of magic with other characters who exist in Spider-Man’s orbit, like Venom and Madame Web, with varying levels of success. 前两部《平行宇宙》电影之所以如此有趣，部分原因在于它们巧妙地融入了许多索尼合法拥有的、知名度较低的“蜘蛛人”。普通观众（即不看漫画的人）开始喜爱海莉·斯坦菲尔德配音的蜘蛛格温、约翰·木兰尼配音的蜘猪侠，以及尼古拉斯·凯奇配音的暗影蜘蛛侠。索尼将这些电影的成功视为一种信号，认为可以通过蜘蛛侠周边角色（如毒液和蜘蛛夫人）重现类似的魔力，尽管这些尝试的成功程度各不相同。

Amazon’s live-action Spider-Noir series is Sony’s latest attempt at cashing in on the Spider-Man name independent of Marvel. In addition to being a comedy with very loose ties to the Spider-Verse films, the show is a tongue-in-cheek tribute to the hard-boiled crime dramas that dominated Hollywood’s Golden Age. Aesthetically, Spider-Noir is a charming delight — particularly when you watch it in black and white (there’s also a colorized version). But the series is so lacking in narrative substance that it feels like Sony has lost sight of what made its most successful Spider-Man projects shine. 亚马逊的真人剧集《蜘蛛侠：暗影》是索尼试图脱离漫威、利用“蜘蛛侠”名号变现的最新尝试。该剧不仅是一部与《平行宇宙》电影联系甚微的喜剧，还是一部对好莱坞黄金时代硬汉派犯罪电影的戏谑致敬。从美学角度来看，《蜘蛛侠：暗影》令人赏心悦目——尤其是当你观看黑白版本时（也有彩色版）。但该剧在叙事内涵上极其匮乏，让人感觉索尼已经忘记了其最成功的蜘蛛侠项目究竟为何能大放异彩。

Rather than bringing Cage back to portray a flesh-and-blood version of his monochromatic Spider-Verse hero, Spider-Noir centers Ben Reilly — a brooding vigilante from yet another universe who the citizens of New York City know best as “The Spider.” Though fighting crime with his superpowers once gave Reilly a sense of purpose, the tragic death of his girlfriend drives him to leave the hero life behind in favor of becoming a private investigator. 《蜘蛛侠：暗影》并没有让凯奇回归饰演他那个黑白版蜘蛛侠的真人形象，而是将焦点放在了本·莱利身上——这是一个来自另一个宇宙、忧郁的义务警员，纽约市民更熟悉他的称号：“蜘蛛”。虽然利用超能力打击犯罪曾让莱利找到人生目标，但女友的悲惨离世促使他放弃了英雄生活，转而成为一名私家侦探。

After five years of working with Reilly, his secretary Janet (Karen Rodriguez) knows about his uncanny ability to sense danger and his knack for snapping photos, but he’s also been slacking when it comes to bringing in new clients and hasn’t paid her in months. Janet is almost ready to quit when Reilly lands a seemingly ordinary case that brings him face-to-face with femme fatale / nightclub singer Cat Hardy (Li Jun Li). It doesn’t surprise Reilly to learn that the situation involves local mob boss Silvermane (Brendan Gleeson) and his gaggle of dim-witted goons. But Reilly is shocked when his investigation leads him to superpowered people like Flint Marko (Jack Huston). 在与莱利共事五年后，他的秘书珍妮特（凯伦·罗德里格斯饰）不仅了解他感知危险的超能力和拍照天赋，也知道他最近在招揽新客户方面非常懈怠，甚至已经好几个月没发工资了。就在珍妮特准备辞职时，莱利接手了一个看似普通的案件，这让他与蛇蝎美人兼夜总会歌手凯特·哈迪（李丽君饰）狭路相逢。得知案件涉及当地黑帮老大银鬃（布莱丹·格里森饰）及其一群愚蠢的打手，莱利并不感到意外。但当调查将他引向弗林特·马尔科（杰克·休斯顿饰）这样的超能力者时，莱利感到震惊。

Very little of Spider-Noir feels anything like Marvel’s 2009 Spider-Man: Noir comics series, and its commonalities with Cage’s Spider-Verse character are few and far between. That might work if the show had a unique story to tell or if it was fully committed to being a straight drama. But Reilly’s arc is marked by many classic Spider-Man beats — get ready to hear about great power and great responsibility again — that have already been adapted multiple times before. And Spider-Noir frequently leans into a cheesy kind of humor that keeps it from living up to its name. 《蜘蛛侠：暗影》几乎没有一点漫威2009年《暗影蜘蛛侠》漫画系列的感觉，它与凯奇在《平行宇宙》中的角色也几乎没有共同点。如果该剧能讲述一个独特的故事，或者完全致力于成为一部正剧，这或许还能行得通。但莱利的故事线充斥着许多经典的蜘蛛侠桥段——准备好再次听到“能力越大，责任越大”吧——这些内容已经被改编过无数次了。此外，《蜘蛛侠：暗影》经常陷入一种俗气的幽默，使其名不副实。

Though Spider-Men from every universe tend to be wisecracking jokesters, there’s an intermittent cringiness to Cage’s outré performance here that highlights why this character (or at least a variant of him) works better as a cartoon character. From scene to scene, Cage plays Reilly as an aging quipster doing an iffy James Cagney impression, a smooth-talking Humphrey Bogart type, and a straight-up weirdo who lacks any sort of believable chemistry with romantic partners as they’re introduced. Cage’s Reilly is somewhat compelling when Spider-Noir calls for him to be a sullen, contemplative man pondering his place in the world. But those moments tend to be cut short as the show barrels through its too-predictable central story. 尽管来自各个宇宙的蜘蛛侠往往都是爱开玩笑的乐天派，但凯奇在这里夸张的表演时常让人感到尴尬，这也凸显了为什么这个角色（或者至少是他的变体）更适合作为卡通形象存在。在不同的场景中，凯奇将莱利演绎成一个模仿詹姆斯·卡格尼却效果不佳的老派俏皮话达人、一个油嘴滑舌的亨弗莱·鲍嘉式人物，以及一个彻头彻尾的怪人，且与剧中出现的浪漫对象之间缺乏任何可信的化学反应。当剧情需要莱利表现得阴郁、沉思并思考自己在世界上的位置时，凯奇的表演还算引人入胜。但这些时刻往往会被剧集过于平庸且可预测的主线剧情匆匆带过。

Cage’s Spider-Verse character worked because he brought an atonal energy to both films that complemented their focus on the multiverse. Things like Spider-Man Noir’s overwrought seriousness and inability to understand colors were funny because of the way they contrasted with the chaos and whimsy around him. But because Spider-Noir is so lacking in terms of emotional and thematic detail, Reilly comes across more like a messy pastiche of half-baked ideas as opposed to a fleshed-out character. 凯奇在《平行宇宙》中的角色之所以成功，是因为他为两部电影带来了一种不协调的能量，与电影对多元宇宙的关注形成了互补。暗影蜘蛛侠那种过度严肃和无法理解色彩的特质之所以有趣，是因为它们与周围混乱而奇幻的环境形成了鲜明对比。但由于《蜘蛛侠：暗影》在情感和主题细节上极其匮乏，莱利看起来更像是一堆半生不熟想法的混乱拼凑，而非一个有血有肉的角色。

It’s a shame because the show is gorgeous and it’s clear that Cage is having fun with the role. But that’s not enough to make Spider-Noir a show that you need to see. Rather, the show feels like the result of Sony learning the wrong lessons from its previous wins. And it’s a reminder that we’re still a ways out from getting back to the good stuff. 这很可惜，因为该剧画面精美，而且很明显凯奇在表演中乐在其中。但这不足以让《蜘蛛侠：暗影》成为一部必看剧集。相反，这部剧感觉像是索尼从之前的成功中吸取了错误教训的结果。它也提醒我们，距离重回巅峰水准，我们还有很长的路要走。