Stan Lee: Disney+ Movie Review

Director: David Gelb

A documentary on Stan Lee should in truth be a home run.

But by leaning heavily into audio recordings of the Marvel maestro himself, and largely avoiding anyone or anything critical about the man and the debate over his contributions, David Gelb's doco feels more like a once over lightly kind of a film that's less interested in negativity and more interested in preaching to the True Believers choir of existent fans.

It's not that it's badly presented, or badly constructed; merely that it's less interested in a deep dive into Lee's life and the squabbles that emerged after the Marvel comics boom that saw many feeling there were issues about how the royalties and credits were divided.

Using still animations, comic strip pages and audio and visuals of Lee himself, the story of how Stanley Leiber came to life and the route he took to ensure creativity and vision is largely a reasonably put together tale. 

What emerges from this celebration of Stan Lee is how much of a self-promoter he was, a man of publicly shown belief that was somewhat internally lacking over the frustrations of his career early on. A few insights into his childhood help, revealing a father who wasn't able to work, and an indelible mark left on the son who thought their worth came from having a daily job and providing for the family.

While the film brings some of the later life of Lee to the screen, including Marvel cameos, this is largely a movie that's more interested in celebrating the man himself, rather than picking any holes in his career trajectory.

That's no bad thing, and perhaps Gelb fell victim to Lee's obvious charms as well, but in truth, a lot of Stan Lee the movie could have dealt with a fuller picture of the man. But in a centenary after the birth of Lee, perhaps this never was the desire - and what emerges is a temperate salute to the man who pioneered much of the stories that power so much of the Marvel Cinematic Universe these days.

Stan Lee is streaming now on Disney+