Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse is a movie by Sony Animation, and follows teenager Miles Morales after he gets bitten by a radioactive spider, giving him superhuman powers. As the story unfolds, he discovers he isn't the only Spider-person around. It stars Shameik Moore, Jake Johnson, Hailee Steinfield, Liev Schreiber, Mahershala Ali and Nicolas Cage.
I was hyped for this movie ever since the first teaser debuted, showcasing the gorgeous animation style that would bring Miles Morales to the screen. In the comics, he took on the mantle of Spider-Man when, in an alternate universe to main Marvel contuinity, Peter Parker dies. However, in 2015, a huge comic event meant that Miles was brought into the mainstream Marvel comic universe and now co-exists with Peter Parker, the Avengers, X-Men etc. He was an Avenger for a while and now is part of a team called Champions with Ms Marvel, Nova and the android daughter of Vision. Comics are wild.
As a massive fan of writer Brian Micheal Bendis' concept of a young, half African-American and half Puerto Rican kid who is inspired by the original Spider-Man to fight evil, I was eager to see how his story was adapted. In the comics, he is a street level hero with a loving family, quirky group of friends and high-school drama. Plus, he has cooler powers than Peter, just sayin'. So that was my knowledge and excitement, going into the film; having seen it, how good is Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse? Extremely.
The Positive
+Aesthetic
I have to start off with the aesthetic of the film, though I won't be able to add anything new to the extensive praise that the film has garnered for its visionary, vibrant and stunning animation style. It is designed to look like a comic book come to life: objects have blurry edges, Miles has speech and thought bubbles, written sound effects momentarily appear on screen (one of my favourites being 'BAGEL!!') and there is a reality-bending explosion of colour and shape. I haven't seen anything as visually distinctive since Scott Pilgrim vs the World. Additionally, the character designs are beautifully distinctive and very comic-book accurate. When I saw Gwen Stacy and Miles' costumes in particular, I was absolutely delighted.
Since there are a variety of Spider-people from different dimensions, the filmmakers took the artwork from every relevant solo series and infused it into the style of animation for each character. Spider-Man Noir is always in black and white, for example, and Gwen Stacy's world looks like Jason Latour's artwork come to life. It is an utterly gorgeous animation style, but one that also works for the story being told. I'll limit my raving about the visuals to that because there is so much more to talk about.
+Miles Morales
Following on from that, this is a film that captures the spirit of the comic book perhaps like no other. Not only through the visuals, but also the spirit of the characters. Miles, as the main character, is funny, vulnerable, relatable and, to put it simply, a true hero. In a movie that has so much to set up (the concept of multiverse is familiar to any comic reader, but perhaps not to the general audience) the filmmakers prioritise Miles' story and character before anything else.
From the perspective of a comic book fan- yes, his family life, school, room-mate and suit are authentic to the books. More importantly, however, they capture the personality of the character wonderfully, especially through his relationship with his father, who is a wonderful character and provides so much of the heart in the film. Miles gets a clear, developed arc and transitions into a full blown hero by the end of the film. Audiences will be pleased to know that both a sequel and a spin-off centred around the female characters are in the works already.
+Antagonists
In terms of the villains, the character designs for Green Goblin, Prowler and Kingpin are imposing and genuinely conveys a sense of threat to Spider-Man. There are also a couple of other antagonists that fans will recognise, though they don't get as much screentime because the story is so focused on Peter Parker and Miles Morales, which is not a bad thing necessarily. Liev Schrieber is great as Kingpin, making it a pretty solid year for Kingpin all around when you consider Spider-Man PS4 and Daredevil Season 3.
+Comic book easter eggs
You can skip right past this if you don't read the comics, but the movie is littered with comic book references. Some of them are overt: for example, showing actual comic book covers for each of the characters in their introductions. Others are references to the universe number 616 or creators Brian Micheal Bendis, Steve Ditko and, of course, Stan Lee. There's even a brief glimpse of the PS4 Spider-Man suit. Speaking of which, all the costumes are authentic to the comics, favourites of mine being Miles and Spider-Gwen's. As I mentioned before, the universe design for the latter is also themed around the incredibly stylish artwork from her solo series.
Things such as the squiggly lines (sorry if I got too technical there) that appear above Spider-Man's head to depict his spidey sense, or comic-book style sound effects (such as the iconic 'thwipp' of a web shooter) are all incorporated into the animation of the film.
+Heart-felt
What with all the visuals, multiverse exposition and comic book easter eggs, there could have been a danger of losing the emotion behind everything. Fortunately, this movie is full of heart. This is mainly grounded with Miles and his relationships with his father, uncle, Peter and Gwen. All of these dynamics are unique and sincere, and because Miles is such a wonderfully realised character, all of these relationships are very genuine and evolve through the movie.
+Humour
21 Jump Street and The Lego Movie directors, Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, were producers (with Lord co-writing the script), so you can expect the movie to be funny. And it is. Miles is endearingly awkward and the ridiculousness of meeting lots of different spider-people lends itself well to fish-out-of-water, slapstick and classic Spidey one-liners. The dynamic between Peter and Miles is always amusing, especially when Peter watches Miles interact with Gwen. Also, don't underestimate Aunt May in this film, she's the real dark horse here.
+Soundtrack
This film has a fantastic soundtrack, with the highlight being Sunflower by Post Malone and Swae Lee. Honestly, the moment Miles was introduced by having him mumble through most of the song, I was fully on board with the character.
As a fan of scores, I also found Miles' theme really uplifting and powerful, which combined with the soundtrack, gave this movie such a joyful, heroic and epic feeling. As of right now, composer Daniel Pemberton has only released one track, 'Spider-Man Loves You', which, along with Sunflower, I have had playing on repeat.
+Stakes
Superhero movies as of late have the tendency to feel a little weightless. Not only because you know a sequel is just around the corner. (For example, Black Panther made a billion dollars at the box office so you can't actually believe that he's gone for good. Sorry, Thanos, but the corporate movie making machine is too great a power even for the Infinity Gauntlet.) The villains rarely feel as though they are a threat (physical or psychological) to the hero and action sequences tend to be a lot of punching each other harder and harder until the hero wins.
In Spider-Verse, the fight sequences are dynamic and the villains, particularly Kingpin and Green Goblin, are designed to be brutal, hulking figures. It really emphasises the vulnerability of Spider-Man, who doesn't wear an armour or have flashy powers. This is something I felt when reading Ultimate Spider-Man by Brian Michael Bendis, and I'm glad it translated to this story. There are some dark moments in this film, especially one near the beginning, that set up real stakes for Miles and the rest of the Spider cluster (apparently a group of spiders is called a 'cluster', who knew?).
Negatives
-Predictable?
Miles' arc is predicatable, even if you have not read the comics. It follows a traditional formula, and I couldn't help but wish the 'hero doubting themselves before eventually having a revelation' section of the film was a tad shorter. Having said that, this arc is executed magnificently, even if it is a bit formulaic. Through the story-telling, you feel as though you know Miles- his struggles, relationships, humour and bravery. When he eventually starts to learn how to become a real superhero, it's euphoric (accentuated by the score) and I had a big smile plastered across my face when the iconic black costume appeared. You really get to see the birth of a super-hero in the story and, however predictable his journey might have been, it is a delight to watch.
-Straight-forward villain?
For the most part, Kingpin is another baddie with an evil scheme to beat up. There is some backstory for him, but nothing that is a revelation (maybe I'm just sick of hearing about Vanessa from Daredevil). On the other hand, the movie's focus is on its heroes, in particular Miles and Peter. Since we got such wonderful character moments for them, I am willing for that to be at the expense of an ultra-complicated villain.
-Side characters
Side characters could have a little more to do- I felt that especially with the secondary antagonists as well as Gwen Stacy and Spider-Man Noir. I would have liked just a touch more from them because both are such interesting characters, and Nicolas Cage and Hailee Steinfield were so likable. I especially thought that Gwen and Peter needed more of a moment, but perhaps that ended up on the cutting room floor.
-It was only 2 hours!!
Having said all that, these gripes really did not compromise my enjoyment of this film- the biggest problem is that I wanted more of it! I can see why people are begging for a sequel, because there's so much more left to explore in this world. This movie provides a perfect introduction to all of them, whilst also providing a complete story for Miles Morales.
Overall
I would highly recommend this movie to fans of animation or Marvel. I went to the cinema alone because 'animated Spider-Man movie with an alternate version of Spider-Man' is a tough sell to those not interested in animation or superheros, but I really hope this movie does well. A visually unique film that sets up an incredibly charismatic lead character with heart, action and humour which completely understands the character of Spider-Man.
Grade: A-
Thank you for reading this review of Into the Spider-Verse- hopefully it convinced you to watch it! If you have already, I would love to hear your thoughts on the film. They have recently announced a sequel for Miles and a spin-off with Gwen Stacy, Silk and Spider-Woman, which is hugely exciting!
I do not own any of the images used in this post.