Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse Review

Release Date: December 14th 2018

PG: Frenetic sequences of animated action violence, thematic elements, and mild language

Sony, Columbia Pictures,  Sony Pictures Animation, Marvel Entertainment, Pascal Pictures

1 Hr and 45 Minutes

Dir: Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey, Rodney Rothman | Writers: Phil Lord, Rodney Rothman

Voice Cast: Shameik Moore, Jake Johnson, Hailee Steinfeld, Mahershala Ali, Brian Tyree Henry, Lily Tomlin, Luna Lauren Velez, John Mulaney, Kimiko Glenn, Nicolas Cage, Liev Schreiber

Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, the creative minds behind The Lego Movie and 21 Jump Street, bring their unique talents to a fresh vision of a different Spider-Man Universe, with a groundbreaking visual style that's the first of its kind. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse introduces Brooklyn teen Miles Morales, and the limitless possibilities of the Spider-Verse, where more than one can wear the mask.

When filmmaking duo Phil Lord and Christopher Miller attach their names to a project that is an existing property, one may expect them to take creative liberties as they pay respects to the history of said property. The two served as producers on “The LEGO Batman Movie” which was a passionate love letter to the history of Batman in the most comical and cleverly meta way imaginable. It was pretty much “Deadpool” for kids. While “Into the Spider-Verse” mostly flows along the same vein as “LEGO Batman” where it is a gift-wrapped love letter to our friendly neighborhood hero, it’s completely character driven as opposed to being overwhelmingly satirical. It does have hysterical moments of self-awareness, but it also ties into the character’s personality.

Everything you know about Spider-Man from the original source material, the movies, and even the memes is mentioned in the film and while they make for some great comedy, the core still focuses on the aspects that make each version of Spider-Man unique. The narrative is curiously structured where, with each dimensional Spider-Man introduced, a corresponding comic book is thrown into frame and it briefly goes through their origin in their own distinct art style. It’s not a love letter to Peter Parker, Gwen Stacy, Miles Morales, or any of the other versions of Spider-Man. It’s a love letter to the essence of SPIDER-MAN and reminds us of the many reasons we love the hero, but also why we want to be just like him/her no matter who wears the mask and how many reboots we receive.

While we should be exhausted by how Sony has been treating Spider-Man for the last several years, one of the primary assets that drew us in for this film is the art direction. With each trailer that was released, we were given a taste of how incredible the end product would look on the big screen and this is the first positive thing I have to expand upon.

For this being a Sony Pictures Animation production (a studio that hasn’t delivered an impressive fully-CG film since the first “Hotel Transylvania”), it’s mind-blowingly impressive how much effort the studio put into the animation, which is the most mesmerizing hodge podge of animation techniques I’ve ever seen in one feature film. From the first frame of that SONY logo to the very end of the movie, you are put in the front seat of a literal comic book movie. The film is presented in a pop art style that resembles the style of a lot of comic books and every nook and cranny that comes with it.

Similar to Blue Sky Studios’ “The Peanuts Movie”, the film is set in a gorgeous 3D landscape while also incorporates traditional 2D animation where it still feels as if you’re watching a comic book in motion. Instead of it being utilized as a gimmick, the pop art trajectory bleeds into the story and is used as a major storytelling tool. The style helps provide a rush of exhilaration to the fun, inventive, and often intense action sequences, the visual gags that provide laugh-out-loud comedic moments, and most of all, the development of Miles Morales coming to his own.

Within the pop art style, the film incorporates nearly every form of postmodern art varying from Afropunk graffiti art to anime. Seriously, this is a nonstop rollercoaster ride you definitely don’t want to miss.

There are various animation techniques incorporated that are so gloriously mesmerizing to look at. It’s so damn beautiful that you can watch the film with the sound off because its visuals are enough to tell the story. That’s how I felt towards “The Book of Life” and “Shaun the Sheep” and I’m proud to claim that “Into the Spider-Verse” is one of those movies for me. Honestly, the team at Sony Pictures Animation has delivered the ultimate animator’s wet dream on film and it’s wonderful.  

If you’re unfamiliar with animation terms, you will definitely understand what the term “character design” mean once you see several iconic Spider-Man foes depicted in this, especially with the primary antagonist Kingpin (voiced by Liev Schreiber). Like the Vincent D'Onofrio version of Wilson Fisk, he is a sympathetic antagonist and the film clearly expresses his motivation for his primary scheme. But what makes him much more terrifying is his design where he looks like a gigantic deformed mutant. It’s as if (excuse this nerd joke) Fisk was messing around with gamma radiation and it turned him into a miniature Hulk. The man is just so superhuman to a point that one clobber can kill you. Just his physicality alone makes him an imminent threat and once you see him in action, it’s all over.

As much as I’m praising the film’s animation, another aspect that I have to compliment is Miles Morales’ journey. Before the film becomes chaotic, it centers closely on Miles and he’s established amazingly. The film is an origins story, but because of the urban environment and his situation, it feels more nuanced. We’ve witnessed Peter Parker’s origin story beaten to death like a dead horse already.

So to follow this Black/Puerto-Rican kid who is not just likable, but also relatable due to his family’s expectations makes you not only root for him, but also makes you want to see where his story goes and how he develops to become Spider-Man. While other Spider-Men movies focused on responsibility, this has a nuanced theme of originality. With this being Miles’ journey, the film does a fantastic job exploring this new universe and takes some great creative liberties to deliver really well-written emotional scenes and some genuine, surprising plot twists. Even the narrative elements that you know and are familiar with are executed in a refreshing way that genuinely come across as shocking. There are so many moments that leave you in the best form of shock like:

Shameik Moore delivers an amazing voice performance and, just like his character, his voicework carries the movie. The rest of the voice cast does a great job as well, especially Jake Johnson who voices the schlubby Peter Parker. The two share a mentor/student relationship and their chemistry leads to both hilarious and heartfelt scenes. As I said earlier, the self-awareness also ties into the character’s personality and that comes in the form of Peter B. Parker who is one of the emotional centerpieces of the story. Seeing what his character develops into is… amazing.

Since there are an abundant amount of Spider-Men, there are plenty of scenes of exposition. While it may be bothersome (as it does take away some of the main focus at hand), they are brief. You overlook the many expositional sequences because of three factors:

• The scenes are short

• The animation technique for each character is incredible

• It builds up to something meaningful

Where the narrative leads to makes the structure increasingly impactful as it keeps moving at a fast pace.

While the film has a great soundtrack that you can bump to, some songs are poorly integrated into scenes that don’t match. It kind of reminded me of how early 2000’s Nickelodeon movies played out where they shamelessly incorporated a song that doesn’t match a scene just for the sake of plugging their own soundtrack. Some songs work for certain scenes, but the ones that don’t are quite jarring. It’s the same way I felt towards the “Django Unchained” soundtrack where I love it out of context on its own, but seeing how they were utilized in the film itself is often annoying.

With top-notch, groundbreaking animation and a nuanced coming of age superhero story, “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” is a spectacularly animated spectacle that serves as a beautiful reminder that the superhero genre has many more stories to tell in the most revitalizing forms. It also proves that Sony can actually use their Spidey powers for good. Most of all, it’s a meaningful love letter to the character Stan and Steve created and the many other artists who handled him throughout time no what matter what shape, race, gender, of form they come in.

Also, stick around for the post credits scene because it’s awesome.

Rating: 4.5/5 | 93%

Super Scene: Kingpin V. Miles.

Now, if you’ll excuse me I’m going to finish playing my Spider-Man PS4 game.