Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse is directed by Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey, and Rodney Rothman. This Spider-Man movie will tell the story of Miles Morales, a kid from Brooklyn who like Peter Parker gets bitten by a radioactive spider and gets powers. Now he and Peter will team up with other Spider-People to defeat the Kingpin and save the universe. The cast includes Shameik Moore, Jake Johnson, Hailee Steinfeld, Mahershala Ali, Bryan Tyree Henry, Nicolas Cage and Liev Schreiber.
When I heard there was going to be an animated Spider-Man movie, I’ll admit I was a bit sceptical. I always thought the character worked best in live-action. When the first teaser trailer came out a year ago, I instantly fell in love. I knew instantly from watching the teaser that this movie is going to be special. The other trailers proved that even more. My expectations were sky high and immediately as the opening credits came up and the score started to play with the jaw-dropping visuals accompanying it, I was hooked.
I am a huge fan of animation, I believe that animation is a medium and not a genre, I have probably seen more animated movies and TV shows than the average person and I can definitely say that Into the Spider-Verse is a revolutionary movie in the animation world. Every frame of this movie is golden. I am not exaggerating in the slightest. I swear I almost teared up at the fact that this movie is that good.
You might be thinking, sure the animation is great but are the accompanying story, script and characters of the same standard? The answer is yes. This is how good this movie is, my mom has only ever known one Spider-Man, Peter Parker and usually, she doesn’t like it when famous characters have other versions or get changed, she ended up loving the movie and Miles. This movie does a great job of separating Miles Morales from Peter Parker and it’s so important that it did. I love the fact that anyone, can look up to Miles just like they look up to Peter, white or black.
The characters are so well-written and fleshed-out. There isn’t a single character in this movie that I either hate or that I think is boring or useless. This is due to the amazing voice-cast. Jake Johnson might be my favourite Peter Parker ever. Bryan Tyree Henry shines as Miles’s father. He delivers both the jokes and the emotional scenes really well. Shreiber is menacing as Kingpin. He is a threat in every scene he’s in, I also love his design, it works so well with this style of animation.
Speaking of characters, one would think that this movie is crowded with all of these Spider-People but just like all of the heroes worked in Infinity War, they work here. Every single one has a moment to shine. Well actually, I do have a tiny nitpick and it’s that Peni Parker was really there for one specific reason and other than that is pretty much there. Other than that I loved Spider-Man Noir and Spider-Ham, they got a lot of laughs at my screening, particularly Spider-Ham who is voiced perfectly by John Mulaney.
When it comes to the actual script and the story, this movie succeeds by separating itself from the other Spider-Man movies. Having seen all six Spider-Man movies (excluding this one), whether they’re great or just a big mess, you can’t deny that it’s the same story over and over again. With the Raimi films, Peter has to balance his responsibilities as Peter and as Spider-Man, the Webb films are just straight-on cliched hero backstory and then fighting the big bad. Even Homecoming, Peter fights a bad guy, while finding out what it means to be a hero. Don’t get me wrong I love most of them, and while even Spider-Verse does this, it doesn’t rely on those traits to carry the story.
The different dimensions were a new and exciting idea for this hero on the big screen and they pulled it off really well. The bad guy was someone who isn’t usually associated with Spider-Man. This movie flips the Spider-Man movie formula on its head and does its own thing and I love it for doing that. It’s fresh and exciting and I can’t wait for the sequel. I really do hope people go to see this movie and I seriously hope it doesn’t get trampled by Aquaman which I’m also excited to see but this movie is THE movie to see.
Overall, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse is a revolutionary animated masterpiece which further proves that the character of Spider-Man is a timeless hero and idol for young children everywhere. With loveable characters, a badass score and a smartly written script, Spider-Verse is a Spidey’s fan’s biggest wish come true.
owen is a filmaholic 