Spider Man: Into the Spider-Verse

Sony is known for over stuffing their superhero films with too much excess plot points and characters that they feel overcrowded and unfocused, especially in their Spider Man films. Considering how popular of a media icon Spider-Man is and with Sony and Marvel essentially battling for custody over the web-swinging neighborhood hero, they would want to squeeze out whatever content they could make with him, but it has resulted in more flops than success. So, when the initial trailers for an oddball animated movie called Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse were released which displayed multiple versions of Spider people, including a cartoon pig and an anime girl with a spider mecha, people weren’t impressed and were ready to write it off as another stab-in-the-dark blunder. However, against all odds, this movie did far more than just exceed expectations.  New York City teenager Miles Morales (voiced by Shameik Moore) is struggling to connect with police officer father, Jefferson Davis (voiced by Brian Tyree Henry) and is more comfortable with his uncle Aaron (voiced by Mahershala Ali) who is estranged from the family due to conflict spurned between him and his father. After being bitten by a radioactive spider and given the usual Spider-Man abilities, Miles comes this universe’s Peter Parker (voiced by Chris Pine), who is quickly killed by Kingpin (voiced by Liev Schreiber) in a harsh confrontation with a machine capable of splitting multiverses, which Kingpin hopes to use in order to be reunited with his deceased wife and son. Once the machine is activated, various spider people are brought into Miles’ universe, including a worn-down and retired, Peter B. Parker (voiced by Jake Johnson) who Miles informs about the severity of the collider machine, which has the potential to wipe out the city if reactivated and eventually convinces him to help out. After encountering other spider-people including Spider Gwen/Gwen Stacy (voiced by Hailee Steinfeld) Spider Man Noir (voiced by Nicholas Cage), Peni Parker (voiced by Kimiko Glen) and even Spider-Ham 8(voiced by John Mulaney), they discover that anyone outside of this universe will eventually die of cellular decay if they aren’t returned to their own world, which puts more pressure on the inexperienced Miles to complete the task himself, made even harder now with Kingpin tracking them down along with the help of Olivia Octavius (voiced by Kathryn Hahn) and a masked enforcer known as the Prowler, who is actually Mile’s uncle.  With a team of Spider-people ready to save another world from Kingpin’s plan, Miles will be forced to unlock the spark within him and transform into this world’s own personal Spider-Man. Due to its bizarre presentation and unique animation style, Into the Spider-Verse wasn’t able to do well at the box office, but that is not a display of its quality as this film is outstanding. The freshness this film offers from its visuals, characters, and story, balanced out with its genuinely strong heart, emotional writing and storytelling, and a developed pathos that even the MCU Spider-man has no way of contending with, it offers the fun, weight and scale of what Spider-Man really is.

Considering how many times Spider-Man has been adapted into film with a total of six theatrical films focusing on the all-too familiar origins of Peter Parker (which was even then cycled through three different actors), it’s nice to see something take a new direction with a new lead and story of focus, and it doesn’t only go out there with its delivery, but it manages to be completely fresh while keeping the spirit of the character alive. The tone of the film is surprisingly very well executed, balancing the harsh darker, and even tragic nature of the Spider-Man mythos with a remarkably energetic and charming comedic side that comes through the writing, visuals, and characters. Despite the tone and animation style looking very child-oriented, it doesn’t shy away from the grim and even mature topics discussed in these stories and creates an emotionally engaging narrative that is still able to be gripping and totally resonant with its audience within cartoonish characters occupying the screen. The script by Rothman and Phil Lord (with his usual partner, Christopher Miller acting as a producer on the film),  who worked on projects like 21 Jump Street and The Lego Movie is very tight, managing to accomplish Sony’s goal of hyping up the universe through an extensive showcase of characters without tripping over itself by keeping the narrative clear, the characters relatable and the humor and visuals new and inviting. The pace of the movie is very fast, bouncing from one place to another with lightning speed, but even with a lot of characters to focus on (which are still given time to shine and have character arcs), the heart of the story never moves from Miles’ personal struggles, and it leads to a very satisfying conclusion for everybody involved. The opening does take a bit of time to get the ball rolling and there are spots throughout the story that could’ve been fleshed out better (mainly involving the villain and his backstory) but once it gets moving, it doesn’t stop and keeps the adrenaline high.

All these characters have such great chemistry between each other and create a bunch of new faces to associate with the Spider-Man brand outside of just Peter Park. It’s not only exciting to get to witness the starting point for Mile Morales (who was a very popular character from the Marvel comics), but also to see lesser-known characters brought to the big screen in a digestible manner for newcomers to enjoy. The manner in which they handle Miles as a character in this is very strong; coming across as his own identity apart from the usual “‘Peter Parker” dynamic while still containing a similar charm, his youthful nature and journey from boy to hero is demonstrated throughout this film and it’s very easy to sympathize and care about this kid, his relationship between his uncle and his father are very well handled and lead to good scenes for all three of them, and Shameik Moore as the voice actor is almost chilling good in certain moments in this film. While many were caught off guard by the look of this version of Peter Parker being more cynical and even a bit of a screw-up, the film does a great job not only endearing the audience to him but actively creating a great new character out of him, as watching his return to the typical Spider-Man attitude is very engaging. Jake Johnson also does great at bringing this light-hearted uncertainty, but also honest nature to the role and he and Miles are a very good pairing in this film. The rest of the Spider cast in this film not only look great and stand apart from each other quite well, but even they are used well. Gwen Stacy is made to be pretty likeable; Spider Man Noir has a great look and Nicholas Cage is clearly having a lot of fun as the voice, and while Peni Parker and Spider-Ham do feel the most like outliers in this story and don’t add a ton to the overall story, they’re still likeable and their animation styles are very appealing. The villains are where the film could’ve done things a little stronger, as despite fleshing out their heroes and their supporting cast quite well, most of the bad guys mainly feel like just regular thugs rather than actual threats. This doesn’t impact all of them as Olivia Octavius is a fun reveal and Kathryn Hahn is a good choice for the role, and the Prowler’s connection with Miles leads to good drama and his theme song is legitimately terrifying, but both of them are stuck playing second fiddle to Kingpin, who isn’t bad but is definitely not good. Despite being a pretty great Spider-Man villain whose been done well in most other iterations, this version of Kingpin is weirdly designed, strangely voiced and outside of a decent backstory, not given much to work with.

The film creates an art style that hadn’t been seen to this extent in most of mainstream media, and it looks absolutely incredibly. It captures the spirit and atmosphere of a comic book with elements like breaking the fourth wall through comic-book style text bubbles popping up every once and a while, the characters all adopting an art style that was used within their own comic book run, and the way the film is composed with several scenes containing shots and visuals that feel ripped off the pages of a comic book in the best way possible. It proudly showcases itself as a unique and creative art form by pushing itself to the next level. It clearly has 2D inspiration, but the 3D incorporation allows for this unique blend that uses the best of both worlds and creates something entirely its own. There are elements that would normally feel like oddities in any other animated movie like a drop-in frame rate during certain action sequences, and while that might be an issue for some, it does match with the style of the film and doesn’t distract from how fantastic a lot of these shots are in the movie. You’d think that this would get distracting and become too cluttered after a while, but the tone is so firmly established that it seems to blend in so naturally and add to the overall experience rather than take anything away. The lighting and shadows work is very well done especially in the more serious moments, but the bright colorful moments throughout the movie allow for a lot of visually amazing scenes, it’s never a visually unengaging sit. The action is incredibly fast and chaotic, but it’s detailed in such a way that it usually isn’t hard to keep a track of, and even when it is, it isn’t too any annoying degree. One of the directors of the film, Peter Ramsey had previously demonstrated his keen eye for showcasing animated action when he directed the 2012 DreamWorks film, Rise of the Guardians, and that talent can be felt in the way the action is delivered in this film, with the two other co-directors (Bob Persichetti and Rodney Rothman) seemingly attributing to the animation (Persichetti was a storyboard artists for Shrek 2, Flushed Away and Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit) and the writing department (Rothman helped write 21 Jump Street)

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse may not be like any Spider-Man film that came before it, but that is a very good thing. Instead of falling to the wayside as another attempt by Sony to milk this franchise for all its worth, it presented a weird, visually stunning, and distinctly new Spider-Man story that carried with it the weight of what, who and why Spider-Man exist, along with great comedy, writing, characters, and visuals. Its craziness is only off set by the genuine heart and soul put into every layer of this picture, and it achieve its goal of making people want more out of this universe, instead of getting people to scream for insect repellent. Even if people didn’t click with it originally, it will no doubt grow to become something special in the near future.