I’d say “It’s really hard to go wrong with Spider-Man”… but we know from more than a few really bad iterations that’s not true.
So when you do a movie centered around the idea of having multiple Spider-characters from different realities thrown together, your chances for something going wrong increase exponentially.
Into the Spider-Verse managed to dodge every bullet possible. It most certainly earned every award it was nominated for and each it won. Everything about this film is wonderful and very much “Spider-Man” in the best ways.
The Plot
Miles Morales is a smart kid. So smart, he’s been sent to a magnet school, taking him away from all his friends and putting him in a place where he really doesn’t feel like he fits in. His dad’s a cop, his mom’s a nurse, and his uncle… well, the family doesn’t like to talk about him, but Miles really gets along with him.
Of course, Miles gets bit by a weird spider. And, within a day, starts sticking to things. In very awkward ways. That very bad day culminates with him meeting hie personal hero, Spider-Man… and seeing him die at the hands of the Kingpin while trying to stop a machine that could destroy not just the whole city, but all of reality.
That’s when things get weird.
Miles meets another Peter Parker. And then, while they’re trying to stop Kingpin’s scheme, they meet other members of the Spider-family. Including Spider-Gwen, Peni Parker, the black-and-white Spider-Man Noir, and the literal cartoon character Spider-Ham. It seems the Kingpin’s machine pulled them all from their own alternate realities and deposited them in Miles’ world.
If they don’t get back to their own home dimensions, though, they’re going to die horrible deaths. Oh, and Kingpin my actually destroy reality with his machine.
It’s kind of the ultimate team up.
“Let’s start at the beginning…”
Every one of the Spider-family gets to run down their origin story. Under most circumstances, that would be an over-done joke by the third time it happens. Wise choices in both characters and presentation–and knowing when to just skip ahead in the summary–avoids that problem. You still get the essence of the characters, but you don’t get tired of hearing the origin stories.
That’s pretty impressive, since there’ve been plenty of origin stories told in other movies that I’m tired of before they’re even done.
Even the two different Peter Parkers we meet are different enough to be interesting in their own ways. One is still loving his time as Spider-Man and his life is going great. The other… well… he’s not so happy with things in his life. Getting sucked into an alternate dimension is likely the best thing that could have happened to him he was so low. It’s a flavor of Peter Parker–or just about any super hero–that we don’t see often in movies. (It does happen in the comics, though, where there more time to build up and down.)
The story is pretty amazing. But good Spider-Man stories should be easy, even complex ones. (Again, we know Hollywood has screwed it up before, but, still…) It’s really not that impressive that the story is fun, action-packed, and inspirational.
What really makes it work is the animation.
The animation is spectacular. Very different from anything I’ve seen before, especially connected with Spider-Man. Every Spider-character has their own distinct style and animation flavor that applies just to them.
They look and feel like they’re from somewhere else. And it works.
Action sequences come fast and furious as the story progresses. The animation captures all the fun and chaos of a comic book battle and then some. It’s easy to get a little disoriented in some sequences, but just when you think you’ve totally lost the thread of the fight, you get pulled right back on track by some great bit of animation staging that reminds you. There are live action movies that don’t do as good a job of re-focusing your attention as this.
I can only imagine how great this looked on big screens with 3D. The depth and motion that’s already present in the 2D version is impressive enough. This movie is on the very short list of “Movies where the 3D is likely worth is.”
The Veridct
Definitely one of the best non-Disney Marvel movies ever made. By far one of the best Spider-Man movies ever made.
You can’t really accuse it of breaking from any established reality with its changes to character designs (Green Goblin is definitely different than I’ve ever seen him, but it’s done so well it feel right) because there’s really no telling which iteration of a universe we’re in. That provides a lot of creative freedom, but it also poses more than a few challenges for the story tellers.
Even if you’re a causal fan of super hero stuff… even if you just know someone named Spider-Man exists… check this film out. You’ll probably find at least a thing or two to like about it.
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