"Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” Review
Possible epileptic seizure warning
Holy fucking shit oh my fucking jesus fuck, this movie is awesome.
The idea of difference universes colliding and introducing six Spider-characters seems complicated but the premise itself mainly follows Miles Morales, Peter Parker, King Pin and some Gwen Stacy while the rest of the characters act as background flourishes. For those who’ve liked Spider-Man and super heroes, this movie is for you. It’s a love letter to the franchise and a beautiful introduction to some crowd favourites. The jokes go fast and exposition is often subverted for comedic effect but the pacing always remains steady and the plot beats, for the most part, are super polished.
I love its depiction of Miles Morales (Shameik Moore). He has a beautifully earned character arc and although the movie goes fast, it takes its sweet time developing him and his family. It’s really sweet and I was ugly-crying throughout. Brian Tyree Henry plays his dad and this guy has been killing it lately with Atlanta and Widows and he plays the role with so much heart and vulnerability. He’s a man of the law and he has an estranged brother (Mahershala Ali) and he wants his son to be a better man than the uncle his son looks up to. When the story takes a dramatic turn, it hits at an extremely personal level and it works beautifully. There’s one scene with Jake Johnson’s Peter Parker that had me laughing hysterically and then crying out of intense sadness at the same time. It was great and also, I love this post-hero version of Peter Parker and I would’ve been perfectly content to see the whole movie with just him. I’m also extremely happy to see Spider-Gwen (Hailee Steinfeld) finally. For the longest time Gwen Stacy has been known as the fridged girlfriend before fridging was a thing. In this and her comic stories, she’s the Spider-Woman of her universe. Also she plays drums and that’s awesome -oh my god -yes!!
As well developed as the main characters are, some the villains who show up are simply there for action scenes. King Pin’s (Liev Schreiber) motivation is clear and is quickly established but is in no way as nuanced as other versions of the character, but hey, when you’ve only got less than two hours, you’re gonna have to cut some things out to make it flow better. The same can be said about Spider-Noir, Spider-Ham, and Spider-DVA. They’re there to add more stakes and to make fight scenes more dense and interesting but ultimately don’t really add as much to the movie as you’d assume. That being said, the whole Spidey gang do all get their moments to shine and it’s often hilarious.
You’ll probably notice that this is an animated Spider-Man movie and its unique choppy art style will take some getting used to. I happen to think that this is the most spectacular looking animated thing I’ve ever sat through and if you’re a fan of animation, the movie will blow your mind. It’s also apparently formatted for IMAX and I very much regret not seeing it in a bigger screen. Mix its electrifying animation style with some highly nuanced storyboarding and layered cinematography and we have ourselves some great eye candy.
One big thing I had a problem with is the movie’s music. In particular the contemporary hip-hop and pop songs that were featured. We have artists like Post Malone, Jaden Smith, Lil Wayne, Drake and the late XXXTentacion -all of whom I hate very very very very much and who make terrible, generic sounding music. People I do enjoy like Denzel Curry has a underwhelming feature in the soundtrack and Vince Staples has a track as well that ends up being equally as uninspiring to listen to. It’s shockingly bad, highly disappointing and it doesn’t hold a candle to someone like Biggie Smalls, who’s music was featured in it as well. The score by Daniel Pemberton is also quite generic and sounds like any other Marvel movie. And that’s not a compliment by any means.
“Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” is easily the best Spider-Man movie by far and easily my favourite Marvel movie ever. Some of its music choices are terrible but I guarantee that you’ll love the movie anyway if you’re a fan of animation and or if you’re a fan of super heroes.
There’s a post credits scene btw so don’t leave pls.