Spiderman: Into the Spider-Verse

Movie, 2018, PG

Premise - Miles Morales, a teenager from Brooklyn, looks up to Spider-man as a hero, while his cop-father despises the vigilante antics. Then Miles himself gets bitten by a radioactive spider, making Peter Parker no longer the only Spider-man in town. More complicated still, as this dimension's Peter Parker dies, a portal has opened up that pulls all the different spider-men (or women) out of their respective dimensions and into Miles'. With Miles at the lead, a team of spider-people must find out how to close the portal and find their way home.

Review - DUDE BEST MOVIE OF 2018 THAT I HAVE SEEN SO FAR. Up until now, I was giving the crown to The Incredibles 2, but I think this topped it. I went to see it on opening weekend for my birthday and was absolutely blown away.

Here's the thing - I'm not big into superhero movies, with one very clear exception. I love Spider-man. I love everything about the superhero - how he didn't choose to be a hero, how he's young, how he has to live a double life, how he's a science nerd... Of course, I think the Spider-man superhero in general is fantastic, but I have a particular place in my heart for the Sam Raimi trilogy of the early 2000's with Tobey Maguire (for which I also wrote a heartfelt review here http://narrativemultiverse.blogspot.com/2018/04/spider-man-trilogy.html). I'm so attached to this trilogy that while I theoretically would enjoy watching the other Spider-man movies (Andrew Garfield and Tom Holland's renditions), I haven't seen them. I still hold a bitterness that the films have been re-launched SO MANY TIMES and SO MANY PEOPLE have appropriated the character in my short lifetime. But here comes along a film that makes fun of that.

When I first heard of this film, I groaned internally once again. Yet another Spider-man movie??? This time, however, Jake Johnson (who I love) was going to play Peter Parker (or, more specifically as I later found out, Peter B. Parker). This was an incredibly confusing thought until I realized later that the film was animated, and now suddenly I was intrigued. The animation style I started to see in trailers was unique, playful, and visually attractive. More fascinating yet, Peter Parker was not the star of the film. That role goes to Miles Morales, the new black spiderman who is an entirely new character and interpretation of the hero. This is the first time Miles Morales has made it to the big screen, whereas Peter Parker has a zillion times.

I have such an obsession with the idea of multiverse... I mean... that's literally what I named this blog after. The concept that there are universes where our fictional characters have actual life is so special to me. I don't actually believe in a multiverse necessarily, but I just love to imagine it. In a truly infinite multiverse, though, not only is there one universe where a real Spiderman exists, but infinitely many, with different versions and interpretations of Spiderman (a universe for Tobey Maguire, one for Andrew Garfield, one for the MCU, and infinite other imaginations.) This is a film literally all about that. It pokes fun at how many times Spider-man has been re-imagined, and plays with the idea of these different renditions all running into each other. The intro animates actual scenes from previous Spider-man movies (the train scene in Spider-man 2 YESSSS!!!) and boldly makes reference to the dancing in Spider-man 3 (which I embrace proudly as a favorite cinematic moment, even though the joke was how we don't like to talk about it...)

Sometimes when the film gets a little too meta and self-aware, I think the humor was taken a bit too far and becomes kind of campy. One clear example is when Spider-ham, the pig, says, "That's all folks!" and another character responds, "Is he allowed to say that, legally?" It breaks the fourth wall, much like Deadpool, in a way that I think was a bit too showy. Also, there are a number of pop culture jokes, also like Deadpool, that are only funny if you get the reference. The film assumes you've seen other Spider-man films or read the comics, but for general audiences, not everyone has. Not everyone is big into meme-culture either, so I'm not sure how much some of the jokes resonated. That said, for me as an individual, I loved it. I didn't like it as much in parts of Deadpool because I haven't even seen, for example, Wolverine or X-Men movies. But I have seen at least some Spider-man films, and various Spider-man memes, so for me, it worked. Speaking of Deadpool though, I'm kind of surprised that no references were made to either him, nor Venom, who sort of feel like Spider-man variations? Maybe it was a copyright thing.

This so far is just breaking the surface of how many great things there are to talk about in this film. Black Spider-man? Hell yes! I loved how his culture was relevant to his character, how he feels out of place in a fancy school and would rather do graffiti art. Having his father as a cop who hates vigilante heroes was also fascinating because it adds an extra layer into his needing to keep a double life. I'm a sucker for high-stakes double-life identity drama. Who else. Noir Spider-man? Hilarious. Many of my favorite lines were from him. A spider-woman? Great. All of the Spider-man variations were great. Of course, I have a personal love for Peter B. Parker because he was voiced by Jake Johnson. Seeing Spider-man swing around in sweatpants and barefoot? CLASSIC.

The humor was top notch. The dialogue great. The animation is hard to explain in a way that does it justice, but it was basically done in the style of a comicbook. There was so much that was visually unique about it - the texture, the rich color, the extreme blur of whatever was in the background in relation to the foreground... It's a bit much on the eyes but it's quite an animation feat.

Most of all, I think what I loved is despite how many variations of the Spider-character there were, the heart of what makes Spider-man great is kept in this story. Miles Morales is an ordinary, good-hearted kid. He gets bitten by a radioactive spider by pure happenstance, and suddenly gets thrown into a life of greatness. He's not naturally the hero-type, especially when compared to all these other spider-people who have since honed in on their powers. He is still in his origin story phase, so to speak, and that's what I love most about the Spider-man story. He experiences the horrific loss of his uncle, and feels an obligation to do right by his city (each of which have different names in the various universes. My personal favorite was Uncle Ben vs. Uncle Benjamin). He has to keep his life a secret from his friends and family. The only reason he knows he's not alone is because there are other people in his shoes too... they just happen to be from a different dimension.

What a fantastic first posthumous film for Stan Lee. Of course, it was created when he was still alive and he has a cameo, but it was released after his death. How very fitting it is for the theme of this film to be that Spider-man will truly live on forever, and will always be brought to life by newer generations. (95/100)

Quote - "With great ability, comes great accountability" - I LAUGHED SO MUCH HARDER THAN I SHOULD HAVE AT THIS.

What to watch for - I mean, the animation is something really special, but it can be a bit much on the eyes, especially on the big screen. I can't imagine watching this if you have any sensory sensitivities. I would actually say a huge feat of this film is the music. A fantastic blend of a 2018 soundtrack, with what sounds like a more traditional score. There were times where the music score felt slightly reminiscent of old Spider-man scores, like the one from Danny Elfman, but I couldn't tell if I was projecting that or not. Regardless, music is spectacular.

If you liked this movie, I'd recommend the original 2000's Spiderman trilogy!

Based on characters by Stan Lee, Steve Ditko, Brian Michael Bendis, and Sara Pichelli
Directed by Peter Ramsey, Robert Persichetti Jr., and Rodney Rothman
Distributed by Sony Pictures