Spider-Man has gone through a lot in film, hasn't he? From the trilogy directed by Sam Raimi with Tobey Maguire to Marc Webb's two Amazing Spider-Man films with Andrew Garfield, and being in the Marvel Cinematic Universe with Tom Holland. He has really been through a lot. So if you took him as well as many different incarnations of the comic book character and put them into one movie, you'd get "Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse". It may seem like a really crazy idea, but here it works. And it works phenomenally well. This is such an amazing animated movie and is also a breakthrough for new animation technologies. I haven't really seen a full length animated movie like this until now and it really is mind-blowing. This seriously is such an amazing movie.
Miles Morales (Shameik Moore) is a teenager living in Brooklyn who is having a complicated life. He has been accepted into a new school despite not really wanting to go and is having a sort of difficult relationship with his parents (Luna Lauren Velez and Brian Tyree Henry). He does though bond closely to his uncle Aaron (Mahershala Ali) over his passion for graffiti. One night though, Miles is bitten by a radioactive spider and then starts to develop very strange powers. It doesn't stop there though. After seeing that Kingpin (Liev Schreiber) has built a Super Collider in hopes to reconnect with his now deceased family, he then suddenly realizes that the portal has opened up other Spider-Men into his universe including Peter B. Parker (Jake Johnson), Spider-Woman (Hailee Steinfeld), Spider-Man Noir (Nicholas Cage), Peni Parker (Kimiko Glenn), and even an actual Spider Pig named Spider-Ham (John Mulaney). Together they must stop the Kingpin's plans of possibly destroying the world with his Super Collider and to get the other Spider-Men home before they glitch and eventually die. I would say more that happens, but I'd rather not spoil because you just need to see the film for yourself.
Last year, I remember Sony Pictures Animation making their worst film to date with "The Emoji Movie". That film was boring, unoriginal, unfunny, painful to sit through, and clearly a product of corporate executive meddling. A year later, they have made their best film to date as it was captivating, funny, and a real thrill ride. For an animated comeback, this really is one of the best I've seen in years. It's clear the company is heading forward as a filmmaker-driven studio which allows for more creator influences and ideas and less executive interferences and I'm very happy to see that. The story's main focus on Miles getting the hang of his powers as well as the responsibility of taking on the role as Spider-Man is the highlight of the film. Seeing him growing as a character and getting through difficulties including struggling at this new school, trying to bond with his parents, and learning from the other Spider-Men characters is what makes the movie fantastic. It's what I expected to see from a superhero movie and I think it really delivered. As for the animation, it's incredible. This is probably the closest movie I've seen that looks like a comic book and it blends traditional animation and computer animation together really well. I've seen the technique dabbled with by Disney in shorts like "Paperman" and "Feast", but never have I seen a full-length feature animated movie take on this style until now. Having seen it though, I can easily say I want more. This really is a game changer. The characters in this movie were the real highlight though. Although the character growth of Miles is the highlight of the movie, the other Spider-Men characters are all hilarious and stand out. Peter B. Parker and Spider-Woman are great teachers in a way to help Miles becoming who he is and Spider-Man Noir and Spider-Ham led to some of the funniest moments in the entire movie. I'm so glad they weren't in the trailers and I dare not say them here because they're so funny. This really was a fantastic animated movie, but I can say it's not flawless. For one, the dubstep like soundtrack did grate on me a bit and kind of got on my nerves. I prefer a full orchestra over dubstep any day. Also, I thought Kingpin could've been just a little bit better as a villain. I understood his motives and thought Schreiber did a fantastic job playing him, but I don't think he was quite as intimating and evil as I wanted him to be. He did come across as threatening, but he could've been just a tad bit more for me to legitimately fear. Still, though, that's really it.
"Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse" is seriously a phenomenal animated movie with a great superhero story, fantastic and groundbreaking animation, and funny memorable characters to really hold it up. This really is such an achievement for Sony Pictures Animation and I'm so happy to see that they can really make a fantastic animated movie. I hope to see some more awesome movies like this in the future because this really did blow my mind.
