Movie Review: Spider-Man: Into the Spider- Verse (2018)

A computer animated feature film from Sony Pictures, based on the Marvel superhero comics series of the same name, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse is a 2018 film directed by the trio of Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey and Rodney Rothman. Miles Morales (Shamiek Moore) is an intelligent but rebellious son of a police officer, Jefferson Davis (Brian Tyree Henry), though Myles prefers to hang out with his more laid back uncle, Aaron Davis (Mahershala Ali). After being bitten an enhanced spider, and developing new and unique abilities, Myles is mentored by Peter Parker, the famous Spider-Man (Jake Johnson). With the crime lord Wilson Fisk, aka the Kingpin (Liev Schreiber) looking to meld realities together, Miles and Peter must work together to stop him, with a little help from others from the Spider-Verse.

+ the animation is just incredible, set somewhere between a motion comic and a CG movie. The comic book style, complete with ‘origins’ montages, with panel frames and speech bubbles makes it feel like a “comic book movie”, rather than just a movie inspired by a comic book
+ every single voice actor is the ideal casting for their role. Morales (Moore) has that snarky teenage attitude, but also delivers in all the more poignant moments. Schreiber and Ali (voicing Kingpin and Ali, respectively) are two of my favourite actors, and Ali in particular just turns everything he is involved with into gold. Jake Johnson’s turn as Spider-man was arguably a bit out of left field for him, known as the goofy support character on New Girl, but he also pulls it off with aplomb. Comedian John Mulaney, an absolute favourite of mine, has a role which I won’t name, but even his somewhat limited lines have already become a staple of my daily speech
+ Kathryn Hahn and Chris Pine also lend their voices in support roles, but I can’t even say who. There are even more supporting cast, all of which are fantastic, but to even list their character names might be considered spoilers. Needless to say, if you don’t recognise their voices at the time, once you see their names in the credits, you’ll kick yourself for not realising who they were
+ the plot is relatively simple, and truthfully even the few twists and turns are somewhat cliche, but the pacing and voice acting is just so fantastic that it still manages to either pack an emotional punch, or get you chuckling again after those moments
+ the soundtrack, while not necessarily to my tastes in particular, works perfectly with the film, and it’s representation of Morales’ ethnicity

MIles Morales and Spider-man comes face to face

The iconic New York City shot from the early trailers

> Stan Lee’s first posthumous cameo is a real heartbreaker, and truthfully more of a minor role than just a “cameo”. Thankfully, it is played for laughs just in time to stop you bawling your eyes out

Should you see this film: Yes. This is not just one of the best superhero movies, nor the best animated movies, but clearly and sincerely one of the best movies I have ever soon. I have nothing bad to say about this movie.