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Third Party Reviews: Spider-Man Into the Spider-Verse
7 years ago
So I'm writing this review only a couple hours after having seen the film itself. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse is an animated film from Columbia Pictures, and Sony Pictures Animation, in association with Marvel Entertainment. When this movie was announced, I was skeptical. After all, we'd just gotten a fantastic new Spider-Man with Spider-Man Homecoming. Spider-Man was right back he belonged, with Marvel. Then Sony began announcing all sorts of solo projects. Venom, Black Cat & Silver Sable, and then they announced the animated Spider-Man movie that would have no connection to the MCU. It felt to me at the time that Sony was trying to have their cake and eat it too. Venom helped solidify that viewpoint, with news about the studio meddling, cutting out large chunks of the movie, and the fact that it was rated PG-13.
My apprehension disappeared almost immediately as the movie started. Into the Spider-Verse is a fantastic animated movie, one with a near perfect sense of timing and flow. There was never a point in the movie that bored me or dragged on too long. The action sequences paired well with the moments of downtime, leading into the next action moment.
Into the Spider-Verse tells the origin of Miles Morales, a new version of Spider-Man that I think led into Marvel's hit-or-miss "All-New, All-Different" brand, which is a welcome change of pace to the constant retelling of Peter Parker's origins (which the film lampshades wonderfully on a few different occasions). It is also an adaptation of the Spider-Verse storyline, though a pared down version, which leads us to our ancillary protagonists: Peter Parker and Gwen Stacy, both from other universes. We also get Peni Parker and Sp//dr, Noir Spider-Man, and Peter Porker as side characters, who sort of serve as minor comedic relief (and Nicholas Cage as Noir Spider-Man is absolutely fantastic), but are relatively unimportant to the overall narrative, which is focused on Miles, Peter and Gwen in that order.
Without going into spoiler territory, the action that follows is fantastic. Seeing not one but multiple Spider-People swinging around, and beating up bad guys is a great visual that's going to be hard for Marvel to top in future movies. And if that were all the movie offered, it'd still be a good movie. But it also has an emotional impact as a movie about a kid learning who he is and what he can be in this world, struggling with his family and his entire identity as a person, and the two sides of the film are juggled perfectly.
I've got to give Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse a whopping 10 out of 10. The comic-style animations of the film are solid and visually pleasing throughout, the story never seems to falter, and our main protagonists are all compelling characters in their own right. Where the movie falters, I think is when it comes to the villain. The reasoning behind their villainous deeds is a little heavy handed, but given the length of the movie, I can see why they didn't flesh out the backstory more. Otherwise this is a fantastic movie. Possibly the best Spider-Man movie (or Superhero movie) ever made, and certainly one of the best movies of the year.
My apprehension disappeared almost immediately as the movie started. Into the Spider-Verse is a fantastic animated movie, one with a near perfect sense of timing and flow. There was never a point in the movie that bored me or dragged on too long. The action sequences paired well with the moments of downtime, leading into the next action moment.
Into the Spider-Verse tells the origin of Miles Morales, a new version of Spider-Man that I think led into Marvel's hit-or-miss "All-New, All-Different" brand, which is a welcome change of pace to the constant retelling of Peter Parker's origins (which the film lampshades wonderfully on a few different occasions). It is also an adaptation of the Spider-Verse storyline, though a pared down version, which leads us to our ancillary protagonists: Peter Parker and Gwen Stacy, both from other universes. We also get Peni Parker and Sp//dr, Noir Spider-Man, and Peter Porker as side characters, who sort of serve as minor comedic relief (and Nicholas Cage as Noir Spider-Man is absolutely fantastic), but are relatively unimportant to the overall narrative, which is focused on Miles, Peter and Gwen in that order.
Without going into spoiler territory, the action that follows is fantastic. Seeing not one but multiple Spider-People swinging around, and beating up bad guys is a great visual that's going to be hard for Marvel to top in future movies. And if that were all the movie offered, it'd still be a good movie. But it also has an emotional impact as a movie about a kid learning who he is and what he can be in this world, struggling with his family and his entire identity as a person, and the two sides of the film are juggled perfectly.
I've got to give Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse a whopping 10 out of 10. The comic-style animations of the film are solid and visually pleasing throughout, the story never seems to falter, and our main protagonists are all compelling characters in their own right. Where the movie falters, I think is when it comes to the villain. The reasoning behind their villainous deeds is a little heavy handed, but given the length of the movie, I can see why they didn't flesh out the backstory more. Otherwise this is a fantastic movie. Possibly the best Spider-Man movie (or Superhero movie) ever made, and certainly one of the best movies of the year.
