Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
Directed By: Peter Ramsey, Robert Persichetti Jr, Rodney Rothman
Grade: A
The first trailer I saw for Into the Spider-Verse I wasn’t interested in yet another Spider-Man movie but go figure- this one is probably my favorite of all of them. And I go all the way back to the first Tobey.
Miles Morales (Shameik Moore) is trying to get by at a new school and not disappoint his cop father when he’s bitten by a radioactive spider. On top of that Kingpin (Liev Schreiber) opens up a dimensional portal and suddenly Miles world is full of Spider-Man, Spider-Pigs and, Spider-Women.
This was a ton of fun. The animation was definitely interesting. It’s like a comic book come to life in many ways. I admit it took a couple of minutes getting used to but it was beautiful and it allowed them to do things that the live-action movies can’t.
Miles is a great character and I appreciated the anyone can be spider-man message. But I admit it was nice to see a grown-up Peter Parker on screen. A disaster yes but still. I don’t think I’ve ever enjoyed Hailee Steinfeld so much as her voice work as Spider-Woman- also I love the blue ballet shoes on her costume. Superficial I know but it was pretty!
I mean I love the television Kingpin so it was weird seeing him battle Spider-Men.
I was impressed as well by the script. Despite all the crazy things it was well-balanced and they really kept Miles at the heart of it. The pull between his father and his Uncle and the sadness of some of his family issues honestly made me tear up.
I’m not an expert on animated films by any means but I really think this deserves some award love and should, at least, give Incredibles 2 a run for its money at Oscar time. Also lots of potential for a sequel so I’m hoping this does well against a pretty stacked box-office.
Recommend: Yes. And this is one I think the parents and older kids will likely enjoy and get the jokes for more than the younger kids who will still like the animated and all the Spider-Men.
