Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse

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Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse follows Miles Morales (voiced by Shameik Moore) after he is bitten by a radioactive spider. He meets up with different Spider-people from various dimensions. His mentor is an older, more jaded Peter Parker (voiced by Jake Johnson). The are also joined by Spider-Gwen (voiced by Hailee Steinfeld) so that all of these different Spider-people can get back to their own dimensions. The animation is fantastic. The filmmakers clearly wanted it to look like a comic book come to life, and it worked so well. I’ve seen it work poorly (think Ang Lee’s Hulk). The voice cast is awesome. I loved Nicolas Cage as Spider-Man Noir. But, it’s the chemistry between our three leads that work the best. One of the things that happens (or is alluded to in the comics) is a relationship between Miles Morales and Gwen Stacy. So, it was nice to see such strong chemistry between those two. You also get this chemistry between Miles and the version of Peter Parker he meets in the movie. They have a student-teacher relationship. In many respects, it feels like your typical, cliched relationship. However, they do such a good job that it feels like it is supposed to be, almost like they are simultaneously making fun of the cliche and paying homage to it. The action is incredible. This is something that works because the animation is fluid and striking. I also love the relationships Miles has with both his father (voiced by Brian Tyree Henry) and his uncle (voiced by Mahershala Ali). They make it clear that both of these men love Miles and want what’s best for him. They just have different ways of going about things. His father is a cop and his uncle is a criminal. In many respects, Miles almost feels torn between the two, often siding more with his uncle. One of my favorite aspects about this is: they don’t tell you all of it in a twenty-minute exposition dump. A lot of it is told through animation, and the writing only really tells you what you need to know about all of it. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse isn’t just one of my favorite animated movies of the year, it is one of my favorite movies of the year, period. This feels like the movie fans of Miles Morales have been waiting for. 

9 / 10