“Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” Review

Reviewing films across all mediums since December 2022!

In the year 2010, a popular online campaign asking for Donald Glover to be the next live-action Spider-Man after Tobey Maguire was made. Though the campaign was not a success as Andrew Garfield was instead cast in the 2012 film “The Amazing Spider-Man,” the campaign itself, along with the election of then-President Barack Obama, has inspired comic book writer Brian Michael Bendis and artist Sara Pichelli to create the character Miles Morales in the Marvel Comics imprint called the Ultimate Universe, a modern-day reimagining of the Marvel Universe. In that universe, Peter Parker died while battling the Sinister Six, and in his place came Miles Morales, a black Puerto-Rican teenager with all the same abilities as Peter Parker along with extra new powers that Peter Parker didn’t have. Miles Morales became one of the most popular incarnations of Spider-Man, and seven years after his August 2011 debut in Marvel Comics, Miles made his big screen debut in the animated Oscar-winning film that is the subject of this review: “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.”

Disclaimer

This review will contain some spoilers for the film being reviewed here. Proceed with caution if you wish to read further.

The Story

The story is centered on Miles Morales, a teenager living in the city of Brooklyn, New York when he’s suddenly bitten by a genetically modified spider while sneaking out of his dorm. That same spider gave him spider-like powers, and a chance encounter with Spider-Man puts him on a path to becoming a hero where he must team up with other Spider-People from different dimensions to save his world. At the time of the film’s release, audiences had seen the story of Peter Parker told six times in movie format, and if Sony were to do another Spider-Man film, a new perspective was needed, which makes sense for Into the Spider-Verse to shift the focus onto Miles Morales. This film has also accomplished the difficult task of telling Miles’s story while also balancing the other Spider-People present in the film as well as a plot that involves multiple dimensions, making it a testament to how good the writing is, courtesy of Phil Lord and Christopher Miller (The Lego Movie, The Lego Batman Movie). In fact, the same self-referential humor that’s used in their other movies is present here with lots of nods to the Spider-Man mythos almost like with “The Lego Batman Movie,” which I will elaborate on later in this review.

The Characters

The lead character of the film is, of course, Miles Morales, voiced by Shameik Moore (Dope, The Get Down). He’s got his own issues and responsibilities that differ from Peter Parker, being overwhelmed by living up to his parents’ expectations and wanting to carve out a path of his very own. Then, he gets bit by a spider and has to become the new Spider-Man to finish the mission of his dimension’s Peter Parker. Adding to that pressure are the other Spider-People, starting with Peter B. Parker, voiced by Jake Johnson (New Girl, Tag), a cynical middle-aged Spider-Man who has fallen on hard times and becomes a reluctant mentor to Miles. Next is Gwen Stacy, voiced by Hailee Steinfeld (True Grit, The Edge of Seventeen), who got bit by a spider and gained powers in place of Peter Parker in her universe, thus becoming Spider-Woman (or Spider-Gwen in the comics). Rounding out the rest of the Spider-People in the film are a mysterious and dramatic black-and-white noir Spider-Man known as Spider-Noir (voiced by Nicolas Cage of National Treasure and Face/Off), a young Japanese-American anime girl and mech pilot named Peni Parker (voiced by Kimiko Glenn of Orange Is the New Black and DuckTales [2017 reboot]), and a cartoonish, anthropomorphic pig named Spider-Ham (voiced by stand-up comedian John Mulaney). Going off course for a moment here, I would like to say that I like how Miles’s relationship with Peter B. Parker evolves throughout the film, going from the alternate Peter teaching Miles the bare minimum for him to keep up to having him learn about what it truly means to be a hero by himself. The other great relationships that are shown in the film involve Miles and his father, Jefferson Davis (voiced by Brian Tyree Henry of Atlanta and Lobby Hero), and his uncle, Aaron Davis (voiced by Mahershala Ali of Moonlight and True Detective). Jefferson is a police officer who care about his son but does not trust Spider-Man, while Aaron is that uncle who Miles visits every now and then who has a shady side to him. In addition, Lily Tomlin (Grace and Frankie, The Magic School Bus) voices Aunt May, and she may just be the coolest version that I’ve ever seen in any piece of Spider-Man-related media. As for the villains, we have the main antagonist Kingpin (voiced by Liev Schreiber of Ray Donovan and Scream), a powerful mob boss who dominates New York City in Miles’s universe and has also built a Super Collider that can access other dimensions, but could possibly damage the current universe that Miles is in. We also see alternate versions of the Green Goblin, Scorpion, and Doctor Octopus, the latter of which caught me off-guard the first time I watched this movie in a theater.

Everything Else

Something else which cannot go unmentioned is the incredibly unique animation style that this film boasts. Between the text boxes which occasionally appear, plus the over the top, larger than life portrayal of Kingpin, the film looks very much like a comic book coming to life right before the viewer’s eyes. It enhances the action, and I feel like the medium of animation can capture the world of comic books much better than anything live-action films can do with the best CGI available right now. Another aspect that I want to point out is the humor, as I feel that every joke lands perfectly throughout the film. It utilizes that self-referential humor that I mentioned earlier by making references to many different versions of Spider-Man seen in different media from the infamous “emo dance” scene from “Spider-Man 3” (2007) to the pointing scene from the animated 1967 “Spider-Man” series to name a few. With the humor, there’s also many touching, emotional moments, especially around Miles. You see his journey into becoming Spider-Man and it all culminates in the scene where he’s web-slinging through New York City in his black-and-red suit, and the backing music for that scene fit it perfectly. While we’re on the topic of music, Daniel Pemberton’s score for this movie is nothing short of fantastic, mixing contemporary music with hip-hop and the traditional orchestral compositions that audiences have grown used to hearing in movies and not have it sound forced, and the soundtrack perfectly captures the setting the film is in, with Post Malone and Swae Lee’s “Sunflower” being the lead-off single for the soundtrack, plus many other artists such as Vince Staples, Juice WRLD, and Jaden Smith contributing original songs to it. One last thing that I enjoy about the film is its message. Though it’s basically “anyone can be a hero,” a message that is not exactly new, Into the Spider-Verse executes that message flawlessly, which also works as a tribute to the late Stan Lee (1922 – 2018), who makes a cameo appearance in the film, and it was very fitting of the man.

Final Verdict

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse isn’t just an ideal example of what a comic book movie can accomplish, but it’s also an example of what animated movies can be when the medium is pushed to its limit. It’s the ultimate love letter to Spider-Man, from the animation to the writing to the characters to the message behind it to even all the references peppered throughout the film. It nails the character in a way that live-action movies never could, and this has only boosted my love for Spider-Man in recent times. I highly recommend this movie to everyone, especially if you’re a Spider-Man fan or an animation fan. Plus, with the forthcoming sequels “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” and “Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse” releasing on June 2^nd, 2023 and March 29^th, 2024 respectively, I have high hopes for the future of the Spider-Verse films.