Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
I will always have a personal spot in my heart for Sam Raimi’s underrated “Spider-Man 3,” but the stunningly animated “Into the Spider-Verse” is probably my favorite Spider-Man film when it comes to the character. This is a film that deals completely with Peter Parker’s famous phrase, “With great power, comes great responsibility,” while also being wildly entertaining and a remarkable work of animated artistry. This is a film that could only be as effective as an animated movie, and the directors and thousands of artists at work in this film have created a vision as distinct as it is beautiful. With great power, comes great responsibility indeed.
If you’re familiar with Spider-Man at all, you’ll recognize many characters from the different iterations of the superhero, but while Peter Parker does play a key role in the film, the star is Miles Morales (voiced by Shameik Moore). Miles is a smart young kid in Brooklyn who has been selected from a lottery to go to a high-end high school away from his friends, but with supportive parents (including his police officer father) and Uncle Aaron. He feels like he’s just spinning his wheels, and looks up to Spider-Man, though his father doesn’t appreciate the vigilante. His first days at his new school are complicated when he finds himself watching on as Spider-Man (aka, Peter Parker) takes on Kingpin, and his scientists, as they try to open an inter-dimensional portal. The Kingpin, however, kills Peter, as Miles looks on. Part of the reason Miles was there, however, was his realization that he was bit by a spider similar to Peter. This moment begins a tremendous change in his life, although it’s nothing compared to when he finds himself confronted by an older Peter Parker.
I was worried at times through “Into the Spider-Verse” that the film would lose focus from Miles’s story as he deals with the paradox of another Peter Parker- one who was unable to make it work with MJ- and other Spider-people like Spider-Gwen, Noir Spider-Man, Peni Parker (and her spider-controlled robot), and Spider-Ham, but one of the truly heroic things about the screenplay by Phil Lord and Rodney Rothman is how this film, though infused by amazing supporting characters (voiced by a great cast, including Jake Johnson as Peter, Hailee Steinfeld as Spider-Gwen, Nicolas Cage as Noir Spider-Man, Liev Schreiber as Kingpin, and many, many more whom all stand out in their own ways), remains Miles Morales’s origin story, and the result honestly blew me away. If you saw the sequence at the end of “Venom,” that’s a part of the story, but even that has some scenes that were left out, and the way Lord and Rothman tell the story narratively, and give the animators (led by co-directors Rothman, Bob Persichetti and Peter Ramsey) latitude to make this as visually thrilling as possible while not losing the heart of the movie, makes this not just the year’s best animated film, but one of the decade’s best. We’ve seen an evolution and expansion in what is possible within the superhero framework over the years, and “Into the Spider-Verse” is an unexpected beneficiary of that. This is infused with a literary intelligence and emotion that rivals (in my opinion) “Logan,” “The Dark Knight” and “Black Panther.” Miles couldn’t have asked for a better introduction to mainstream audiences, and I desperately hope we aren’t done seeing his story told by these filmmakers.
Part of the reason I want to see the story of Miles Morales continue with these storytellers, in this medium, is because the visual landscape is immersive and brilliant. The only animated work I could think of that really reminded me of the type of cel animation/CG hybrid we’re looking at is the “Animatrix” series that came out with the “Matrix” sequels. That hued towards more traditional looks and visual ideas, though, while “Into the Spider-Verse” leaps into the unknown and a more abstract animation experience. This has a wildly experimental look to it that is probably unnerving some viewers, but I was fully in love with from frame one, and only became more in love with as the film went on. This is one of my very favorite films from 2018, and maybe one of my favorite superhero movies of all-time. Sony had a great responsibility when it came to bringing us an animated Spider-Man, and wielded great power in bringing together such a great result.
