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| Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018) |
Alright, off the bat, this movie is gorgeous. The animation style is so unique; it truly feels like a comic book come to life. The colours are vibrant and the lighting is beautiful, especially in the darker, shadowy locations. It feels almost like stop-motion at times, but the art style alone isn't what makes this film so visually impressive. The movie movie moves at a breakneck pace, and I don't mean that in terms of the pacing, although that is true as well. Even outside of the action scenes, it's very rare that there isn't something happening on screen. There's so much movement, but it's never movement for movement's sake. The good thing is that the film knows when to slow down or take a moment to give the audience a break, which comes back to the pacing of the film. It's a very fast paced movie, and there's an awful lot crammed in here. What's impressive about this is how easy it was to follow what was going on. There are 6 'Spider-Men' in this... Spider-Men... Spider-Mans?... There are 6 spider themed superheroes in this film, but it never feels too cluttered. They find the perfect balance with pretty much everything, and they pull it off beautifully.
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| Shameik Moore as Miles Morales |
The action scenes are especially great. They take advantage of the fact that it's animated and it's Spider-Man to bring us some really creative fight scenes. This is where the animation style really shines, and it's a situation where I was sitting in the cinema watching these action scenes and feeling bad for the poor animators who had to put in all the time into making this look so good, though I imagine working on this would be more rewarding than working on something else. Not only are these action scenes super great to look at, but they're also really unique, especially for Spider-Man movies. The scene with Miles carrying a passed out Peter through the city is something you just don't see in other superhero movies, especially considering how funny it is. Because it is. This is a hilarious movie. You can really tell Lord & Miller worked on this, and there are so many stand-out jokes here that on the way home I kept remembering more and more great lines. This is probably one of the funnier movies I've seen in the last couple of years, and the jokes are also really varied, considering all of the different types of Spider-People we get in this movie. Spider-Noir specifically cracked me up consistently, and there was more than one joke that had me rolling in my seat. Really clever and relevant jokes. Great stuff.
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| Jake Johnson as Peter Parker |
The cast is also fantastic. Shameik Moore does a brilliant job bringing Miles Morales to life, and he bounces off basically the entire cast in different ways wonderfully, but I'll talk more about him later. Jake Johnson is a fantastic Peter Parker, and a really different Parker than we've seen on the big screen, and a refreshing take on the character at that. Sure, it's great seeing Peter as an actual kid in Homecoming, but seeing him as a 30-something bum is something different, it works for this story, and I'm glad this interpretation exists. Gwen Stacy is still a great character and Hailee Steinfeld does a great job in the role. She specifically bounces off Moore really well, and stands out as a great character of her own right. The rest of the supporting cast do their jobs really well, particularly the other Spider-People: Nicolas Cage, Kimiko Glenn and John Mulaney. Cage in particular was hilarious, as I mentioned, and it gets even better when you consider that all of these different versions of Spider-Man actually exist in the comics, and this medium is really the only format that lends itself to those characters.
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| Hailee Steinfeld as Gwen Stacy |
Which brings me to the best thing about this movie: the tone. With all of these different versions of Spider-Man, you would think the tone would be all over the place, but they find a nice balance here. They take themselves just seriously enough that the more serious moments and overall plot don't crumble into itself, but it doesn't take itself so seriously so as to make the audience stop taking it seriously. But it's more than that. Not only is this film silly and serious, but it's also really emotional at times. There's a lot of heart in this movie, and that's where Moore shines. He nails the more emotional moments, and it's these moments that take the film out of the realm of a fun family film and turns it into something really special. I really have nothing else to say. I have no nit-picks or quibbles or hesitations. I also have nothing else I can say without spoiling the movie in some capacity. Just go and see it.
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| Nicolas Cage as Spider-Noir |
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018) is one of the best superhero films I've seen, and the best Spider-Man movie I've seen. If you have a chance to see it on the big screen, absolutely do it. What a beautiful movie. 10/10
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