‘Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse’ Is Spirited, Exhilarating, And Surprisingly Nuanced (FILM REVIEW)

[rating=9.00]

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse seems like the kind of movie that resulted from an aggressive counter-marketing campaign. Here’s a character that’s seen three major franchise reboots since the new millennium, and though Tom Holland’s current iteration is an endearing take on the character, his role in the proper MCU may be on borrowed time thanks to some elaborate corporate arrangement.

Sony, who owns the rights to not only Spider-Man but his larger cache of villains and supporting characters, has been trying to get their own shared universe off the ground since Andrew Garfield was sporting the web shooters. Amazing Spider-Man 2 was the most glaring example, which was less a superhero movie and more an aggressive outlining of a burgeoning franchise.

It was around that time that Sony started working on Into the Spider-Verse, an animated take that would not only shift gears from Peter Parker to Miles Morales (FINALLY!), but throw in a handful of lesser-known Spider-Man offshoots like Gwen Stacy’s Spider-Woman and Peter Porker’s Spider-Ham.

There’ve been enough Spider-Man movies already, right? Why not just cram every iteration of the character into one film?

Really, it’s not surprising that they tried. It is a little surprising, however, that it works. Quite well, in fact.

The movie takes place in a variation of Marvel’s 1610 continuity, following a young Miles Morales (voiced by Shameik Moore) as he starts a new school where he doesn’t fit in, and finds himself torn between his by-the-book cop father (Bryan Tyree Henry), and his cool uncle, Aaron (Mahershala Ali).

Along the way, Miles gets bitten by a genetically-altered spider, in a hilariously understated moment, and slowly comes to grips with the responsibilities of becoming someone worthy of the moniker Spider-Man. Though this gets complicated when some super-villainy on behalf of The Kingpin (Liev Schreiber) opens up a dimensional rift, which brings in five other Spider-Men (Spiders-Man?) into his world.

The one who gets the most screen time is a down-on-his-luck Peter Parker (Jake Johnson), one who’s worn out from a quarter century of web-slinging, and mired by a bad financial investments, a failed marriage, and a sizable gut. Miles looks to this Peter for guidance, to train him how to be the best Spider-Man he can be. Peter, however, has little interest in becoming Miles’ Mr. Miyagi, and instead gives him the old-man Luke treatment, resisting his need for tutelage, only begrudgingly relenting out after being bugged about it non-stop.

It’s these two varying dynamics that drives the film. A young, idealistic Spider-Man willing (but not ready) to take on the world, held back by another who’s broken down by a lifetime of tough breaks.

Considering that part of Spider-Man’s long-enduring appeal is that it’s fundamentally a story about Peter Parker (and later, Miles Morales), and how life gets infinitely more complicated by the responsibility of super-heroics, seeing a rendition of the character who’s well past his breaking point gave real emotional weight to the larger Spider-Man mythology.

The only downside here is, despite how well it works, it does tend to blur the movie’s overall focus on Miles’ origin. Between these two dynamics, the rest of the Spider-crew get a pushed a little too far into the margins.

Still, it’s hard to get mired down over minor qualms when the movie, resting comfortably on complicated characters, looks as good as it does. The innovative art style mixes CG and hand-drawn animation and is the most effective translation of a comic book to the silver screen. It’s a flurry of high-contrast colors and Ben Day dots that acknowledges its source material directly through the fourth wall.

Now that Sony’s seen runaway success with Venom, (which teased Spider-Verse in a post-credits scene) and is already planning a sequel and a spin-off to Spider-Verse, their once-crazy idea of a shared Spider-Man universe seems not only possible, but necessary. Masterminds Phil Lord and Chris Miller have managed to crack the multi-verse, created a world where every Spider-Man is canon, and done it in a way where you want a story for every single one of them.

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse is now playing in theaters everywhere.

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