Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
Director: Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey, Rodney Rothman
Writer: Phil Lord and Rodney Rothman
Starring: Shamiek Moore, Jake Johnson, Hailey Steinfeld, Mahershala Ali, Brian Tyree Henry, John Mulaney, Zoe Kravitz, Nicholas Cage, Kathryn Hahn, Liev Schreiber, Chris Pine
Reason for watching: Fun viewing
Number of times I’ve watched it: five or six times
***
“Alright, let’s do this one more time.” All of the Spider-men who show up in this movie say that at one point during their introduction. They know their story has been told before, and that’s because it has been. In the 16 years between the release of Spider-Man in May of 2002 to Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse in December of 2018, Spider-Man had been played by 3 different actors (respect to Tobey Maguire, Andrew Garfield, and Tom Holland….Alright maybe not Andrew Garfield…Alright maybe Garfield was fine but I didn’t like his movies), and the character had shown up in eight live action movies. So yes, people knew the origin story: Peter Parker gets bit by a radioactive spider, Peter gets powers, he starts taking advantage of his skills (maybe spews a little early 2000’s homophobia), Uncle Ben gets capped, Peter vows to become a defender and use his powers for good. So why exactly do we need to see and hear this origin story six more times during this movie? Because the movie needed to show that it really could be anyone under the mask.
General positivity time, kids!! The animation in this movie is unlike anything I have ever seen before. They styled it to look like a comic book straight off the page. It is breathtaking how good this movie looks. There is a ton of visual comedy as well as unique humor that stems from plenty of different characters. We crack up at Miles Morales’ (Shamiek Moore) inner dialogue. There’s Noir Spider-Man played by NICHOLAS CAGE. THERE IS SPIDER-PIG PLAYED BY JOHN MULANEY WHO ONCE BORROWED NWA’S ANTHEM AT A HIGH SCHOOL PARTY (shoutout to Jane for showing me this clip)!!!!! This cast is the dream team for an animated movie. The story is compelling and keeps things going and draws us into the classic hero’s journey one more time. Fights scenes are brisk and well shot. But let’s talk about Miles and Peter again for a minute.
The parallel between Peter and Miles is clear as day. A face in the crowd. Raised by good people. Given powers by accident. A struggle. Death of a father figure. It’s all there. They may not be the exact same person, but they’ve walked similar enough paths. And when I think about my day-to-day life, most everyone I know has been through some kind of tough experience. And we can learn from those experiences and become better people for them. We all have gifts to use for others and to make our world a better place. That’s why Spider-Man matters; because he shows us that we can all take a stand and do the right thing. And that’s why Into The Spider-Verse matters because it reminds us that anyone can really do something great.
10/10
Until I see another one.