Review: Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018)

This spider spins a captivating and enthralling web guaranteed to please

Spider-Man is a character who stands apart from the rabble, an icon who has been going strong long before I was born, and will probably continue to do so long after I’m dead. Yet this 90 minute film from directors: Peter Ramsey, Rodney Rothman and Bob Persichetti manages to reinvigorate a nearly 60 year old character whilst also introducing him to an entirely new medium: CG animation and the result is simply amazing, spectacular and sensational in equal measure.

The film achieves this by introducing us to relative newcomer Miles Morales (Shameik Moore), who acts both as an audience surrogate and as a new protagonist for the franchise. Recently bitten by a radioactive spider, Miles witnesses the death of his universe’s Spider-Man at the hands of mob boss Kingpin (Liev Schreiber) who is in possession of a device capable of creating bridges to alternate realities. Miles must then assume the responsibility of becoming the new Spider-Man, send the group of alternate Spider people who came through back to their home dimensions and put a stop to Kingpin to save his home and consolidate himself as a hero. Jesus, get this kid some great power to go with his great responsibility.

From the sounds of this plot, you would not be out of line saying that it is far too convoluted to be coherent. Remarkably you would actually be wrong as the three directors, with the aid of Phil Lord in the form of the screenplay, manage to keep Miles’ personal journey at the forefront. Through his eyes we get to see Brooklyn and it’s people, who he will lose if he fails his mission; we see the skill levels displayed by the other Spider-people and how Miles feels like he constantly falls short of his more experienced peers. The writers understand that the story of Spider-Man is the story of an underdog who must defy all the odds to succeed. Shameik Moore is suitably astounding as Miles, able to imbue him with pathos, whilst also giving him a great deadpan delivery. Other standouts include Jake Johnson as an older, more grizzled, yet still identifiable Peter Parker and Hailee Steinfeld as a punk-rocking, exuberant Gwen Stacy. Both have previous tragedies have hardened their once positive demeanours and outlooks, and the film is as much about their journey of re-learning what made them heroes as much as it is about Miles learning if he has what it takes to become one.

In regards to the animation, I’m confident in saying there really isn’t anything else like it. Distancing itself from the overly ‘clean’ style that Pixar is popular for, it instead attempts to emulate comic art styles such as: ‘ben-day’ dots, ‘cross-hatching’ and even using chromatic aberration to draw the audience eye to specific focuses. Admittedly it did take a while to get used to but eventually it becomes hard to not get swept up in the artistic ambition on display. It becomes even more outlandish when characters from other realities appear who imitate art styles from 1930’s cartoon and even anime!

The story is somehow able to feel massive, whilst still telling a very human story of a boy wanting to live up to all the expectations placed upon him. It captures what it means to be Spider-Man and for that I can’t recommend it enough.