Sony/Marvel's Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse Review

With the year ending, Spidey’s universe has gone on a resurgence in media and pop culture after his successful return into film as a part of the MCU in Homecoming, with the fantastic PS4 game celebrating and establishing a game universe for the Web-Head and Venom scoring big all over the world.  Now, his entire universe is making a splash on the animated front with this cross-dimensional, adventure film Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse, with many of the creative teams from The Lego Movie as well as 21/22 Jump Street from directors Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey, and Rodney Rothman along with Phil Lord and Rodney Rothman as writers.  You would think with the overabundance of Spider-Man related media would feel like a cash grab or cynically made at this point, but that is not the case with this animated adventure that not only captures the heart and spirit of the series/characters well but establishes in a big screen format, Miles Morales as a Spider-Man that belongs in this series more effectively than the sluggish but eventual fandom for the character via comics, TV animated shows, and Insomniac game.  Let’s swing into this multiverse adventure and explore how these Spider-Men and Girl got caught up in this mess.

We are introduced to Peter Parker (Surprise Cameo-C.P.) doing his superhero routine as Spider-Man in a universe where Miles Morales (Shameik Moore) exists and he is headed to a new school away from his family and his Brooklyn roots, egged on with the support of his mother Rio Morales (Luna Lauren Velez) working as a nurse and his father Jeffery Davis (Brian Tyree Henry) an NYPD officer.  Morales deals with trying to fit into a school where he doesn’t feel comfortable being in to, whereas his uncle Aaron Davis (Mahershala Ali) always provides that creative spark through his graffiti work, living on through his nephew.  However, during one night out with his uncle, he is bitten by a radioactive spider and gets caught in the middle of a battle between Spidey and the Green Goblin (Jorma Taccone), trying to shut down the dimensional collider, built by Doctor Kathryn O. (Kathryn Hahn) and financed by Wilson Fisk AKA The Kingpin (Liev Schreiber) to open a rift into another version of New York.  It backfires for everyone and creates a temporal discharge that sends a few unlikely characters to end up in Morales’ dimensional world of New York.

After a promise and tragedy occurs from the incident, Morales is forced to learn how to become Spider-Man only to stumble into Peter B. Parker (Jake Johnson) who comes from a different world/timeline where he is middle aged, packing a slight beer gut, divorced from Mary Jane Watson (Zoë Kravitz), and does not want to be burden with being a mentor or settle down with kids.  Learning of this, they discovered that anyone that does not belong in a person’s dimension, will start to disintegrate and disappear out of existence.  Not only has a different Peter Parker landed in Morales’ dimension but also a series of different Spidey heroes from Gwen Stacy/Spider-Gwen (Hailee Steinfeld), Peter Porker/Spider-Ham (John Mulaney), Peni Parker (Kimiko Glenn) and Spider-Noir (Nicolas Cage) ended up here as well.  It is up to the team of Spider heroes to team up and use the collider to get back to their respective dimensional homes as well as destroy it before it annihilates everything from existence.

While there are numerous callbacks and homages to previous incarnations of Spider-Man, this is Morales’ story front and center, as the bright yet introverted high schooler caught between being a model student or a creative artist until he has to learn how to become a Superhero.  He is the heart and soul of this story, as we get a remix of his origin story as well as defining how unique he is as Spider-Man from Parker.  Not only that, this is a proper and well-crafted celebration of Spider-Man as a whole, honoring what came before, trending now, and what may drive the series forward into the future.  It also establishes Miles Morales wonderfully as one of the Spider-Man Incarnations that feels well-earned and a proper introduction for those interested in seeing Miles Morales properly adapted for the big screen.  His cast of characters, world, and story arc will truly define Morales not by his race or name but as another Spider-Man for a new generation in this outing.

The other Spider heroes and characters are also fantastic and just as compelling in their small storylines as well as provide larger scale to the overall series, along with providing an evenly dramatic yet campy tone throughout the whole film.  It balances out those moments extremely well, allowing for the heavier, tragic moments to hit hard but also having zany, creative fun with the concept of the multiverse as it is now becoming another story device for future installments of Superhero films in general.  However, it also establishes how different Morales is from the other Spidey heroes, with the emphasis on Brooklyn and the vibrant but underground street culture that exists within the sleek shine of the Big Apple.  This is done through the creative and effective use of hip/hop songs from contemporary artists that are utilized well to showcase Morales identity and world.  Make no mistake, this is a Spider-Man origin story done well for a new character in the mask as well as honoring and paving the way for new possibilities for this series to move forward in animated and live-action form.

Let’s get into the cast, starting with the lead character we follow the most throughout this story named Miles Morales played by Shameik Moore.  He brings to the character a great sense of vulnerability and Brooklyn based style, that resonates throughout his origin story from his introduction to his emotionally satisfying transformation into the webslinger.  His interaction with the other characters always provides for some fun interactions with the Spidey heroes of the other dimensions.  The writing for his character really provides a great origin arc that allows for newcomers to learn about this character and his world, as well as how he fits into the larger Spiderman universe.  He is able to make the character his own from the creatively strong script from Lord and Rothman, along with the compelling and tragic character development that defines this Spider-Man for fans of the characters and new viewers to the character’s story and world.

                          It would not be a Spidey film without the original himself, Peter B. Parker played by Jake Johnson as the very first of the Spider-Man heroes.  He is played and written to be an older, worn out take of the iconic character from years of crime fighting and personal tragedies that have befallen him over time.  He is also the first of the interdimensional Spidey incarnations and yet the most cynical out of the heroes that end up in Morales’ NYC dimension.  As essentially the mentor of the story, he brings a great sense of familiarity to the legacy character as well as establishing a different spin on Parker as an older, jaded adult in contrast to his younger years.  Johnson captures the experienced yet snarky webslinger perfectly with his laidback yet confident performance of the very first webslinger.

We are then introduced to the team of Spider-Heroes from different dimensions both grounded and outlandish.  We have Hailee Steinfeld as Spider Gwen and she is mainly the friend/crush Morales has but she stands on her own as a Spidey, as well as a rounded interpretation of the character if Gwen Stacy was Spider-Woman and not Parker.  Then we have the uniquely anime version of Parker named Peni, with her emotive yet cool robot partner which provides some really inventive action beats for the character.  Then, we have Nicholas Cage as Spider-Noir, who goes for a Humphrey Bogart impersonation that provides some humorous moments and endearing qualities to the character.  Finally, we have comedian John Mulaney playing the parody interpretation of Spidey, Spider-Ham and it provides some truly funny yet clever jokes as well as cartoonish humor that allows for levity at the proper moments in the film.  All of the other Spider-Heroes are truly fun, refreshing, and prove that Spider-Man is more than just Peter Parker.

Let’s get into the rest of the supporting cast, starting with the allies and characters connected to the two Spider-Man’s being Parker and Morales.  Aunt May is played by Lily Tomlin, providing the gadgetry and team foundation for the Spidey heroes while Mary Jane voiced by Zoë Kravitz is perfectly fine as the iconic love interest for Parker.  As for Morales’ family and uncle, with Jeffery Davis (Brian Tyree Henry), he provides a few of the big emotional moments with Miles that are profound and truly define Miles’ characteristics for his Spider-Man.  But the one character that stuck out was Aaron Davis played by Mahershala Ali, whose cool demeanor and ultimately tragic motivation for Miles Morales really conveys how similar but different Morales is in becoming Spider-Man.  Most of the supporting cast really capture the characters from the comics perfectly for the big screen and really matter to the story in meaningful ways.

For the last of the cast, we have the villains of this story, with the prominent and cursory appearance for this adventure.  The Kingpin played by Liev Schreiber is fantastic in the role, with a natural Bronx gruff to this character and has a very compelling yet destructive reason for wanting to join the dimensions together to regain what he had lost emotionally.  There is also a Doc Octopus played by Kathryn Hahn in this universe that happens to be the Morales version of it, providing some standard if fun villainy action and interactions for most of the beats.  We also have The Prowler, a contract killer for hire and does he provide some truly tense action beats as well as a tragic one in relations to Morales’ story.  We also have little moments mainly with the Morales’ version of Scorpion (Joaquín Cosío) and Tombstone (Marvin "Krondon" Jones III) that serve to be nothing more than just goons for the hires to fight.  The cast is filled with a tremendous cast that all fit their parts perfectly and truly make the origin/multiverse tale work.

Finally, let us explore the colorful yet uniquely crafted technical elements of the film starting with the cinematography and editing throughout the film.  This is the one superhero film that embraces and utilizes the look of a comic book come to life, emphasizing on the cell-shaded 2D animation along with the clever use of comic book panels and wording to make this world different from other animated films.  It is a vibrant and beautiful film that relies on its multitude of stylistic traits for each character and blend them together in imaginative ways.  This was edited by Robert Fisher Jr. and the film just moves briskly as well as energetic during the action set pieces by giving many of the characters get a chance to highlight their action abilities throughout the film.  The comic book visual aesthetics as well as the briskly balanced and engaging editing to make this exciting without feeling too long or dull between the comic book style action and the dramatic, character moments.

Next up, the visual art direction and character/costume designs of the cast in general, starting with the look of the NYC in animated form.  The focus is on the graffiti and specialized charter school and the culture that defines Morales’ world in such vivid and colorful ways that make it distinctive to the reliably grounded palettes of the MCU or even the gritty yet world charting look of the recent DC films.  The characters themselves are all differently designed to their respective series but reflect faithfully to the comic books they are adapted from, especially the iconic looks of street wear Miles’ Spidey as well as his full-on Spider suit.  All the other heroes look like their counterpart and are redesigned appropriately to look just right for the animation but the villains all look familiar yet distinctive, particularly using Scorpion’s design from the Morales’ series as well as a unique Kingpin look that comes from the design work of Bill Sienkiewicz from his run of Daredevil, for those interested in learning where his oversized yet powerful figure comes from.  The entire frame and moments in the film are filled with homages, tributes, fan service, and iconic comic book designs that truly makes this Spider-Man universe seem much larger than what we have gotten from the live action films.

Lastly, the sound design and musical score/soundtrack utilized for the film that is just as meticulously crafted as the look of the film.  The sound design really adds to the cartoony, hyper reality of this NYC, particularly how it plays with the action beats coming across as a great mix of pulpy style action with the grounded look of the world they inhabit.  As for the score done by Daniel Pemberton really handles the different tones for the characters extremely well, mixing in the electronic synth scoring with the booming brass instruments along with familiar hip-hop beats and samples to make each theme standout for all of the heroes.  The soundtrack is absolutely a love letter to NYC’s Hip/Hop street culture and historical Brooklyn art, with bands/artists like Post Malone, Swae Lee, Nicki Minaj, Anuel AA, Juice Wrld, Lil Wayne, Ty Dolla Sign, Thutmose and XXXTentacion providing different songs that work in defining Miles Morales and his transformation into this dimension’s Spider-Man.  Sound Design with the score and soundtrack are used effectively throughout this film, adding to the world the story is set in as well as defining this different yet familiar cinematic take on Morales as Spider-Man. 

Which leads us to how it all comes together, and it is one of the pleasant surprises in animated films to be released in quite some time.  This is yet another quality and lovingly crafted Spider-Man adventure since the PS4 game that came out just 3 months ago, created by the same passionate team of The Lego Movie and Lego Batman minus Chris Miller but still showcasing their love for comic books and the Superheroes they have adapted in their films.  It is also one of the most unique, one of a kind visual treat to those that want to see a comic book come to life on the big screen, right down to the comic book panels or annotations of actions (like a scientist getting hit with a bagel as an example!).  All of the actors and actresses really fit the characters perfectly with Johnson and Moore being compelling as the leads and Nicholas Cage really being the show stealer with his take on Spider-Noir.  All of these combinations including the stellar and fitting sound design work, have created the finest and most memorable Spidey cinematic adventure yet.

Score: ***** out of *****

Sony Pictures/Marvel’s Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse is a remarkable introduction and establishing origin story for Miles Morales as well as a fun, zany multiverse story done right on the big screen.  With a stellar cast and fantastic script to boot from Phil Lord and one of the 3 directors for this film, they managed to not only adapt each of the characters right but made them just as funny, compelling, and cool to watch as Parker himself (and two of him as well).  The animation style and look is truly a work of art, representing a hyper stylized version of NYC and Brooklyn along with the uniquely designed yet comic accurate depictions of the villains and heroes, from the different art work from comic artists to their character traits from their respective series.  It rides a fine line between campy and dramatic, to really handle it with such a deft touch for the material, that the creative team have proven once again what they are capable of in breathing youthful, creative life into familiar series or properties.  This is one trip worth jumping right into, especially for fans of Spider-Man and the worlds created over the past half century.