I fucking love this film.
If you do not read any further, please know that I think
this film is the best Sony Spiderman related film ever and you must see it.
Comic book fan or not. Yes, I am extremely hyperbolic in my language but generally
I am very cynical about everything so that might hint at the pure euphoria that
is this film.
Into the “review”-ey details. Into the Spiderverse stars Miles Morales (Shameik Moore) as an outcast in a new school who, through no fault of his own, is bitten by a radioactive spider giving him some of the abilities of Peter Parker but also a range of his own. You will have seen that before in his run of comics from Ultimate into Earth – 616 Spiderman tales. This is the first time Miles rises onto the theatre screens and in his maiden voyage, must stop Kingpin and a host of classic yet redesigned villains from the pages of the comics from tearing a hole in the newly introduced Multi-Verse. To assist him comes the fantastical and depressing range of Spider-men (and woman?) including Spider-Ham, Spider-Gwen (Hailee Steinfeld) and Peter B. Parker (Jake Johnson), our normal Spiderman if he finally was unable to juggle all that responsibility, but make no mistake, this is Miles’ movie through and through and it is the best stride away from all the reboots that could happen.
Let’s quickly get negatives out of the way. While the cast of characters is wide and varied, from Miles himself to Doctor Octopus, through Green Goblin and Spiderman Noir, many of the players in this film are unnecessary. The plot would function just fine had it centred around Miles and his family, Peter and Kingpin. I applaud the writers for making so many directions work in one film and keeping it fun, they do not really do an awful lot other than fight each other and have some funny one-liners. There is no explanation of powers, personality or point to the plot for nearly every other character. This is the most “looking for an issue” I could be so here comes the praise.
Stylistically the film is like nothing you have seen in a movie before, the art and the soundtrack is so apart from the current standard for animation I was immediately thrown for a good 10-15 minutes while I adjusted. Am I that saturated by Pixar-esque animation from every studio under the sun? Possibly. Is this the breath of fresh air that animation needs? Absolutely. Have I wasted another 39 words just to make my questions a triple? Shh. This film looks fantastic.
I just complained about the number of characters in the film not 2 paragraphs ago but seriously the voice talent in this film is astounding and how they all pulled it off so effortlessly shocks me. Having Chris Pine as the blonde-haired version of our Raimi Spiderman made me extremely happy (not to mention that emo dancing call-back). Jake Johnson knocks it out of the park playing himself in everything but being a leader and mentor to Miles, one tinged with depression and laziness of course. Shameik Moore as the protagonist of the film brings an emotional performance to the film and helps sell the touching or tragic moments with his parents and uncle before blossoming into the heroic character moving into future films. Other fun cameos like Nic Cage as Spiderman Noir or Oscar Isaac as Interesting Person #1 (not spoiling it here) are great for film nerds and comic fans alike.
Most of all the writing really brings the public from the general idea that Peter Parker is the one and only Spiderman to the realisation that anyone could be Spiderman. A great message to the fans who love the character for his relatability and accessibility. Miles begins the film a kid struggling to come to terms with change into a rising superhero of his universe (through some stellar imagery which I now have as my computer background).
All in all I wish there was a sequel to this film immediately so I could soak up more of the world that I was so engaged in for the run time. Hopefully this is the start of something truly special for Sony films.
No I do not care about Venom and I will not talk about it.
It can fuck off, like a turd in the wind.
P.S. Reading this back there are a lot of hyphens in this.
Is it Spider-Man or Spiderman? Will I check Google before posting this? No, no
I will not.
