Movie Reaction: Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse

Formula: Spider-Man * Fringe

Well played, Sony. Well played. Sony is as responsible as anyone for the current superhero craze. 2002's Spider-Man changed everything. It broke shattered the opening weekend box office record. It solidified the first weekend of May as the beginning of the summer box office season*. It proved that there's real money in the Marvel properties. Since following that up with Spider-Man 2, Sony has been a mess figuring out what to do with the franchise. It got so bad that they agreed to split the live-action rights with Disney's MCU a couple years ago. That left them a giant with cache of character rights and nothing to do with them. It's like watching the 1994 Chicago Bulls after Michael Jordan "retired". What can be done with the Spider-Man universe if it can't include live-action Spider-Man. Their 2018 slate of movies looked desperate when I first heard it: a Venom stand-alone movie that had nothing to do with Spider-Man and an animated Spider-Man movie that wasn't even starring Peter Parker. Really? Had you asked me in July, I would've told you they should sell the rights fully back to Disney and save themselves the embarrassment. Then, in October, Venom, despite being a mediocre movie, became a global hit, and this December, they release the best Spider-Man movie since 2004 and possibly the best superhero movie since The Dark Knight. So, what do I know?

*A lot of credit goes to 1999's The Mummy and 2001's The Mummy Returns for opening on that weekend to big numbers as well and really starting the trend.

I had some warning that Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse would be good. The RottenTomatoes and Metacritics scores were uniformly strong. The Twitter praise from people I trust after advanced screening was just as strong. I still went in with some hesitation. That didn't last long.

We all know the Spider-Man story by now. Spider-Verse knows that. In fact, it relies on that and uses it. The film starts by introducing the classic Peter Parker Spider-Man, then follows a kid named Miles Morales (Shameik Moore). Before long, Miles gets Spider-Man powers too. An accident disposes of his world's Spider-Man (Chris Pine) and brings Spider-Men and Women from other universes to his world. That includes an over-the-hill Peter Parker (Jake Johnson), a Gwen Stacy (Hailee Steinfeld) Spider-Woman, a futuristic anime Spider-Woman (Kimiko Glenn), a Spider-Pig (John Mulaney), and a Noir Spider-Man (Nicolas Cage). The different Spider-People have to team up to save this and their own worlds.

The main story is very comic book-y. They couldn't pull it off in live-action, which I appreciate. That makes the move to animation feel necessary, not like a loophole to get more out of the rights. The movie gets plenty of humor out of the different Spider-People. Jake Johnson has never been the physical specimen to physically play Peter Parker (or, rather, to play Spider-Man), and his voice is too prematurely old to voice a young Peter Parker. However, he's perfect for this take on Peter Parker. He has Spider-Man's sense of humor down, and he brings a worn down quality that makes his take on the character a joy to listen to. Hailee Steinfeld can do no wrong, I'm convinced, so she's able to be more than just "Peter, but female". Cage is having a blast hamming it up. Speaking of ham, Mulaney's Peter Porker is confidently silly. Even Glenn's anime-inspired take manages to be more than the one-note take I expected.

Screw it, I'm just going to dole out praise for the entire voice cast. Shameik Moore's Miles Morales is just plain good. Even though I recognize Moore's voice, I forgot it was him. He nails the conflict, curiosity, and eventual confidence the character needs. Lily Tomlin's dry take on Aunt May is a treat. Mahershala Ali as Miles' police officer father gives that character a lot of heart. Liev Shcrieber, Brian Tyree Henry, Kathryn Hahn, and everyone else I'm forgetting are all well chosen and understand the tones they need to hit for there characters.

The animation style is nifty. I had to warm up to it at first, then I grew to really like it. It has a comic book style but worked smoothly for CGI. It had one foot in realistic and one foot in cartoonish. I saw the movie in XD (IMAX equivalent) and it looked great, especially it the crazy climactic sequence.

What I loved about the movie, and what surprised me the most, was how well it used the Spider-Man mythology that we all know to throw us off. Every universe has a Spider-Man. No two are the same, but their origin stories all look alike. Familiar villains show up in different forms than we are used to and story beats land in different but recognizable ways. Miles may have his parents, but that doesn't mean his origin is without tragedy. Directors Beb Persichetti, Peter Ramsey, and Rodney Rothman and screenwiriters Rothman and Phil Lord recognize that no one needs another straight Spider-Man reboot and have fun with that. It's amazing how much they packed into what's actually the shortest Spider-Man movie yet.

I really don't know what I can say about this movie other than: Go see it. It'll win you over. It does all the superhero stuff right. It finds a new way to ask the tired question "What does it take to be a hero?", while not sacrificing humor, action, sadness, or pure entertainment.

One Last Thought: If this isn't the last Stan Lee cameo, that would be a shame. There's no way another movie will get a better send-off.

Verdict (?): Strongly Recommend