Review of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018) by Joshua M — 28 Dec 2018

I have not enjoyed myself so much in a theater these last couple years (maybe longer) as I had seeing this film. From minute one, this movie had me grinning from ear-to-ear and it never stopped. First, I have to mention the animated motif/aesthetic the production crew went for here.

For the first time, I truly felt like the pages of a comic book were properly "translated" to the silver screen instead of being recreated or adapted into the film medium (as distinguished by the ink dots used to make up larger images being clearly visible); that, along with the sounds effect cues, just make the animated panels pop off the screen in a brilliant way.

There is so much detail to make out in each visual, which works both to the film's benefit as well as its detriment (I wish I could have seen what was going on better in some of the more-frenetic, snappy fight scenes).

Additionally, it was a nice touch incorporating appropriate styles for the "spider-characters" pulled from their varied universes. I also must give a shout-out to the casting department for pulling fantastic performances out of all of the voice actors.

Shamiek Moore IS Miles Morales for me, no matter what; he just embodies the character so well that I wish I could see him take on the role in a live-action movie. I also thought Jake Johnson's version of the sad-sack Peter B.

Parker was a fun, hilarious inversion of the conventional Spider-Man we've read about for almost six decades now. Hailee Steinfeld, a performer I have rarely been a fan of, added a spark of life to Spider-Gwen/Gwen Stacy, as well.

In spite of wanting more running time from the flick to develop their characters, Nick Cage and John Mulaney provide great supporting parts as Spider-Man Noir and Spider-Ham, respectively. Though he cannot measure up to Dn'Ofrio's Netflix counterpart, Liev Schreiber displays enough dimensions to his Wilson Fisk/Kingpin to make him more than a broad, menacing figure.

Other actors I won't name here pitch in awesome additional cameos. For me, the best part of the film, though, is that it never loses sight of its main character and HIS story. I may already be familiar with his background as a reader of Marvel's Ultimate line of comics, but even if I was not well-versed in Miles' life, the film does an admirable job of offering viewers a reason to CARE about this kid; you want to root for him to succeed even before he inherits the powers, grapples with the responsibility, and ultimately becomes a "Spider-Man.

" Add to all that a heartfelt tribute to the recently-passed co-creators of this world, the late Steve Ditko and Stan Lee, and some inspiring messages for younger audiences and you've got yourself a winner.

Despite not caring for most of the hip-hop music (along with my other minor complaints above), this is now my second-favorite "Spider-Man" movie of them all. I encourage every person - big, small, whatever - and their families to head out and watch this movie as soon as possible!