Review of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018) by Chiedu M — 14 Jan 2019

(Minor-Plot Spoilers).

I knew "Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse" was going to be great, but I didn't realize it was going to be amazing.

We first have to talk about the animation. Similar to many Telltale Games products, the animation is inspired by comic books. The colors are loud, bright, and poppy. Warning to people with epilepsy, this movie has many flashing colors at times, so be cautious when watching the movie. This movie embraces its comic book visuals by making all the animation embraces the style. The action is like one from a comic, the camera angles pop, and the character designs are all unique and distinct.

Our main protagonist is Miles Morales. This is a film about Miles Morales becoming his own superhero. While the other Spider People he meets knows he has great potential to be a superhero, the issue lies that he needs to be ready now to help get the other Spider People back to their dimensions. He just got his powers, and now he must replace the prior Spider-Man and become the new Spider-Man.

Every character has an excellent personality, motivations, flaws, and emotions. This movie made me tear a few times for how much I identified with multiple characters and their struggles. Rio Morales, Miles' father, is filled with so much heart and conflict. He is a great dad, but he and his son are growing apart. Rio is loving and strict but is still understanding. Miles wants more freedom but needs more guidance. Adding in Mile's Uncle, Aaron, and you have a tug-of-war of family conflict. As the plot continues, the emotional weight of the stakes becomes more teary-eyed, you really get the feels a lot in this movie.

But family themes also lies in the relationship between Miles and, who I'm going to call, Spider-Man 30 (the Spider-Man I assume to be in his 30s). Spider-Man 30 and Miles have not just a teacher-student relationship but also a father-son relationship; which makes a perfect scene for Spider-Man 30's character arc. With each scene, Spider-Man 30 grows, and as a result, he is more interesting. Because of the course of events that happen in the movie he has to evolve continually throughout the film, and it is paced organically. He turns from a Spider-Man that is in a depressive state into a Spider-Man that is ready to move on to the next stage of his life. The three primarily focused Spider-People are Spider-Man 30, Miles Morales, and Gwen Stacy (aka Spider-Gwen). Spider-Gwen doesn't have a character arc, her role consists of being a foil and support for Miles and the rest of the team (just as an analysis; it does not make her character any less enjoyable).

The other Spider-People are secondary characters who have traits and identities of their own. Spider-Ham has his own 2Dish animation mix with the 3D animation. Peni Parker is an anime character with a robot â" they always remind me of the movie "Next Gen" on Netflix (which is a compliment, I love that movie, go watch it). Spider-Man Noir is voiced by Nicholas Cage, enough said, that is stupid-genius casting. When these characters start getting their own movies, I will gladly throw my money at them.

One final note I will discuss is that seeing this movie in RealD-3D is worth the extra money. You get an additional amount of depth with every frame, and the 3D perspective enhances the visual experiences.

4.8/5 Stars.