Review of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018) by Mrmoviebuff — 26 Dec 2018

This movie was a huge - and pleasant - surprise, 'Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse' isn't another live-action Spider-Man reboot from Sony, nor is it part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It's well and truly its own story that focuses on the character of Miles Morales (Shameik Moore) and his pretty ordinary teenage life.

Dealing with his father's moral ways because he's a cop, coping to get through school even though it's boring for him. Everything just gets routine for him, except for the one person he looks up to, his uncle Aaron Davis (Mahershala Ali) who gives him the right amount of confidence boost that he needs in his daily life.

Miles also meets a young girl in his class, Gwen Stacey (Hailee Steinfeld), and she appreciates his wit and even odd - yet quirky - personality. One day, Miles stumbles across an incident that involves the evil Kingpin (Liev Schreiber) who has invented a device that can create portals from one universe crossing paths with another.

A rift causes another Peter Parker (Jake Johnson) to slip through the vortex and enter the universe that Miles is in. Miles aspires to be just like Peter after he was also bitten by a radioactive spider, but Peter tells him that there is much to learn.

It seems that Peter isn't the only one that crossed paths with Miles, as there are a handful of other "Spider-People" that somehow got lost into this universe too, from; Spider-Noir (Nicolas Cage), Spider-Gwen, Peni Parker (Kimiko Glenn) and Spider-Ham (John Mulany).

They all team up to try and come up with a plan to get each of them home back to their own universes. The movie certainly is a breath of fresh air into a character we have seen in the movies so many times before.

This may just seem like Sony - once again - trying to cash-in on the character, but thanks to a script by Phil Lord ('The LEGO Movie') and Rodney Rothman, it has heart and very self-aware humor that keeps it afloat.

It acknowledges its silliness and embraces that, it's overstuffed but also is aware of that too. Most importantly, it captures the spirit of the Spider-Man character and the world (or 'worlds') that he inhabits.

Sony has been desperately trying to adapt a Miles Morales story for years and years, and this is the best introduction for him, especially for people who may not be familiar with his story. The animation is eye-popping as well, making it feel like a comic book leaping off the pages.

Overall, this movie is fun, fast-paced, touching and wildly funny. If you love Spider-Man, this might just be the movie you've been looking for since 'Spider-Man 2' (2004).