I didn’t think it was possible for me to be this genuinely excited by a comic-book movie anymore. Even when they’re really gripping and really engaging — like, say, the grim noirish grit of Logan; or the sci-fi soap opera of the Avengers saga, the next installment of which I do eagerly await — they’ve ceased being truly surprising in that way that fans of science fiction (which is what superhero stories are, after all) like me crave. Often they lack the thrill of their pulpy roots, when writers and artists could dare to be weird or experimental because the financial stakes were comparatively low, a new story would be starting in a few weeks anyway, and the readers were up for anything.
But this? Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse has a verve that few big-budget movies seem to be able to muster at the moment. It doesn’t feel focus-grouped or corralled by marketing executives into a watered-down box designed to appeal to the widest possible audience, nor does it feel calculated to sell as much merch as possible… and yet, not ironically, this is probably what will guarantee that it ends up beloved by parents and kids, geeks and nongeeks alike. (It also offers at least as many options for pushing made-in-China plastic crap with logos and characters slapped on it as other superhero flicks, too. So that’s good? *sigh*) It’s not that Spider-Verse doesn’t do all the things a primarily moneymaking movie venture should, if you were looking at this from purely an accounting perspective. It just does it in a way that is incredibly fun and fresh and that legitimately engages with its source material on the levels of story, visuals, and mythology all at once. What’s more, it succeeds in doing all of that without, I think, alienating those who come to it with little foreknowledge.
I feel confident in saying this because I’m somewhere in the middle: sorta aware of the larger mythology around the Spider-Man character but not deeply steeped in it. I’m sure there are nods to the superfans that I missed here, and I’m sure there are little details I delighted in that will slip by more casual viewers. Yet I feel certain that anyone with even only the barest inklings about how franchise storytelling and iconic characters work will grasp the big picture here enough to be supremely entertained by it.
Like, it doesn’t matter whether you come into the film knowing that there’s a whole subset of Spider-Man stories featuring not Peter Parker from Queens as the bitten-by-a-radioactive-insect vigilante crimefighter, but Miles Morales from Brooklyn as same. If you hadn’t already heard about the concept of multiple universes, Spider-Verse will clue you in, quickly and slyly and without stopping the fast-paced plot in its tracks. (Geekery for beginners!) And of course everyone who goes to the movies is familiar with the notion of rebooting and remaking, which comes in for an almighty meta snarking here. So anyone is ready for teen Miles (the voice of Shameik Moore: Dope) to get bitten, get powers, fumpher around trying to get a grip on them… and then encounter other versions of Spider-Man from other universes, all brought together because superbaddie crime boss Kingpin (the voice of Liev Schreiber: Isle of Dogs, The 5th Wave) has mad-scienced a universe-hopping atomic collider right there in the middle of New York City for nefarious (and yet potentially heartbreaking) reasons of his own, and now the barriers between universes are breaking down. All of multiverse reality is threatened, unless the many various Spider-Mans can work together to stop Kingpin and his machine. (The entirely terrific voice cast includes a lot of big names: Nicolas Cage, Lily Tomlin, Chris Pine, Kathryn Hahn, Mahershala Ali, Hailee Steinfeld, and Zoë Kravitz.)
In so many ways, this is the best animated movie of the year. Perhaps the best in several years. For one big thing, it does something new, something uniquely animated with its animation. This is not an animated movie that is concerned with photorealism, with trying to look like it isn’t animated. This is a digitally animated movie, but the texture here is that of print — the moire patterns of cheaply printed pulp comics — and that of hand-drawn — the wild pop of 90s anime — and other nondigital vibes, sourced from the inspirations for the multiple alt-Spideys we meet here, as well as the reality-shaking proposition that one universe may not be enough. Visual styles collide here like universes collide: in a way that’s at once dangerous and synergistic, complementary yet clashing, the familiar suddenly tinged with the strange. If animated movies seem to have forgotten just how visually adventurous they can be, Spider-Verse is a huge honking smack of a reminder.
Spider-Verse isn’t sparking only with visual wit but with the verbal kind, too. The screenplay is by Phil Lord and Rodney Rothman, the former of Lord and Miller, the team that brought us the wildly inventive Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs movies, The Lego Movie, and the delightfully bonkers Jump Street reboots; Rothman contributed to the script for 22 Jump Street. All that same cleverness and sharp comic awareness of how formulaic movies can be subverted and embraced at the same time is on display here, too. (This makes me sad and angry all over again that Lord and Miller didn’t get finish doing their thing with the Han Solo movie.) But there’s a new element at ingenious play, too, with the movie’s multiverse conceit: it means that all bets are off, and we can trust none of our instincts about what movies can and cannot do. What does it mean, for instance, if there’s more than one titular hero present? Can a Spider-Man be defeated if there are other Spider-Mans around to continue the fight? It comes as an unsettling but absolutely electrifying realization that you literally cannot anticipate what will happen next. It feels like discovering storytelling anew.
Oscars Best Animated Feature 2018
previous Best Animated Feature:
2017: Coco
next Best Animated Feature:
2019: Toy Story 4
go> the complete list of Oscar-winning Best Animated Features
Awesome review! Got excited when I saw Spider-Gwen turn up in the trailer. Looking forward to seeing this!
This just dethroned Spiderman 2 as my favorite Spiderman movie of all time. It takes real risks with its hyper kinetic, granular animation style and extremely busy, comic-bookish, periodically dark plot (that’s not a race thing, it really does get pretty dark from the get go). The opening/closing credits and post-credits scene are almost worth the price of admission alone.
It’s not perfect though. If this plot was a person you were on a first date with, it would take you hang gliding, then to a wine tasting/painting/pottery workshop, then to a chocolate making class/poetry slam, then three separate restaurants, a sci-fi double feature, nude bungee jumping, a baptism/rock concert, then it would ask you to come up for a coffee and cocaine nightcap before offering to demonstrate twenty-seven sexual positions you’ve never even heard of… calm the fuck down movie, I like you okay? I like you, you have my attention, you’re fun and cool alright? Take a breath, and just pause… and think, just… just pause, breathe, slow down for just a minute so we can enjoy the good stuff.
As the review states, it takes a lot risks visually, which I respect, but it’s so, so scared of losing your attention or affection. There are three separate chase scenes that are tonally and structurally identical and waaaay too many characters. I’ve read the comics this is based on – they suck. There’s no need to cater to fans by trying to be faithful to the poorly made source material and jamming everyone in right away. All the voice actors do the best with what little they’re given (especially Cage), but Noir Spiderman, Peni, and Spider-Ham should have been cut (I did like the SP//dr redesign though). There’s not enough time to properly develop them or even have them interact with each other in an interesting way, so I naturally didn’t give a shit about what happened to any of them.
Cutting those three would have freed up enough time for a lot more Miles/Gwen training/flirting (how often do you get to see an older girl train a younger boy in a coming of age, high school action movie?) and a more believable slowly gaining confidence/powers arc. It also would have allowed them to dump the dead weight of Scorpion+Tombstone and let the absolute fucking badass that is Doc Ock shine in more scenes. More time with Gwen would have led to stronger crossover sales for the future Spider Gwen film, and the rest of the Spider crew could have been gradually introduced in those films. Sure, it would mean less money from merchandise and spin off shows now, but it would build a stronger Spiderverse brand in the long run.
All of the interactions between Miles, his father, and Uncle Aaron were perfect. I would’ve liked to have heard more from Miles’ mom, Aunt May, and Mary Jane. Loved the use of speech bubbles, the neon palette and dimensional shifting effects, the excellent use of 3D, the Kingpin character design, the situational, effortless humor that Lord and Miller always nail. I get the choices they made, reading a comic is often a fast-paced, zero to 100, herky jerky, roller coaster ride, but it doesn’t have to be that 98% of the time. You can be snarky about tropes without glibly glossing over the essential storytelling work that those tropes accomplish. If the writers had slowed down and dug a little deeper, they could have found a way to develop the core cast of Miles/Gwen/Peter in a style that was just as fresh as the visuals and soundtrack. As it is now, the plot waves its hands frantically, pulling one rabbit after another out of its sleeves, praying you won’t stop liking it. I love what I see and hear, I just wish I loved what was on the inside too.
One special shoutout – the animation for Doc Ock is mind-blowingly fantastic. The line delivery for the character was pitch perfect every time. I liked the Prowler scenes too, and the setting for the final fight is truly spectacular, but Doc Ock better return in another movie. Easily my favorite villain in any movie or show this year. Overall, this is well worth seeing on a big screen in 3D. I’m definitely going to watch it again. There were only about twelve people at my showing on opening night, and a lot of my non-nerdy friends didn’t even know this was coming out. Hopefully good word of mouth will give these spiders some legs.
I don’t want to turn into a member of the spoiler police, but would you mind adding a SPOILER tag for people like me who enjoy Easter eggs?
It sounds like it suffers from the same issue that Spider-Man 3 did… it’s overstuffed. There are worse things to be than too ambitious, but I understand what you’re saying about the film delivering too much in too little time.
I’ve seen it, it doesn’t struggle like Spiderman 3 did. It’s busy, yes, but it makes it work.
There’s a lot going on in the movie, but it didn’t feel *over*stuffed to me. It feels appropriately stuffed. :-)
I must be getting old, because there was a moment near the end when I was like, seriously movie? You’re trying to get me all emotional over this character kicking the bucket? I’ve literally only seen these folks for thirty seconds tops. How could I possibly care whether they live or die?
And would you really not trade Scorpion and Tombstone for some sweet, juicy Doc Ock character development? Seeing those two goons added nothing for me. I’ll admit the character who is involved in the bagel moment had some good one liners. I guess I wanted this to be more Dark Knight and less Lego Movie, more Noir less Ham, maybe an unfair expectation, but the beginning really set up something dark and serious.
The animation style is outstanding at communicating the emotions of fear, confusion, and shame (the school embarrassment aftermath scene is perfect), but I feel like it falters when things need to slow down and get contemplative. I say, if you’re going to make an animated movie for adults, go whole hog, err. whole Ham. Switch up the style a bit more for the emotional beats, and have faith that the kids won’t get bored.
Considering that I have no idea who Scorpion and Tombstone are, I would have to say that I don’t think they got too much screen time. :-)
I know, they only pop in to sell merch and check a couple boxes (and make the group fights more “fair” as if the Doc couldn’t take everyone on blindfolded). What a waste of shelf space and plastic that could have been used for more Miles, Gwen, and Doc Ock action figures. I would have been so stoked as a kid to see those hanging on the shelf – wait Toys R Us is out of business – so stoked to see those in a toy commercial on a youtube video.
I can’t wait to see this again in non-3D and compare the two. Some of the 3D during the final fight and the chases through the city were excellent. Nice to see non-Japanese filmmakers finally get super dynamic with the camera in animation too – limitless camera movement is one of the strengths of the medium.
Sorry bout that, I tried to be vague and only mention things from the trailer and P.Malone music video. I should have remembered that a lot of people like to go in fresh and get surprised by Easter eggs (I’m usually one of them). It really does live up to the hype though – there are several dozen more Easter eggs, and a heartbreaking cameo that I didn’t mention. Above all things, this movie is very, very eager to please and rewards multiple viewings.
if there is a possible problem with the movie – which I will still see this weekend – is that they do not use enough bagels as weapons the way Stan Lee intended.
Actually, what worries me is the excess of Spideys. Granted, it’s serving the geek base by throwing all the beloved alternate universe Spiderpersons into the mix, but like putting too many villains into a Batman movie, this has the risk of hurting the story at the expense of freaking out seeing Spider-Gwen (who prolly deserves her own animated movie series and Christmas album).
The only way this will help is if it opens up the possibility of expanding the Marvelverse (or beyond)…
Um, wait till you see it before you say this. :-)
It really works. Promise.
Okay. I saw it.
…
…
…
I think I found religion.
Sure, it’s okay for Hispanic Spiderman to have to share his own movie but Spider-Gwen deserves special treatment. ;-)
Oh, well. I always thought Quicksilver deserved his own movie too but I guess the Hollywood powers that be were afraid that such a movie would end too quickly…
I didn’t see that coming.
I understood that reference.
Spider-Gwen — and all the other Spideys — are purely support for Miles. He’s still the protagonist.
I finally understand the movie’s use of multiple Spideys. it’s to underscore the movie’s theme: Anyone – Peter, Gwen, Miles, Noir, Peni, Porker – can be Spider-Man.
The scene where Miles’ suits up and swings across Manhattan to get back to Kingpin’s Collider, how it ends when Miles’ comic plops on top of all the other Spidey comics: He’s having his Origin Issue, just like the others, and he’s going to be Spidey just like the others…
The DC version would be over in a Flash
Don’t worry, as long as the foreign box office is decent, Spider Gwen is getting her own movie series. She’s super popular, and was underutilized in this. Hell, this animation style/pace would be perfect for a Gwenpool/Howard the Duck buddy pic (with Spider-Ham cameo) if Sony wants to get completely bonkers. Wait… I guess that would have to be a Disney movie, nevermind.
As MaryAnn has said, this is very much Miles’ movie. The other Spider-folks act as support for a story with Miles very much at its core. It works. (Oh wait, you just saw it too, so you know now what I’m talking about.)
Rejoice!
https://io9.gizmodo.com/silk-and-spider-woman-will-join-the-spider-gwen-spinoff-1831102864
Oops, I didn’t see that you posted the exact same news blurb a week ago. Sorry ’bout the redundancy. It’s great news though.
Wow, that was fast. I’m a little late picking this news up, but Amy Pascal already granted your wish last week:
https://geektyrant.com/news/spider-woman-and-silk-confirmed-for-the-spider-man-into-the-spider-verse-spinoff-film
I’m looking forward to a tasteful redesign of Jessica Drew. The boob sock + giant crotch arrow is her most iconic look, but it’s embarrassingly impractical. Her newer duds don’t really pop though. Hopefully, they’ll combine the two somehow and manage to avoid the whole fan servicey spider-in-heat moments of Silk… unless it’s a metaphor for puberty. That could work.
If Captain Marvel and Birds of Prey turn out well (I’m still super pissed that Oracle got replaced by Harley), and this Spider-Women spin off is good, we could be entering a Golden Age of women super heroes on the big screen! Please be good. Please be good.
It’s a pity that the Dutch distributor has decided that this is a kid’s film and as such is only releasing the Dutch dubbed version in cinema’s (because that’s what they do with “kid’s” films, all other films are subtitled.
So I guess I’ll have to wait for the post-cinema releases before I can see this.
Update: they did manage to put this movie in a theater near me for one week and so I went to see it. Wonderful movie, very well put together and a truly engaging story. The best pure Sony Spider-man movie yet.
Thanks for watching it at the theater! It needs all the help it can get at the box office. We’re so close to getting the serious animated movie for adults that I’ve been waiting my entire life for a major American studio to produce (and no, the Heavy Metals, Sausage Party, Team America, Southpark, The Last Unicorn, and A Scanner Darkly/Waking Life don’t count… Mask of the Phantasm and Plague Dogs maybe a little). I’m super nervous that the greedy suits at Sony are going to cancel the Spider Women spin-off film. This animation style deserves another spotlight.
Were the Dutch dubs performed well?
Why do Mask of the Phantasm and Plague Dogs count (sort of) but not the Philip K. Dick films? I’m not disagreeing with you. I’m just confused about the criteria.
I’m being silly and only counting movies that I liked. Of course all the movies count (even Isle of Dogs, which I kind of hate). I guess I also enjoyed bits of Waking Life – it’s not a P.K. Dick film (except in spirit), just an unconnected series of “dude I’m sooo deep” navel-gazing monologues by Linklater’s buddies. It, along with the Batman Animated series episode “Perchance to Dream,” spurred an interest in lucid dreaming.
If you or anyone else reading this regularly has lucid dreams (or regularly dreams that they are having a lucid dream, which might be a different thing maybe?), please tell me what happens when you try to read a book in your dream. Everyone I’ve talked to so far has had a slightly different answer to this question.
I usually don’t try to read books in my dreams — perhaps because I do enough of that while I am awake.
However, I have seen dead people in some of my dreams. No, seriously. After certain relatives and close friends have died, I had a tendency to see them in my dreams. I tried talking to them but fortunately they never talked back. Or should that be unfortunately?…
And no, I did not write all that just to win the “oddest post on this site” award.
However, I’ll be sure to let you all know if I ever see Nick Andros in my dreams…
World-wide, it’s grossed three times its production budget, according to Box Office Mojo. Still wanting to get to it before the theatrical run closes.
Excellent! I was scared this would get submerged by Aquaman and turn into another Kubo.
I never watch Dutch dubs. The movie was subtitled in Dutch.
Oh, I see. It’s good that at least one theater didn’t treat it like a kids’ film.
In the first Avengers movie, Bruce Banner has a great arc where he’s tiptoeing around his inner monster, afraid to unleash it, and Tony convinces him to embrace it and strut his stuff. When he finally turns into the Hulk and is told to “smash,” he does it with a big grin on his face.
This movie felt like that grin. Like animation flexing its muscles, shedding expectations and restraints, and showing off what animation can DO in the service of a story. And I was grinning right along with it. This is one of the best things I’ve ever seen up on a big screen.
And some may disagree (*coughMarkyDcough*) but that hip-hop soundtrack is amazing. It sounds like now, and the future. (You’ve linked to the orchestral score, also great; the hip-hop album is here.)
I love that Miles casually speaks Spanish with his friends and neighbors in the streets, and with his mom. And it’s not subtitled; if you get it you get it, but if not, you’re not missing crucial story points — you’re simply presented with people living their lives in a language that may not be your own. Just like in real life. That’s a terrific celebration of diversity that I suspect will mean a LOT to a lot of Latino kids, and yet the movie manages it without hitting you over the head with it — just one of the many things the movie does astonishingly well.
I’ve always wanted Miles to appear in the live-action MCU, and it still might happen (his uncle, played by Donald Glover, already showed up in Spider-Man: Homecoming). But a live-action Miles movie is going to be hard-pressed to top this one in sheer joy and vibrancy and daring. I wouldn’t mind seeing more animated Marvel superhero stories in this vein, if they’re going to be this good.
They’re actually releasing the Christmas album!
https://io9.gizmodo.com/joy-to-the-world-into-the-spider-verses-christmas-albu-1831241520
After watching this in non-3D and 3D, I can say that 3D is definitely the superior choice. The film uses a depth of field blur that is less distracting in 3D. It also sometimes uses a foreground blur that doesn’t work well for me in either format. The mesmerizing backgrounds in the final fight are particularly more impressive in 3D.
And now for some spoilery details I noticed and more plot nitpicks.
SPOILER ALERT
I stand by my initial impression that the film has pacing and tone issues. The precise moment they start is after Miles sees that Aron is the Prowler. Instead of letting the moment sink in for a while, the film immediately cuts to a chase that is very similar to the previous Prowler chase, followed quickly by the introduction of Scorpion, then a big goofy group battle, then the death of Aron. None of these moments are given a chance to breathe and transition naturally to the next sequence, so the shifts from terror to goofy carefree action to death are too jarring.
After my second viewing, I understand why there are so many chase scenes. The writers establish that “our family doesn’t run away” is one of the core messages of the film. The final scene is meant to be powerful in part because it’s the first time Miles doesn’t run. I also get why there are so many Spiderfolks – another repeated lesson is that anyone can be Spiderman. I think the “death” of SP//DR is meant to be an indication of the stakes of the coming battle and a cute anime trope, but it just doesn’t work. We don’t know Peni or SP//DR well enough to care.
I really wanted to see a longer final fight with Liv, but now I understand that she gets hit by a bus/train because she’s not the main villain, and the writers didn’t want her fight to overshadow the final confrontation. To that I can only say, too late for that gentlemen.
All in all, after a second viewing, I have more respect for the choices that were made now that I understand them better, but I still disagree with how the second half of the movie was handled. It’s too fast and juggles too many characters. Gwen alone could have got the message that anyone can be Spiderman across just as well as a bunch of barely sketched sidekicks. It’s still my favorite Spiderman movie though. If it doesn’t win best animated film, it’ll be a travesty.
I’ve been having this thought: In the wake of all the (much-deserved) critical acclaim and public adoration of this movie, it’s interesting to note the stark difference in how the public has embraced its themes and yet resisted or rejected those SAME themes in Star Wars: The Last Jedi.
Everyone loves the inspirational message of Spider-Verse: “Anyone can be Spider-Man, anyone can wear the mask! No special parentage or Chosen One status required.” And yet TLJ gets so much grief for daring to suggest that Rey (and others) can tap into the Force without the benefit of being a Jedi, or a Solo or Skywalker kid.
Another difference: Everyone loves Older Peter Parker. The idealistic teenage hero we’ve all known and loved has grown up to be a cynical, schlubby older man, embittered by his life experiences, who resists mentoring the new kid on the block until the kid reawakens the spark of heroism inside him. And we all (rightly) embrace this: it’s a fresh interpretation, it’s a cool twist/extension on Peter’s life, and it makes sense for the story. Contrast this with the fan uproar over Old Man Luke: “He’s supposed to be idealistic! He’d never be that bitter! He’d never give up on others! This isn’t MY Luke Skywalker! This isn’t how Star Wars is supposed to go!”
Just interesting to note how fans (or a significant subset of fans) can be so receptive to paradigm-shifting ideas in one beloved franchise and so resistant to similar ideas in another. I’m not sure what to make of it yet; certainly sexism against Rey is a factor, but it feels like there’s more.
One important distinction, I think…within the multi-verse concept, there is *a* universe in which Parker became embittered with age. The entire movie is premised on “what if?” variants, which are well-established in both the Marvel (comics at least, when I was reading them back in the 80s) and the Star Trek universes. To the extent that heavily-invested fans care about canon (if there is such a thing with Spider-Man), Spider-Verse is irrelevant.
Possibly, though the movie goes to some length to suggest that Older Peter IS actually the “true” canonical Spider-Man, from Earth-616, considered to be the “normal” Marvel reality.
https://screenrant.com/spider-man-old-peter-parker-spiderverse/
It made me really sad when I figured out what Peter B. Parker’s middle initial stood for. I probably shouldn’t admit that it took me a day or two. At first, I took it for a little joke, as in Plan B or B-list or B movie.
Not sure it matters. Though I suspect fans demand some fidelity in movie adaptations, I think the general understanding is that they’re separate from the comic book storylines. After all, we’ve seen two theatrical retelling of the Spider-Man origin in the past two decades.
I can think of almost 500 million reasons.
https://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=animatedspider-man.htm
https://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=starwars8.htm
Just watched this today for the second time, and goddam do I love this movie.
I’ve never been a big Spider-Man fan, and I’m not sure I ever really related to Peter Parker, but I really relate to middle-aged burnout Peter B. Parker. I was afraid he was going to be a caricature, but he’s not. The way the little reminders spark the old enthusiasm. The way he’s prepared to sacrifice himself, not because he’s old and busted, but because he is and always will be a hero and that’s what heroes do. #chefskiss
Never a big Spider-man fan either, but from what I recall of him from the few comics I did read 30+ years ago and the old repeat-the-same-four-frames-of-animation and swing-from-the-clouds cartoon, burn-out Parker seemed a plausible development for the character I recalled. The cost to Peter’s personal life of being Spider-man was a recurrent theme in those works.
I actually liked this film a lot better than I liked Avengers: Infinity War. Which, no doubt, is a sure sign that I’m evil…
I ranked this higher than *Infinity War* too.
Given the popularity of Spider-Gwen in pop culture circles, I’m kinda surprised that no one — especially defenders of the recent Captain Marvel movie — has yet felt the need to add “But Spider-Gwen” to the infamous bingo card.
Shhhhhhhhhhhhhh, dude, don’t give them ideas.