So a couple days ago I took my bro to a movie for his birthday. And it ended up being a lot better present for both of us than I expected. 

Hence, a review. Because everyone should know about this movie. 

Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse

Synopsis:

Bitten by a radioactive spider in the subway, Brooklyn teenager Miles Morales suddenly develops mysterious powers that transform him into the one and only Spider-Man. When he meets Peter Parker, he soon realizes that there are many others who share his special, high-flying talents. Miles must now use his newfound skills to battle the evil Kingpin, a hulking madman who can open portals to other universes and pull different versions of Spider-Man into our world.

Good stuff:

• Animation

The animation was so cool, guys! The little dots and all the things that made it look comic-book-y. The colors… the pop-up narrative thoughts… And all the different Spider-People from all the different universes have different animation looks? It was amazing. Very pleasing to look at. ❤

• Plot

It’s sometimes hard to find a good animated film with some actual stakes that works things out well. And this plot was awesome. I can’t say a ton without spoiling it but they had a really cool escalation of tension through the whole story… good plot points… all that good stuff. It’s good.

• Characters

THEY WERE REALLY GOOD OKAY. Miles had a good family. His dad and mom were cool, even if there was some family conflict. His uncle was well done. He himself was such a great 3D character with all his artistic aspirations and music appreciation and not dealing well under the stress of being Spiderman and wanting to do the right thing.

Gwen was actually a really good sort of love interest character. I liked her in and of herself and they didn’t shove too much on her and Miles. She was really cool.

Middle-aged Peter Parker as a mentor was my favorite though. It’s really rare for them to hit the right balance of having a mentor who’s wise enough in a certain area to teach things well, but then like… not be a perfect person and have his own lessons to learn and his own character arc? And they did that perfectly. This Peter was sort of a disaster, but he was a hilarious one and I was proud of him getting his life together in the end.

Spiderman Noir, Spider-Ham, and Penni Parker were all fun in their own ways as well. (Just…. Nicholas Cage’s voice. And then John Mulaney’s voice coming out of a tiny little spiderpig. I can’t get over those.)

• Humor

This actually wasn’t as nonstop comedy as I was expecting going in? And that was really nice. Humor wasn’t the point of it, and they used it at just the right moments. And kept things in line with the story. It was pretty much just situational humor, too. No hopping out of the story to deliver a punchline or anything. And the situational stuff was hilarious, so I loved it.

• Theme

It’s one of those themes that’s kind of hard to put to words. Which are honestly my favorite kinds.

All the nuances that were thrown in here were amazing. The importance of family… of not giving up… having the courage to address your problems straight on…

A lot of really amazing stuff here.

 

Bad Stuff:

• Some of the spider-people could have done more

I mean…. I’m not complaining because they were pretty funny and the final fight scene with all of them was cool. But it would have been nice to see them doing a little bit more to contribute to the plot? Other than just hangin’ around and going with whatever the other spidermans wanted to do. 

Overall:

Really awesome. Go watch it with your whole family, you won’t regret it.

 

Have you seen Into The Spider-Verse? Think you will?

Please comment!

~writefury