Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse - Review: A Once in a Generation Experience, a Mediocre Movie
Release date (US): December 14th, 2018
Starring: Shameik Moore, Jake Johnson, Hailee Steinfeld, Liev Schreiber, Mahershala Ali, Brian Tyree Henry, Nicholas Cage, John Mulaney
**DISCLAIMER**: This is a subjective, opinionated article that does not have, nor should have any affect on your opinion. As such, my opinion is entitled to change over time and whatever is written here at this point in time may not and should not be held to me in the future. You are not meant to agree with me 100 percent of the time, because the nature of subjectivity is we see everything differently. If there is something you happen to disagree with, I absolutely respect your point of view if you will respect mine. Please keep this in mind.
The Review
When going into a film entitled "Into The Spider-Verse", you know things are going to get weird very, very quickly. And yet, while the splashy coloration of images and the brilliant use of animation signal a new era, a modern way to tell a story, the plot and characters themselves feel as if they belong in the past.
Miles Morales is a teenager living in Brooklyn, and he believes that Peter Parker is the only Spider-Man in his universe. Fast forward a few minutes into the movie, and things start to spiral out of control as the Spider-universes collide, bringing all sorts of Spider-people together from all corners of the universe.
Right off the bat, I will say that I am a huge comic book genre fan. Whether this pertains to movies, television, merchandise, comic books, the lore fascinates me and always has. So with the way the film opens, i was hooked. The film opens in a very, very clever way that will entertain general movie going audiences but will please comic book movie fans like no other movie can. This really can be said for the majority of the movie. This film will be entertaining at best to the average audience, but will contain enough easter eggs and little references to tide over the major, hardcore fans such as myself.
And to the film's credit, the animation style is beautiful. Now, I did write on this website that after seeing the trailers, I thought the animation style looked rather terrible. I just could not see the kind of animation that was being portrayed in the trailers translating well onto a full-length feature film. But as always, my expectations were left at the door, and I walked in hoping for the best. And after a few minutes of adjustment, I completely bought the way the film was animated and loved it.
Really the only way I can describe it is it was like a comic book had been taken, and literally plastered onto a movie screen and the characters moved. The way the animators were able to achieve this was incredible, and this really was a once in a generation type of project. Every single frame popped and there were so many colors, so many visuals that just screamed "comic book". For the average audience that I continue to reference, I'm not quite sure what they would think of this because the comic book medium may not be as native to them, but for someone like me? Absolutely perfect.
Another thing the film has working for it is the voice performances. Phil Lord and Chris Miller absolutely nailed the casting for the movie. From Shameik Moore as Miles Morales to Jake Johnson as Peter Parker, a choice that I didn't quite approve of at first, the voice cast immediately lend themselves to their respective characters. No one sticks out as "Oh look it's Samuel L. Jackson!" or something of the sort. You really feel as if Jake Johnson is Peter Parker, and that's something this film does very, very nicely. Hailee Steinfeld in particular delivers a sweet, but tough Spider Gwen that was nice to watch, especially when she interacted with Peter Parker.
But underneath the flashing lights, the comic book easter eggs, and the wonderful characters lies a fundamental problem; the story is oddly generic. Now, to the film's credit, the set up at the beginning and the way characters are explained is very self-referential and a very unique way of going about it. But once the film kicks into the second and third acts, it becomes very stereotypical.
There's, as always, something the heroes have to get at. I will stop and say that, thankfully, the "Macguffin" in this particular film wasn't the MOST important thing; it was more about Miles learning to be himself. But still, the second and third act don't lend themselves to being anything original narratively. Miles goes through the hero's journey that we've seen countless times, and no matter how self-referential the film may be, it can't hide that.
And maybe that's okay. Maybe that's not the point of a film like this. Maybe the point of a movie of this nature is to really show off the animation, to show that there can be something different in terms of animation and that there is a really vivid way to put a comic book onto a movie screen. And I applaud them for that. But at the same time, being as purely objective as I can, I just didn't feel that the story was all that compelling.
It doesn't help the film either that the first hour or so feels a little aimless. It's introducing so many different elements, that, granted, will become somewhat important later on, but the actual plot of the film doesn't begin to feel important or consequential until about thirty to forty-five minutes into a film that's not even two hours.
In Conclusion: Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse is worth the price of admission alone for comic book fans just to see the amazing animation and the way the animators are able to bring a comic book to life. There's nothing like this and I doubt that there will be anything like this for awhile. The story works, it's decent, and the film overall is enjoyable. But for me, I found that the film suffered from a generic storyline that was held up by sparkly visuals and charismatic characters. Is the film bad? Not necessarily, no. Is it good? It's hard to say, but one thing's for sure. This movie will leave its mark on generations to come.
Miles Morales is a teenager living in Brooklyn, and he believes that Peter Parker is the only Spider-Man in his universe. Fast forward a few minutes into the movie, and things start to spiral out of control as the Spider-universes collide, bringing all sorts of Spider-people together from all corners of the universe.
Right off the bat, I will say that I am a huge comic book genre fan. Whether this pertains to movies, television, merchandise, comic books, the lore fascinates me and always has. So with the way the film opens, i was hooked. The film opens in a very, very clever way that will entertain general movie going audiences but will please comic book movie fans like no other movie can. This really can be said for the majority of the movie. This film will be entertaining at best to the average audience, but will contain enough easter eggs and little references to tide over the major, hardcore fans such as myself.
And to the film's credit, the animation style is beautiful. Now, I did write on this website that after seeing the trailers, I thought the animation style looked rather terrible. I just could not see the kind of animation that was being portrayed in the trailers translating well onto a full-length feature film. But as always, my expectations were left at the door, and I walked in hoping for the best. And after a few minutes of adjustment, I completely bought the way the film was animated and loved it.
Really the only way I can describe it is it was like a comic book had been taken, and literally plastered onto a movie screen and the characters moved. The way the animators were able to achieve this was incredible, and this really was a once in a generation type of project. Every single frame popped and there were so many colors, so many visuals that just screamed "comic book". For the average audience that I continue to reference, I'm not quite sure what they would think of this because the comic book medium may not be as native to them, but for someone like me? Absolutely perfect.
Another thing the film has working for it is the voice performances. Phil Lord and Chris Miller absolutely nailed the casting for the movie. From Shameik Moore as Miles Morales to Jake Johnson as Peter Parker, a choice that I didn't quite approve of at first, the voice cast immediately lend themselves to their respective characters. No one sticks out as "Oh look it's Samuel L. Jackson!" or something of the sort. You really feel as if Jake Johnson is Peter Parker, and that's something this film does very, very nicely. Hailee Steinfeld in particular delivers a sweet, but tough Spider Gwen that was nice to watch, especially when she interacted with Peter Parker.
But underneath the flashing lights, the comic book easter eggs, and the wonderful characters lies a fundamental problem; the story is oddly generic. Now, to the film's credit, the set up at the beginning and the way characters are explained is very self-referential and a very unique way of going about it. But once the film kicks into the second and third acts, it becomes very stereotypical.
There's, as always, something the heroes have to get at. I will stop and say that, thankfully, the "Macguffin" in this particular film wasn't the MOST important thing; it was more about Miles learning to be himself. But still, the second and third act don't lend themselves to being anything original narratively. Miles goes through the hero's journey that we've seen countless times, and no matter how self-referential the film may be, it can't hide that.
And maybe that's okay. Maybe that's not the point of a film like this. Maybe the point of a movie of this nature is to really show off the animation, to show that there can be something different in terms of animation and that there is a really vivid way to put a comic book onto a movie screen. And I applaud them for that. But at the same time, being as purely objective as I can, I just didn't feel that the story was all that compelling.
It doesn't help the film either that the first hour or so feels a little aimless. It's introducing so many different elements, that, granted, will become somewhat important later on, but the actual plot of the film doesn't begin to feel important or consequential until about thirty to forty-five minutes into a film that's not even two hours.
In Conclusion: Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse is worth the price of admission alone for comic book fans just to see the amazing animation and the way the animators are able to bring a comic book to life. There's nothing like this and I doubt that there will be anything like this for awhile. The story works, it's decent, and the film overall is enjoyable. But for me, I found that the film suffered from a generic storyline that was held up by sparkly visuals and charismatic characters. Is the film bad? Not necessarily, no. Is it good? It's hard to say, but one thing's for sure. This movie will leave its mark on generations to come.
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