Thoughts on Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018) · 5:22am Dec 20th, 2018
So the other day, I saw Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.
And it was pretty great.
I basically went into this movie with no expectations. I didn't know a single thing about it other than it was made by Sony and Nicolas Cage were in it. And I wasn't planning on seeing it. Sony hadn't really done a great job with Spider-Man since the Sam Raimi trilogy, I'd thought (The Amazing Spider-Man was fine, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 was awful, and while I didn't see Venom I hadn't heard great things about it), and I'd heard Sony itself wasn't doing great (The Emoji Movie).
But I like Spider-Man, and I like every Spider-Man movie I'd seen thus far on some level except The Amazing Spider-Man 2. So I saw Into the Spider-Verse, and I really liked it.
The animation style is pretty great. It's my favorite portrayal of 3D computer-generated animation so far because it's unique in a good way. It looks very much like a comic book and it's fun to watch. You see these written-out sound effects happening in the background and some text boxes even, and this makes it the most comic book-like superhero movie I've ever seen. Plus, with all the effects happening, this movie would not have done nearly as well if it were live action. The animation really helped it. There are things you can do better in animation than you can in real life and weird CGI.
The acting is pretty good. I found myself really believing the characters and the actors' performances, especially with Shameik Moore as Miles Morales and, surprisingly, Jake Johnson as Peter Parker (especially considering the weirder take on the character; it wasn't quite like any Peter Parker I was familiar with).
The soundtrack was mostly pretty good but it had some goofy choices that really didn't fit the scene at parts.
The action was phenomenal. There are so many things happening at once and it's all very stylized, yet at the same time, it's never really too much. You can understand what's happening and it doesn't feel like a giant mess. It feels chaotic and organized at the same time, and it's never unpleasant.
The characters are, for the most part, very well realized. I already touched on Miles Morales and Peter Parker, but like I said, those actors make those characters work. Miles is a kid who's struggling a lot in life, trying to find his way, a lot like Peter Parker in Spider-Man 2. He's not perfect and he doesn't even realize most of his potential until toward the end of the movie. He feels very real, especially with his relationships with his dad and his uncle, who are polar opposites of each other but still play huge roles in Miles' life. I really cared about Miles, and this is honestly my first time getting familiar with any version of him. I don't read the comics or anything.
Both the characters of Peter Parker and Gwen Stacy worked very well, especially with their relationships to Miles. They were interesting takes on the characters and I love how they changed over time, especially Peter Parker, who starts off incredibly jaded but believably so, as I mentioned. Kimiko Glenn's Peni Parker was fine for me, but not really standout, aside from the weird take on Spider-Man. Nicolas Cage's noir Spider-Man was fantastic and I loved every word he said. John Mulaney's Spider-Ham was fine but I didn't find him very interesting. The animation style for him was good but I didn't find myself laughing a lot. He felt a bit annoying at times, even.
Liev Schreiber's Kingpin was alright, but I felt he was pretty underdeveloped. I didn't find him very interesting at all. He had humanity, sure, and that made him different from your bog-standard bad guy, but it wasn't that great.
I should also mention the tone and pacing. The tone is pretty goofy for a lot of it, and it works, as it's very much like a comic book. It's also not afraid to be dramatic or be dark, and when it does that, it's very competent at that. It doesn't feel out of place or anything. The pacing, on the other hand, is a bit inconsistent. It's pretty slow for the first bit, up until Miles and Peter break into Kingpin's facility. Then it gets faster. It was a bit jarring, but nothing huge.
So this movie was definitely a fun experience overall. Even though I wasn't sure about it going in, I found myself enjoying it quite a bit. It's definitely one of the more unique comic book movies I've seen, and definitely a lot of fun. I can only hope Sony doesn't screw up the sequels, because I really like this universe they've made so far. I like it enough that I can't decide whether I like it better than Spider-Man Homecoming or not, and that's only second to Spider-Man 2 in my book. I'll be interested in whatever Sony brings forth next, and I'm giving this movie a seven or eight out of ten.
I absolutely loved LOVED this movie.
After a lot of deliberation, I'm awarding it my personal movie of the year.
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It’s definitely up there for me. I think the only things that could compete with it from what I’ve seen are Isle of Dogs and Infinity War. Isle of Dogs has some fantastic animation and Infinity War makes a bloated movie full of action and not much else not only watchable but immensely enjoyable and compelling. I’d say Into the Spider-Verse is definitely better than Isle of Dogs but around the same level of Infinity War, and I can’t decide which of those I like more.