Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse Review

When people think of superhero movies now it is either the live action banter spectacular of the Marvel films, or the serious, dramatic, grandiose Nolan Bat-flicks (let's not talk of the current state of the DCU barring Wonder-Woman, can't speak for Aquaman yet). Yet both of these superhero visions, for want of a better word, lack the key link to their origins - the style of the comic book.

Enter, swinging to win, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, fully embracing its comic book roots to provide you with a true comic book vision.

Prior to seeing the film, I hadn't seen a whole lot of it by way of trailers or teasers, only a gathering buzz that this was something special. What made this all the more surprising was that these stellar reviews were about an animated film that wasn't emerging from the established giants in this field: Pixar, Disney, or to a lesser extent, Dreamworks.

Instead, this film has the style of an arthouse movie, oozing auteur flare in the visual department but applied to the barnstorming genre of the superhero movie. I promise you, you haven't seen anything like this in the cinema before. For a start, at times it feels like the frames of the movie seem to be slowed done to an almost imperceptible level at times. Whilst reading this it may feel like a negative, instead it gives the impression that you are flicking through a comic book at speed, watching the images move across the pages like a flick book. On top of that, scenes are often split up into dynamic comic book panels, sometimes interspersed with creative speech bubbles. And on top of that again, each scene is animated like the Telltale video games (RIP) crossed with a Roy Lichtenstein painting.

By hewing closer to the true comic book nature of the source material, it also gives the writers freedom to go into the  true comic book madness. You want a Green Goblin to actually be a gigantic flying beast fighting Spidey in the midst of a universe colliding machine? You got it! You want your Spider-man contorted into impossible shapes, being chased through a woodland maze by tentacular foes? Done. And because of the art style and stellar animation not once do you think "Well this doesn't look real" or "Hmm the CGI is a bit dodgy."

Now, you may think that as I've spent the majority of this review focusing on the visuals and not a word on character or plot that those elements may be lacking but for the most part they are a runaway success with only a few minor missteps. The story primarily revolves around one Miles Morales and his development of his own Spidey powers. In obtaining this new found power, Miles becomes embroiled in a very real and universe shattering plot lead by a plethora of villains, all gloriously reimagined with new spins on old favourites that I will not ruin here.

In focusing on Miles, and the central plot conceit of multiple universe = multiple variants of people with Spidey powers, the filmmakers get to retell the classic Spider-man plot without you realising and being fatigued by yet another retread of the same old origin story. You may not realise it at the time but you have the same arcs as the Peter Parker we know, namely life lessons emerging out of tragedy and the grappling of new found powers and the responsibilities that flow on.

In addition, the film manages to solve the problem that has dogged several superhero flicks in the past, most notably Spider-Man 3, namely too many villains. There are many, many villains in this film, some with big parts, some with small parts but at no point do you feel shortchanged as to needing to know more about their motivations. The primary villain gets by with a quick flashback and bam, you know what's driving him. The filmmakers also realise that these characters are part of modern pop culture and respects the audience enough not to talk down to us and reexplain the essence of each one.

Joining Miles is a cohort of variants on Spidey from alternate dimensions, which I again will not going into too much detail about, suffice to say they are unexpected, weird and wholly successful in generating laughs and stealing screen time. However, the closest Spidey chum to Miles is a Spidey which seems to be an amalgamation of the various incarnations that we have seen in film (McGuire, Garfield, and Holland) but given a thoroughly modern and depressive twist that'll tug on your heart strings and make you laugh out loud on various occasions. And speaking of tugging on your heart strings, this wouldn't be a Marvel movie with a cameo from one dearly departed god of the geeks, who's words carry more weight than perhaps originally intended.

As stated above, it isn't wholly successful, as with a fairly generic but effective plot, there isn't a whole lot of character development to go round,  bar Miles and our version of Spidey. Perhaps suffering from an abundance of character and a plot that moves at a breakneck pace, one 3rd act twist that you can see coming a mile off does not land with the gravitas intended by the filmmakers as there has not been sufficient time spent developing the relationship between the two characters, especially the motivations of one of them. Having said that, Miles' father has probably the strongest arc in the film, which I won't spoil here.

All in all, this is the best Spider-Man movie since Spider-Man 2 successfully melded comic book spectacle with grounded drama. Into the Spider-Verse is a swinging success, unschackled from the narrative predictable of the MCU, brimming with an artistic flare, cinematography and eclectic score that will make you wonder why we are bothering with live action superhero flicks at all, when this is the true peak for unabashed comic book action.