Movies 2018 - 369. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018; written by Phil Lord and Rodney Rothman; directed by Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey, and Rodney Rothman)
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🌮🌮🌮🌮 1/2 (4 1/2 tacos)
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After becoming Spider-Man himself, Miles Morales must team up with the Spider-people from alternate realities to help save their worlds. I watch a lot of movies. This is pretty much a given; something understood by anyone who reads these reviews I write. I try to find a way to cram at least 365 new movies into my brain every year. I have seen some stuff. I watch so many explosions in any given year, Be they the kind with fire and debris, or the kind with emotions and personal stories. I see it all and while I may find new films that I love on a yearly basis, it still takes a lot to really wow me and make me so overcome by the magic of movie-making that I find myself staring in awe of what I am seeing. There is a scene in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse that left me breathless with a tear running down my face. It is a culmination of everything the film had been building up to and it is put together so spectacularly that I had to mentally tell myself to pick my jaw back up. Into the Spider-Verse takes a genre that is becoming the norm and reinvigorates it with style, heart, honesty, humor, and a commitment to telling the best story in fresh and innovative ways.
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Into the Spider-Verse is a comic book movie that actually feels like a comic book brought to vivid life. The film is so incredibly colorful with an animation style that, at times, looks like ink on a page. Things appear from time to time in panels, so we get to experience movement in moments as one square bleeds into another square which bleeds into a rectangle, creating a true cinematic representation of this thing so many people have spent their entire lives loving. We live in an era where the superhero movie pretty much is the norm. While we get our bright highlights of the genre and our painful lows (still no forgiveness given for Venom), these movies often feel like just that: movies. Plot devices and cinematic conventions are used that reflect the film medium more than that of comics. We can see the strings, though sometimes those strings might be a little bit more believable than others. Here, we truly get a comic book brought to life with such unique fashion. The film itself features multiple different styles of animation, reflecting how it feels to watch multiple artists of varying styles hold true to our favorite characters while bringing their own distinctive flair to the work. The characters from the various universes have their own distinct style and look, but somehow the filmmakers are still able to make everything a part of a cohesive unit. 
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The storytelling is something that makes this Spider-Man stand out from the other onscreen incarnations, as well. This is not Peter Parker’s story. This is all about Miles Morales. For those not in the know about Miles’s story, the Internet has plenty of resources to look up things in great detail. To kind of touch upon Miles briefly, in the early 2010s, Marvel was looking to breathe some new life into its books by changing up the heroes or adding new characters that fit our times. It was also a chance for Marvel to make the superhero scene more inclusive. Throughout decades of existing, Peter Parker became more the hero of legend and less the ordinary guy who found encumbered with the responsibility of these incredible powers. Miles Morales was created to start from that place where anyone — any ordinary kid — could fall into this situation and become a hero. Miles existed in an alternate storytelling universe that kind of stood on its own and rewired and reinvigorated the Spider-Man comic world. With Miles as our main hero here, we get to see the Spider-Man world as not only an exciting, action-packed thrill ride, but also terrifying. It is a daunting task to have a gift that can be used for good. Especially when confronted by monsters, mad scientists, or gangsters the size of Mack trucks. Getting a comic book hero who sees these things the way that Miles does, the audience gets someone to relate to no matter who you are. The writing here helps let Miles story unfold perfectly. In a film with so many different characters to focus on, Miles is always at its center. He is our window to this world, and his life is the one that truly matters to us. Things happen with a touch of humor but also with a complete and honest wealth of emotion. Fear, joy, doubt, agony, everything is on display here and fully fleshed out in the two hour runtime.
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The characters and voice talent of Into The Spider-Verse are all pretty wonderful. Miles Morales is the center of our story. I won’t really add much to how great he is, as I feel like I have already said so much, but it does need to be said that Shameik Moore does such a wonderful job of providing his voice. Moore was exceptional in 2015’s Dope, so it is great to see him cast in something that will get his mass exposure. Jake Johnson voices Peter B. Parker and continues his streak of being one of the greatest comedic secret weapons of this generation. There’s always such a sense of experienced ease in Johnson’s delivery. He’s young and weathered all at the same time, and his comic timing is perfect. Brian Tyree Henry continues an incredible 2018 for him by giving voice to Jefferson, Miles’s father. There is such strength and warmth in his voice. Despite the lengths he will go to to embarrass his son, he makes this character the perfect father character. Mahershala Ali, Liev Schreiber, Hailee Steinfeld, Kathryn Hahn, Lily Tomlin, and many others who I won’t name because of the surprise factor do such an incredible job of bringing all of these characters to life. The only flaw I found in the movie, however, comes from just the sheer abundance of characters included. We have a film that is predicated on multiple characters from various dimensions crashing into one. Some of them are bizarre and no doubt have fascinating origins that are worth exploring in their own two hour long animated film. I get that it is going to be a challenge to pare those stories down so they fit nicely here, but it can feel a little overstuffed and too bonkers at times. 
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Everything else about this film works marvelously. It is an excellent story told through use of great dialogue that is humorous and full of heart. People complain about getting origin story after origin story after origin story, but when they do it right, it doesn’t feel so bad adding one more to the canon. Story beats are punctuated with the use of a mostly hip-hop infused soundtrack. The song choices are excellent and really help convey the tone and the energy the film is going for. The colors are vivid with such a striking style that combines so many different techniques. The directors clearly had a huge task on their hands bringing this vision to life and they exceeded in exceptional fashion. I mentioned at the beginning that there was one moment that made me remember just how thrilling going to the movies can be. This film is filled with moments like that. Into the Spider-Verse is truly a unique vision that is unlike anything else out there. It takes bold steps to make something so common feel new again. This film makes the comic book movie exciting in ways that even the other great ones don’t quite nail.