Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse Review

I have never excelled at giving good movie or music recommendations. The problem is that I like too many things. It’s hard to give a helpful critique when I think many movies and music are “sssssooooooooo gooooooooddddd”.

Years ago, I told my friend Jonnie, while we were arguing about a band that I thought he should like, that he didn’t have an appreciation for enough pop culture. I said that if he had a sieve over his head that let in new music, the holes in his sieve would be too small to let anything through. He disagreed and yelled “YOU NEED SMALLER HOLES!” thereby letting the office know that the holes in my pop culture sieve were way too big and let in enough junk to drown me. Then he drew me the following cartoon.

This picture hangs on my cubicle wall to this day to remind me to have a more critical eye when accepting the trendiest of pop culture trash. It has worked to some extent. I’ve never seen an episode of any Real Housewives or Kardashian show and yet it has failed to influence my taste in movies. I still seem to like and find something enjoyable about most movies.

My friend MJV asked me to start writing movie reviews more than a year ago and I blanched for the reason outlined above. How helpful will it be to you to read about all the reasons why I like all the movies that I see? This brings us to today though. When I relented and have written my thoughts on Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse just for him. Here you go, MJV. This is all your fault.

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse is absolutely amazing action-packed animated Spider-Man story. In it Brooklyn teenager Miles Morales gets spider powers in the regular way and soon meets Peter Parker where he discovers that there are many other spider-people currently converged in his very own NY-based universe. Together they must fight the evil Kingpin together and get each of the spider-people back to their own spidery multiverses.

I loved this movie. It’s my favorite Spider-Man movie so far, counting even Spider-Man: Homecoming, which I adored. It is probably my favorite superhero movie of all time, but I need to watch both Black Panther and the last Avengers again before confirming this ranking. It’s great though. Really really great. Let’s take a look at different aspects of the movie:

Story: Exciting! The story and plot were action-packed but had enough quiet and moving scenes so viewers could catch their breath and get to know the characters. It flows like a superhero story should and rewards the viewer with big fights and big laughs.

Characters: Superb! Miles Morales is my current favorite Spider-Man and he is the main character here. The supporting spider people, especially Spider Gwen are great too. Newcomer Peni Parker is set to be a star and steals her scenes. Sony/Marvel/whoever owns the property can’t get a Peni Parker and SP//dr mecha book or cartoon out fast enough. I don’t know why they weren’t ready with one already.

Animation: Loved it! It’s beautiful. The styles of all the spider-verses meld together in a beautiful and cohesive way. It’s seamless and stunning throughout. I want to see the movie in the theater again, so I can pay less attention to the other aspects of the movie and just check out all the eye-candy.

Voice-Acting: Fantastic! Nic Cage was perfectly moody as Spider-Man Noir and John Mulaney had perfectly-pitched Looney-Tunesesque voice as Spider-Ham. It was as if he hired a wizard to summon the spirit of Mel Blanc to coach him in the room. Every casting choice was great and fit all the characters.

Sound Track: A+! It’s mostly slow and chill hip-hop, with some more rock-tinged and gritty tracks sprinkled throughout for the action sequences. Popular acts Lil Wayne, Jaden Smith, Post Malone, Nicki Minaj and Juice WRLD each have songs on the soundtrack. The first single, by Post Malone, is my most listened track so far.

So, there you go, a totally useless review! I liked everything about Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. And if you don’t like it, you’re wrong!