Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
Hello True Believers! Miles’ time has come to shine! Will Miles’ first time on the silver screen be enjoyable? Will Into the Spider-Verse defy all odds and be the first good movie from Sony Animation? Let’s find out!
SPOILER FREE SECTION:
I’ll be honest, I wasn’t expecting this movie to be good. The last good pure Sony Spider-Man movie was Spider-Man 2. And this isn’t just Sony. This is Sony Animation, the studio that brought you great hits such as: The Emoji Movie, Surf’s Up, The ChubbChubbs, and many more.
I was wrong. This movie was good. Very good. You can’t walk into the movie thinking that it’s the exact same Miles as from the comics, however. This Miles is not 1610 Miles. The Peter Parker is not 616 Peter. That being said, they were still recognizable. The characters were amazing, the character development was spot on, and the story was good. I did have a couple issues with the animation. There were certain times where it felt like watching a 3D movie without the special glasses and it made my head hurt, but these moments were few and far between. The animation has a certain comic book aesthetic that I thought was extremely clever. I recommend watching it, it was much better than the Amazing Spider-Man movies (but that’s not too difficult).
And make sure you stay to the end of the credits!!!!
SPOILERS AHEAD
SPOILER SECTION:
Alright, let’s get to the nitty gritty. One thing that bothered me was the Miles suit we know is sitting right next to the suit that Miles takes and spray paints black. I enjoy the Miles suit used during the movie, but it does kind of irk me that they would animate the comic book suit in RIGHT BESIDE THE SUIT HE SPRAY PAINTS BLACK!!!
The female Doc Ock was interesting as well. That was a pretty cool twist. As well has having an Aunt May that knew Peter was Spider-Man.
I also liked that Miles used a Spider-Man costume from a store (that was also a pretty funny Stan Lee cameo), because that’s what Miles used when he first started out. Spider-Man also tells him that it’s in bad taste just like someone tells him in the comic.
The brief backstory via the comic books was also pretty funny. I thought it wasn’t going to be funny after Spider-Gwen’s but having Noir, Peni, and Spider-Ham read theirs at the same time broke the formula and kept it funny (they also got Spider-Ham’s right! If you listen you can hear that he says he was bitten by a radioactive pig).
Of course going in, you know that the Peter from Miles’ universe is going to die. It makes me question why they gave him blonde hair. It lets us know that this isn’t the same Peter we know from the previews. I’m guessing they picked blonde as a reference to Ben Reilly as it seems the creators of this movie love Spider-Man (the movie is filled to the brim with references and call backs).
I wasn’t the biggest fan of Miles being a tagger, but it didn’t ruin the movie for me. I kinda wish they had kept Miles enjoying Brooklyn Visions Academy instead of hating it, as well as making Miles and Ganke (I’m assuming his roommate is Ganke) friends. The Peter was very funny. Peter was voiced by John Mulaney, a hilarious comedian, and the director let Mulaney let loose and free hand a lot of his lines.
I do question why they picked Peni Parker out of all the Spider-People. I think 2099, Superior Spider-Man, Kaine, Ben Reilly, or the 60’s cartoon Spider-Man would have been better options. I don’t think she added much.
The after credits scene was absolutely hilarious and at least we know that 2099 will be in the sequel.
All in all, I really enjoyed the movie and would recommend it. I give it a 7.5/10
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The “A Very Spidey Christmas – EP” is now streaming on Spotify, iTunes and YouTube.
Can’t post links so just “Starkle” it 😉
It’s here! Christmas album confirmed on iTunes and Spotify:-
https://www.polygon.com/2018/12/21/18151640/spider-verse-a-very-spidey-christmas-album
youTube link: – https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLmiTEUbCjSnKwzR3DmMcGeXIhXMvnBEgy
Great review! I enjoyed the movie (and the company I saw it with) quite a bit. I do agree that, while interesting, Penni didn’t add much to the plot. Neither did Noir, for that matter, but at least he was recognizable by viewers if they were familiar with the older video game. By far the best part is the after credit scene. Loved that one! By the way, I saw that they are streaming the soundtrack online, by in my initial look at it, I didn’t see any of the Christmas songs.
I give this movie a ‘Its the best movie since Spider-Man 2 and might be better than it’ out of 10
@Franz29 Hobo-Spider! That’s fantastic! I did really like that he remained Peter at heart.
Now we just need more of the Spider-Man Christmas album!
Nice review.
Loved this way more than I thought I would, and enjoyed Miles being the protagonist, while at the same time the Peter characters were true to form. “Hobo-Spider” struck me as a good representation of what Peter would have become with a few bad breaks, but still had that sense of responsibility and shone as a hero when he was called.
I really liked how it fit the Campbellian narrative structure almost perfectly beat for beat; compare it to Star Wars and it’s very close in structure. Made it a timeless story that I’m looking forward to taking my daughters to at the weekend. They are Peter-Spider-Fans by osmosis but I think they will be able to identify with the Miles character on a level that helps them follow the story.
Great job by Sony animation.
With the PS4 version giving me a Peter, MJ, Doc Ock dynamic that I adored, and this being way better than I imagined, plus the “real” Peter appearing in his own books again, ut’s a great time to be a Spider-Man fan. If you’d have told me that last year (or even early this year) I’d have probably laughed in your face.
I absolutely loved it. Would have preferred if it was a Perter Parker movie, but it made it work. Loved the animation, the jokes, they improved the original plot, the characterization. I would cry in joy if they made a 2099 movie with this style of animation (and if they base it off classical 2099). The after credits scene was so wacky and unexpected on any level it made me laugh historically in the movie theater. I agree that at some point it looked like 3D, but I think what was going on is that they were trying to implement depth of field on those shots but they did so in an experimental way to the parts of the screen that were out of focus instead of looking blurry (normal depth of field) it looked liked a 3D movie without the glasses . But I wasn’t bad. Highly recommended