"Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse" Review by Jgames

Spiderman: Into the Spiderverse is the latest sony animated movie and the whatever number of attempt at Sony at making a spiderman movie. With the movie being about Miles Morales getting bite by a spider and getting powers. With him having to stop The Kingpin from potentially destroying the multiverse while being mentored by a wash-up Peter Parker from another dimension.

My quick thought on the movie, it might be my favorite animated movie of the year, my favorite superhero movie of the year and maybe even my favorite Spiderman movie. I will be honest while I was excited about the movie, at the same time Sony have only like two decent animated movie and two good Spiderman movie. So I did had a good reason to be skeptical of the movie, and thankfully Sony managed to pump out an amazing movie.

The movie manages to be one of the more refreshing superhero origin story and a refreshing Spiderman movie. Homecoming Spiderman I personally did really like, but at the same time, the plot was small in scale, versus this movie which is big in scale since it involves the multiverse. Having multiple supporting characters, and villains. In many ways this movie should not work, I mean trying to have multiple characters that have to be introduced, with lots of crazy thing happening and having the audience care for the main character is a huge task, but the movie succeeds. As Miles Morales is a really likable main character that captures lots of things that we associate with Spiderman. Someone just trying his best to be a hero, but have lots of moments where he is scared since he is a teenager, but have to rise up to the challenge to save the city. His character development was satisfying and well paced. When he put on his black custom, it does feel earned as the audience see his progression and finally being able to step up to the mantle. Giving a satisfying origin story for a somewhat new character for the mainstream audience.

The other characters are also lots of fun, especially Noir Spiderman voice by Nicholas Cage. Making this oddly the second superhero animated movie he has been. I do love how they do manage to cleverly give the backstory of all this different spiderman with great style, speed, and humor. But a big character I do have to talk about that is important to the story is Peter Parker Spiderman from the other dimension. As this Spiderman is somewhat a slob, and kind of a jerk when Miles Morales first meet him. But as the story progress, they do grow more a teacher-student relationship. With both of them caring for each other. As they both start becoming more and more like an actual Spiderman. So that plot thread was definitely handled well. As far as the villain goes, Kingpin is cool and have some backstory, but does not feel as flesh out as he could have been. I mean do not get me wrong he is a pretty decent villain and works for the movie, but I felt like maybe more screen time would have helped make him a much greater villain. But he was still a pretty menacing villain especially due to the ridiculous design for him and the animation. That being said the other villains were forgettable and it would have been nice to have bigger threatening villains. That being said less screen time with the villain mean more time with the main characters and the other supporting characters who were all great.

As far as how was the movie as a whole, it has some of everything for kids and adult. With lots of really good humor, but a decent amount of dark moment. I mean at least to the extent a pg-rating would allow you since some scenes I am just left asking why is there no sign of blood. But even then the movie is still pretty brutal and dark when it needs to. It just knows how to juggle its tone, characters, villains (for the most part), and lots and lots of reference of the Spiderman property. All combining to give a satisfying movie. I mean the movie is as ridiculous as you think it can be considering it has characters like Spiderham, a talking cartoon spider pig. But despite how absurd the movie gets, it knows how to deliver the strong emotional moment to not only pull our heartstring but move the story along. It knows when to slow down and when to be a fast pace. It just an enjoyable burst of tones, and cannot praise the movie enough for making all of this work.

The movie visually is one of the best looking movies of this year. I mean the art and style of the movie is just so colorful, vibrant creative and reeks of comic inspiration. With lots of shot that is meant to mimic the look of a comic book, like panel screen with multiple boxes on the screen, or text bubbles, effects that are seamlessly blended with the movie. Lately, plenty of animated CGI movies have somewhat looked similar since having good CGI is no longer impressive. It seems like lots of animated CGI movies do not have their own self of style and is just copying Pixar look for the most part with some differences. So the CGI in this movie is refreshing since it does not really look like any animated CGI movie I have seen. It feels unique, and show that CGI animated movie does not have to look like Pixar. Especially love some of the different styles for the different Spiderman that do add a unique charm to their characters. As far as the actual animation, for the most part, it is great, especially with the action. I mean the action is just amazing, well choreographed, taking advantage of all the cool stuff you can do with Spiderman. From lots of cool web-slinging, acrobat, wall climbing, they take advantage, and just the advantage you can do with animation. I mean Spiderman has never looked better and sleeker in his action scene. Especially when you add multiverse chaos in the mix, is just a blast. That being said, there are definitely some instances where the movie felt like it was lagging. Like almost as if I was watching it on the internet and for some reason it loses frame rate, but that just how the movie looks. Someone made a conscious decision to put that much frame rate, and there was one instance where it just made me nauseous watching it. I mean it was just him walking and not an important scene, but still nauseous nevertheless. But again it was like only two small scene where it bothers me, and for the most part, I got used to the animation. As overall the movie is just a visual wonder of a comic book being brought to life via animation.

By the way a quick side note. The Sony advertisement is sort of blatant. I mean is a Sony movie, so its to be expected, but just thought to mention it. Also, the soundtrack manages to be really great and fit the characters. Showing that Sony music rights have its advantages.

The movie manages to be a refreshing superhero origin story that takes full advantage of being animated. Giving us a likable lead, along with other likable characters. Unlike Spiderman Homecoming which felt refreshing for being a smaller movie, the movie manage to be refreshing for being a big Spiderman movie. With the movie being a good balance of humor and action with a good amount of dark moment. Is just overall a fantastic movie with just some slight flaws and I give this an A.

Also, the end credit is hilarious. I mean you can tell the people who work on it really love the Spiderman property.