It’s been awhile, but I felt the need to post a review of ‘Spider-man: Into the Spider-verse’ because of how impressed I was by the latest offering into the over commercialized and saturated Spider-Man (and super-hero) movie world. It seems like a Spider-man movie or reboot is released every year. I will state from the outset that this film is a gift to the comic nerd community and may not be for everyone. Due to film copyright issues, Sony has tried to cash in on the Marvel success by attempting to create a Spider-man shared cinematic universe franchise of their own and each offering has been increasingly dismal. I felt after this year’s horrific ‘Venom’ (where Spider-man wasn’t even mentioned) that they had truly hit rock bottom and were counting their blessings that Marvel’s studio acquisition of their film division would end their hardships. The Spider-Man franchise descent truly is an example of a movie Studio that had no concept of what makes super-hero movies magic and the only respect they had for the iconic property was the money they thought it could generate.
So I digress: A recent trend in comics has been the advent of SJW writers and artists who have sought to diversify comics (That is a worthy goal, but not by destroying iconic characters IMHO). There has been everything from female Thors to Asian Hulks to a multitude of Captain America personas. The momentary uptick in sales for each title, based on the novelty, quickly fades and the result is Marvel increasingly struggling with sales and angry fans who don’t like Marvel canon being messed with. The notable exception to this was the introduction of Miles Morales as an African-hispanic Spider-Man. One cannot predict how or when mojo will strike when creating characters, but Miles struck a cord and has been a popular part of the Marvel universe ever since. Again, IMHO, the vast majority of people don’t care whether a character is politically correct or what their ethnic background is, they care whether or not the story is engaging and the character is endearing. Miles Morales ascended from this quagmire virtue signaling to where Sony decided to try him out in his own movie (albeit it an animated one separate from the rest of the continuum).
I will grant that one of Marvel’s biggest current flaws with it’s iconic characters is that they were mostly invented in the 60’s and 70’s. Their origin stories are starting to lose relevance and connection with audiences that are now several generations removed. What I feel the Miles Morales character does effectively is modernize the Spider-Man story while maintaining what made Spider-Man so relatable in the past. And I love that they resisted the urge to go dark with the storylines which all other franchises seems to be doing. Miles reflects the original Spider-Man’s hopeful and youthful exuberance that made the comic fun to read.
I’m not a big fan of animation and the strides in effects over the last couple decades have been so incredible that nothing from an animation point of view really impresses me anymore. That being said, I approached this with some trepidation. I’m glad to say ‘Spider-man: Into the Spider-verse’ exceeded my expectations and I’m thrilled that the franchise found a unique voice outside what they have been trying to do. This does not feel like a Marvel movie. As much as I love what Marvel has done, this is a fresh take and feel that still delivers on all the action, humor, and emotion one comes to expect from Marvel. I must say this is a unique style of animation, which I found initially distracting, but I soon was able to get past that and release myself into the story.
The concept of the ‘multi-verse’ was created, so writers would have freedom to create storylines and characters outside the normal continuum of the shared universe concept. You can make new characters, or have interesting twists of events, or explore all sorts of ‘What if’ possibilities. Eventually, some stories became so popular that fans would want them to cross over into the normal Marvel universe. Miles Morales was one such character from the Ultimates universe. Miles Morales offered a more modern and diverse take on modern New York that rang truer than the traditional Spider-man.
The origin story is similar, but in ‘Spider-man-Into the Spider-verse’ we see an aging and disillusioned Peter Parker finding himself drawn into another universe by a device created by the Kingpin who is trying to bring back his lost wife and child (sounds complicated I know, but it makes sense when you are watching it). Peter immediately identifies with Miles, his other universe counter part, and reluctantly takes on the role of mentor. To make matters more fun and confusing, a variety of other Spider heroes are drawn from other universes. From the charming, to the silly, to the down right weird, they all team up to take on the Kingpin and his henchmen to prevent the ultimate destruction of their universes and to find a way back to each of their own universes. Like I said, it sounds complicated, but makes sense as you watch.
This is one case where I hope Marvel passes the Spider-Man mantle on to Miles from the ‘Archie comicsesque’ storyline of the original. I think this film is a good start at introducing the new character to the masses and do it in a unique way that doesn’t affect the current MCU storyline. I hope Marvel explore other options like this that is separate from the style and current storylines of the current universe they have created. Comics has rich and varied genres and the movies should reflect that freedom. Sincere gratitude for being able to breathe fresh life into a stale property.
I giver this film *** 1/2 stars out of 5
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