I was lucky enough to attend an early screening of Sony's new animated film, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and thought I'd share my thoughts with my readers. Beware, there will be SPOILERS from here on out!
Plot
To begin with, this is Miles' film. Despite the ensemble of strange and wacky Spider-folk seen in the trailers, the movie maintains a focus on young Miles Morales and his personal struggles. Miles is a gifted teen having a hard time fitting in at his new school. He misses his old school, is at odds with his police officer father Jefferson Davis who disapproves of Miles' sticker tagging and graffiti art and discourages him from hanging out with Aaron Davis, Miles' uncle. Yearning to return to his former school and feeling he doesn't belong at his new school, Miles is late for class and meets a new student (secretly Gwen Stacy of another universe) before intentionally failing his test. With the pressures of home and school getting to him, Miles goes to his Uncle Aaron's apartment to avoid his responsibility and blow off some steam. To encourage Miles, Aaron takes him to a hidden subway tunnel owned by Alchemax so he can practise his graffiti. A strange spider bites Miles and he awakes the next day to discover he has grown in height and developed spider-powers.
After a day filled with embarrassment and misunderstandings, Miles returns to where he was bitten by the spider only to discover Spider-Man battling a Green Goblin in a massive cavernous chamber nearby containing a giant device. Spider-Man saves Miles and the two realize they are connected when their spider-senses go off simultaneously. When Spider-Man is left severely injured following an explosion, he tasks Miles with shutting down the device using a flash drive. However, Miles is forced to leave when the Kingpin shows up, unmasks Spider-Man as Peter Parker and brutally kills him. Kingpin sends one of his enforcers, The Prowler to hunt down and kill the unseen witness and retrieve the flash drive. Narrowly escaping his assailant, Miles returns home where his parents watch the news report on Spider-Man's death.
The three Spideys head to Aunt May's home in Queens, who reveals they aren't the only ones who thought to come to her seeking help. In a secret base under the garden shed, we meet Spider-Man Noir, Peni Parker aka SP//dr and Spider-Ham who all relate similar stories. The group devise a plan to return to Fisk's collider, with Miles volunteering to send all the others home, but the others question his abilities and lack of experience. Upset, Miles runs away and tries to visit his Uncle Aaron, only to discover Aaron is the Prowler. Returning to the others just as they are all attacked by Kingpin's enforcers; Scorpion, Tombstone, Doc Ock and Prowler. The Spideys fight off the villains but when Miles reveals his identity to the Prowler, Aaron's hesitation leads the Kingpin shooting him.
As Aaron lays dying, he tells Miles he believes he was meant for great things. Miles' father Jefferson finds his brother Aaron dead and initially blames Spider-Man. When the Spider-team regroup, they console Miles by telling him about their own lost loved ones. When they make to leave, Peter tells Miles he'll be taking his place to ensure the others make it home, essentially sacrificing himself due to his alternate-world body being incompatible with Miles' universe. Miles protests but is webbed to a chair and gagged as the group leaves for the final showdown. Jefferson visits Miles to tell him about his uncle's death. Speaking through the door to Miles, Jefferson tell him how proud he is of him and how he knows he'll do great things in the world. Inspired, Miles breaks free, finally controlling his powers and heads to Aunt May's to get a costume before heading to Alchemax.
At Alchemax, the team of Spidey's battle Kingpin's enforcers as the collider is turned on. Working together, they take down Doctor Octopus, Tombstone and Scorpion. Jefferson arrives on the scene amid the devastation when the device causes multiple worlds to converge in the same location. Sending the alternate world Spider-People home one by one, Miles is stopped from shutting the device down when the Kingpin himself attacks him. Driven on by the rage of losing his family yet again, the Kingpin savagely beats Miles until Miles- spurred on by his father's words- turns the tables on Kingpin using his electrical 'venom blast' to render him unconscious. Miles shuts down the collider, saving the day and leaves Kingpin suspended in a giant web. Later, as he lays down, Miles seemingly hears Gwen Stacy's voice across dimensions.
In a post-credits scene in the year 2099, virtual assistant Lyla informs Miguel O'Hara that he missed the events of the film by two hours. Unperturbed, Miguel suits up as Spider-Man 2099 to test a dimensional travel device, journeying to Earth-67. There Miguel encounters the Spider-Man of the 1967 cartoon and the two Spider-Men point at one another in an obvious reference to the internet meme.
My Thoughts
First off, I loved this movie. This is exactly what the Dan Slott's Spider-Verse should have been. It was fun, sometimes lighthearted yet always maintained the emotional core of the characters. Furthermore, for the first time ever, I thoroughly enjoyed Miles Morales as a protagonist. He was both likeable and relatable without being too generic. Little touches with Miles and his mother and father as well as his uncle really demonstrated why we the audience should be invested in what happens to him. Seeing Miles' reluctance to attend his new school, his love of music and his artistic talents helped make him more of a well-rounded and fully realize character.
The music throughout the film was so well bedded into the aesthetics of the film that they never awkwardly stood out, which I consider a high-point of any score. Additionally, I think the integration of Miles' own love of music into aspects of the plot was a nice touch. Each characters theme really meshed with their personality.
The voice cast was stellar, from Shameik Moore's scrawny Mile Morales to Zoe Kravitz as a mourning Mary Jane to Liev Shreiber as the towering Kingpin, everyone sounded pitch perfect. I was initially not won over by Jake Johnson's performance as Peter Parker in the trailers but after watching the film, I can admit I was wrong to doubt him. He portrayed a world-weary, past his prime Spider-Man, whereas Chris Pine was able to deliver a more youthful and optimistic Peter Parker from Miles' own world.
The absolute highlight for the film has to be it's unique animation style. This movie is gorgeous. I have never seen such a perfect rendition of a comic book universe on screen before. I don't know how they did it, but the marrying of various techniques made every frame of this film completely stunning. I can't praise it enough. If the rumours are true, I look forward to seeing more of this in the future.
While I thoroughly enjoyed this movie, I would like to talk about the few things I didn't like 100%. Firstly, some of the villains designs left we cold, most notably the Kingpin. He's supposed to be towering and imposing and threatening but I found it hard to take him seriously whenever I saw a shot of him from the back because his shoulders are about two feet above his head. A more nitpicky thing was the inclusion of the Green Goblin as apparently just Kingpin's hired muscle who seemingly dies in the beginning of the movie. Come on guys, he's the Green Goblin! I also didn't particularly like the idea of Peter Parker having a 'Spider-Cave' with various gadgets and costumes in display cases. This isn't Batman and Tony Stark's influence shouldn't be anywhere near this film.
Now, onto the stuff I loved! I loved that we got not one but two Peter Parkers who were married to Mary Jane. There's a definite positive change in the way the Spider-Marriage is portrayed this year. I also enjoyed seeing the older alternate Peter's emotional journey through the movie. Even though it was used for comedic purposes at times, it never undercut the character and seeing him attempt to rekindle things with his own Mary Jane was a perfect ending to his arc. The different personalities of the various Spider-People helped make them distinct and gave them all something to add. That said, I think mainly focusing on Miles and the older Peter was a good move, because their relationship is integral to the films plot. The decision to introduce three of the Spider-People later in the film worked to it's advantage and we saw just enough of SP//dr, Spider-Man Noir and Spider-Ham for them to not overstay their welcome without being redundant. Despite my dislike of the Spider-Gwen character, I think her inclusion here worked because she wasn't pushed as the best character ever, just another person with spider-powers. Coupled with her fledgling relationship with Miles that began early in the film and her not being overused to the detriment of others, I kinda like the character now, at least the film version.
Oh, and the post-credits scene actually had me laughing out loud. More Miguel next time, Sony. Please?
Until I get another opportunity to see a movie early, I remain
frogoat
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