Film review: Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse
Share:
Well, folks, when mid-December arrived, I thought my 2018 top ten was basically locked-in. How wrong I was.
Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse is an animated movie from Sony. I know, I thought the same thing. It features Miles Morales, a young man who involves himself in an inter-dimensional adventure with different versions of Spider-man from different universes. It’s a plot that’s very easy to follow but deceptively difficult to explain in a succinct review.
This movie is ruddy fantastic. I enjoyed every second that it was on screen. The animation is appropriately spectacular and all the voice performers are on top of their game. Never before have I felt like I was watching an actual comic book play out on screen.
The film appears committed to doing away with any repetition of previous Spider-Man media. With that goal, comes the inclusion of some of the weirdest stuff you’ll ever see in a superhero movie. Who would have thought watching things including (but are not limited to) a sad, divorced Spider-Man, a futuristic anime gender-swapped Spider-Man and a Spider-Man who is literally a pig would be enjoyable? His name is Peter Porker. This movie fully embraces the insanity of comic book writers tripping on mushrooms and is all the more glorious for it.
Lord and Miller of The Lego Movie fame produced this and they stamped their influence onto it. The film is consistently funny and occasionally reputation-breakingly hysterical. In particular, the post-credit scene had me incontinent with laughter.
Erm… I’m not sure there’s a lot more I can say. It’s a tightly written, flawlessly performed, gorgeously realised story that is as discombobulatingly fresh as it is grin-inducingly exciting. If it wasn’t for Infinity War‘s slight edging on character stakes, I would have a new favorite 2018 movie.