{"id":6600,"date":"2018-12-12T17:29:28","date_gmt":"2018-12-12T22:29:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/?p=6600"},"modified":"2018-12-13T12:43:05","modified_gmt":"2018-12-13T17:43:05","slug":"review-spider-man-into-the-spider-verse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/?p=6600","title":{"rendered":"Review: SPIDER-MAN: INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A joyous and super-saturated superhero celebration, \u201cSpider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse\u201d is a wonderful extension of the comic book form.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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It\u2019s surprising to say, but after taking in this animated adventure, I have to admit that we\u2019ve obviously not seen enough superhero movies, and in particular films involving or spun off from \u201cSpider-Man\u201d comics. And this one comes from the pen of Phil Lord, the writer who helped bring Lego toys fabulously to the big screen. His complex script is an innovative combination of the various incarnations of characters inspired by Peter Parker and his wall-crawling alter ego created originally by the late Stan Lee. \u201cSpider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse\u201d is flat-out terrific and should bring a tear to the eye of anyone who grew up immersed in all things Spidey. And by anyone, I mean me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story here is pretty densely plotted, but it hangs together nicely. On Miles Moreales\u2019 Earth, Peter Parker is a 26-year-old crime fighter loved by the city he protects. The story centers on the teenaged Miles (voiced by Shameik Moore), a fan of the webbed crusader (not the caped one, which serves as a funny meta joke). He\u2019s forced by his police officer father, who doesn\u2019t like the spider vigilante, to attend a private high school. Miles might be a cool kid in his neighborhood, but while in boarding school, he finds it hard to fit in. And when he\u2019s not attending class, he likes to visit his cool Uncle Aaron (voice of Mahershala Ali), who encourages him to explore his artistic side.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Miles Morales (Shameik Moore), Peter Parker (Jake Johnson), Spider-Gwen (Hailee Steinfeld), Spider-Man Noir (Nicolas Cage), Peni Parker (Kimiko Glenn) and Spider-Man (John Mulaney) in Columbia Pictures and Sony Pictures Animation’s SPIDER-MAN: INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

One night, while painting graffiti in an abandoned subway terminal with his Uncle, Miles is bitten by a radioactive spider. And, well, you can already guess what happens. But that\u2019s the fun here, as Miles adjusts to his strange abilities, some of which are completely new to traditional Spider-Man fans, we learn that Wilson \u201cThe Kingpin\u201d Fisk (perfectly voiced by Liev Schreiber) is funding some scientific experiments that might bridge several parallel universes. And when Spider-Man interferes with one of those experiments, doors are opened bringing several different versions of the friendly neighborhood Spider-Man into Mile\u2019s world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you\u2019re a big fan of Marvel\u2019s various spider spin offs, this is the film for you. My days of collecting and reading the comic were in the 1980s, and I do have old issues of Spider-Ham, but some of the other versions of the character were new discoveries for me. Like Spider-Man Noir, voiced by an ultra dry and super cool Nicolas Cage. We get Peni Parker and her spider robot, as well. We meet a spidered up Gwen Stacy (voice of Hailee Steinfeld). And we get two Peter Parkers\u2014the younger one voiced by Chris Pine and an older, dad-bod one voiced with glee by Jake Johnson. Okay, the older one has the name Peter B. Parker, and despite his great powers and waning wit, he\u2019s kind of a loser\u2014such fun.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Animation styles collide wonderfully .<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This movie is a fantastic kaleidoscope of computer generated animation. Colors and styles are mixed and collide with reckless abandon. There is little that isn\u2019t tried and flaunted, making this an innovative approach to the animated format. For example, Peni Parker (voice of Kimiko Glenn) is presented in Manga and Spider-Ham (John Mulaney) looks like a Warner Brothers Looney Tunes character. These characters occupy the same film canvas. It\u2019s wacky, but it works, and there\u2019s little adjustment to the clash of styles needed. At times, the animation is so deep and layered, I wondered if it was approaching some kind of 3D without glasses. It\u2019s just marvelous.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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An alternate-universe New York City but still apart of the comic book format. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

But as good as the animation is, without a meaningful extension of the original Spider-Man story, \u201cSpider-Verse\u201d would be just a gimmick. This is where the magic happens. By relying on the comic format, sometimes using comic book frames and framing to articulate backstories and narrative threads, we learn about each of the characters and their motivations. This is built around the youngest member of the spider club, Miles, who is finding himself, both as a superhero and as a young man. And as he struggles to become a hero, he also has to deal with what this means for his relationship with his mother and father. Stan Lee\u2019s focus on giving us characters with extraordinary abilities, but with very ordinary and relatable real world problems is not forgotten by Lord\u2019s script. The imperfect human being that is Miles is a fitting successor to Peter Parker\u2019s legacy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Miles Morales (Shameik Moore) inherits Peter Parker’s legacy.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

One of the best animated films of 2018, \u201cSpider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse\u201d is a new superhero franchise that I\u2019m eager to see expand. It\u2019s the fresh jolt that comic book movies needed as fatigue sets in. This is a movie that proves that there\u2019s no such thing as too much Spider-Man.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jonathan gushes over the latest evolution in the Spider-Man universe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6600","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews","no-thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6600","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6600"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6600\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6636,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6600\/revisions\/6636"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6600"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6600"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6600"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}