I’ve mentioned many times on the blog that, while I enjoy movies based on comic books, I am not an expert in superhero lore.
So it was with some trepidation that I went into the animated movie “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” because I was concerned it would be too “inside baseball” for casual fans of Spidey.
Where do I start...
First of all, “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” likely isn’t for everyone. Fans of the webbed hero — along with comic book and animation junkies — will find a lot of interesting things to chew on in the film.
The story follows Miles Morales (voiced by Shameik Moore) — a teenager struggling to fit in at his boarding school, working to meet his parents’ expectations, and finding his way in the world.
He has a passion for graffiti, something his Uncle Aaron (Mahershala Ali) encourages and facilitates. It is on a graffiti excursion in the bowels of a subway station that Miles is bitten by a radioactive spider.
Miles’s subsequent investigation into the bite leads him back to the subway station, where he inadvertently discovers a lab with a particle accelerator (the property of villain Wilson Fisk) that gives access to parallel universes.
This eventually leads (after quite a bit of exposition) to various incarnations of Spider-Man (including a girl, a pig, an anime character, and a noir character) banding together to save New York City.
For an animated movie, there is a lot of meat to the story. My mind might have wandered a time or two during "Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse" (that isn’t meant as a judgment, a short-attention span is just an affliction I occasionally suffer from).
The animation style — which tries to look like an old, four-color comic that was printed on an offset press — is clever, but somewhat distracting on the large screen.
I’ve watched trailers and clips for the movie on my 12.9-inch iPad Pro (Retina display) and my 50-inch Vizio 4K UHD TV, and the look of the film wasn’t bad at all. But on a large screen, the style (at times) kind of left me scratching my head.
For those who haven’t seen the film, I’m sure my comments on the animation style are about as clear as mud. But many of you are probably familiar with the “dot-screens” and “line screens” in older comic books where the cyan, magenta, yellow and black ink doesn’t quite line up.
They try to replicate that look in the film, along with background images that are intentionally “blurred” to give it a hand-drawn look and feel.
For some reason, that took me out of the story. There were moments where it felt like a 3D movie when you momentarily take the 3D glasses off.
That said, there was some beautifully rendered artwork, and the concept of uniting various incarnations of Spider-Man in one story was novel and enjoyable.
I liked the idea of Gwen Stacy (Hailee Steinfeld) as “Spider-Gwen” and I loved Nicolas Cage as “Spider-Man Noir” (that character should get a movie all his own, in my opinion).
I didn’t always love the “Peter Porker / Spider-Ham” character in the film, but there were some funny slices. (My friend Barb loves comedian John Mulaney, who voices the pig).
I didn’t get into the anime character of Peni Parker and her spider robot thing at all. Then again, I'm not really an anime fan, so it's possible I just didn't get it.
The brains behind the “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” are talented screenwriters Phil Lord and Christopher Miller — the pair dismissed from Disney’s “Solo: A Star Wars Story” project back in 2017 (kind of makes me wonder what their version of “Solo” would have looked like).
Overall, I enjoyed the “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” because it was something different. It is nice to see a studio do an animated film that isn’t trying to appeal to the under-12 set. For that, Sony should be commended.
It almost made me wonder what a live-action version of “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” — with the same plot lines and characters — would be like. The more I’ve thought about the concept, the more I think it could work.
Sony has done a lot with the Spider-Man character the past 15 years, and those projects have sometimes felt stale and repetitive (although, I loved 2017’s “Spider-Man: Homecoming” and thought it was a nice refresh of the series).
“Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” works on the premise that anyone can be Spider-Man and bear that mantel. It’s an interesting concept that should be explored more.
The movie just won the Golden Globe for “Best Motion Picture - Animated,” so there must be something to all the praise.
I thought “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” was an interesting diversion. It is a very specific movie that won’t appeal to everyone. But, if you’re a superhero fan (and who isn’t these days), then you might find it a fun entry into the lexicon.
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