Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse opened on December 12th, 2018. At the time, there were a bunch of popular films that crowded the landscape including The Grinch (Illumination), Ralph Breaks the Internet and Creed II. At that point, I don’t think anyone really expected an off-shoot Spider-Man animated movie to make the buzz that it did. But it succeeded and then some. It went on to make ~$385 million at the global box office and eventually a sequel came out five years later. However, not all sequels impress and this one boasted a near two hours and almost twenty minutes of run time. Is it any good? In short, it’s freaking amazing. Let’s take a look.
Earth-65. Gwen Stacy (voiced by Hailee Steinfeld) also known as Spider-Gwen or Ghost Spider if you prefer is hitting the drums. However, when she goes a bit overboard, her band-mates notice and ask her what exactly she is doing. Gwen tries to explain that she thought getting into a band was to hit things. Her band-mates continue to protest and Gwen does the sensible thing any misunderstood musician tends to do. She quits the band and decides to head on home. This might be the time for some recap of past events.
Since Gwen is the Spider superhero on this Earth, Peter Parker did not have such powers. Therefore, he was bullied constantly despite being defended by Gwen. Eventually he stole a formula from Dr. Curtis Connors and turned himself into the Lizard. Naturally Gwen and the Lizard battled. But the next thing we know is that a webbing goes wrong and a metal tower falls on Peter and accidentally kills him. Death returns Peter to his human form and that’s when Police Captain Stacy (voiced by Shea Whigham) discovers the pair with Gwen leaning over to mourn her friend. He assumes that Ghost Spider is actually a murderer. Hence the “manhunt” is on and Gwen runs from the scene, unable to tell her dad the truth.
However, Gwen still lives at home with her father which produces some tense moments until a police call comes in. It seems that the Vulture is on the loose and is tearing up Manhattan. This does not appear to be Earth-65’s Vulture but in fact a Vulture from some other Earth. At some point, a portal opens up and out pops two new Spider characters, the first being a Spider-Woman of Earth 404 named Jessica Drew (voiced by Issa Rae) who is also very pregnant. The second is known as Spider-Man (2099) of Earth 928 or Miguel O’Hara (voiced by Oscar Isaac). They help to fight off the Vulture but in the process, Gwen is arrested by her father even after she reveals her secret identity to him. Spider-Woman and Miguel decide to step in and free her and make her part of their group of dimensional travelers.
Meanwhile, back on Earth 1610, we see the new villain named The Spot (voiced by Jason Schwartzman) try to rob an ATM. He has a very special power that allows him to create portals and use that in this case to steal money. But he isn’t very good at it. Miles Morales (voiced by Shameik Moore) intervenes and the two battle with eventually Spider-Man grabbing the upper hand. He is able to capture the Spot in his webbing using the portals against the villain. It looks though that Miles is late for a school meeting with his folks and the principal so he has to leave this creature all tied-up.
Eventually, the Spot is able to free himself and tries to figure out a way to get more spots to create his portals. This attracts the attention of the dimensional travelers. Spider-Gwen is sent in to Earth 1610 to investigate this situation. However, she decides to pay a visit to her friend Miles Morales first, something that her fellow Spider people do not want her to do. But this sets off a chain of events which could change the fabric of the Spider-Verse forever. Will Miles and Gwen be able to save their worlds once again? And do we get introduced to a whole lot more Spider-people?
To answer the second question, yes we get a ton of new Spider-people. Arguably the best two are Spider-Man/Pavitr Prabhakar of Earth-50101 (voiced by Karan Soni) and Spider-Punk/Hobie Brown of Earth 138 (voiced by Daniel Kaluuya). We shouldn’t gloss over the fact that there is now a Spider-Cat (Earth-999) too. In fact, if you can dream it up, it probably exists somewhere in the Spider-Person canon and reflected here in some shape or form. I could honestly spend the rest of the review talking about the various Spider-cameos and I wouldn’t even scratch the surface. Hobie Brown is easily the best new favorite character. He looks like someone merged a Spider-Man and Lenny Kravitz with the attitude of the anti-establishment I don’t give two beeps and going to do things my way (which really is Lenny after all, ain’t it?). Can he get a spinoff?
Anyway, going back to the first question I presented regarding saving the world, the short answer is I don’t know. See, viewers should know up front is that this has a built in sequel. In fact, unless you are paying attention, the film ends rather abruptly with “To Be Continued”. This thankfully won’t turn into a Golden Compass since the follow-up film is already made (should be coming out in March 2024) and second, this film is already making a whole crapload of box office bank so far (~$120 million domestically in its first week). But that can still be potentially jarring for someone walking into the theater expecting a stand-alone Spider-Man film. I will say that despite the two hour and fifteen minute running time, it goes by pretty fast and doesn’t leave much time for anything that doesn’t move the story forward.
This film is also quite a bit more serious in mood. Sure we have some wonderful comedic moments with Spider-Punk or the return of Peter B. Parker (Earth-616) (voiced by Jake Johnson) but that comedy calms down pretty quickly and we get a very stern Spider-Man movie. Spider-Man 2099/Miguel O’Hara is not a nice or joking character, in fact he acts more as an antagonist in the film than the main villain does, The Spot (though I expect that dynamic to change some by the third film). Furthermore, there is some very heavy subject matter that might be off-putting to some parents. That probably explains why Spider-Man Noir and Spider-Ham are cameos at best. But it’s that heaviness that produces a lot of thrilling moments and dare I say some rather weepy scenes that will make your heart flutter at the appropriate times too.
The best thing that the film does is making the next 10-12 months seem like an eternity. I know for a fact that not my wife nor my son would have any problem saying next week to see the follow up to this incredible movie. By comparison, I enjoyed the Super Mario movie quite a bit, but if I don’t see it or the sequel for 2-3 years, I don’t feel like I am missing anything. I want to see this film again, I want to go back and watch Into the Spider-Verse, and I want to go see Beyond the Spider-Verse tomorrow. It is a film that is fantastic on so many levels that it begs follow up viewings as soon as possible.
This film is probably the easiest recommendation I’ve had all year whether it’s at the theaters or housed on a physical disc. Sure, the “To Be Continued” can be frustrating. Not all of the Spider-people are that interesting (Spider-Woman/Jessica Drew is something of a misfire). But somewhere between the wonderful new characters, thrilling moments, and a movie that moves quite fast despite its run-time is a film that should be up for animated film of the year. Heck, to me it is the film of the year. However, I’m saving that 10 for what I’m hoping is Beyond the Spider-Verse in about a year. I just hope I’m not setting myself up for disappointment. Anyway, go see this movie. Enjoy.
| Overall: |  (9.5 / 10) |
