Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
| ♥ | This article is dedicated to both our comic book writer, editor, publisher and producer, Stan Lee (December 28, 1922 – November 12, 2018), and Steve Ditko (November 2, 1927 – June 29, 2018). |
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 CAN'T STOP ME NOW!
- Lyrics of What's Up, Danger? | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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"Okay, let's do this one last time, yeah? For real this time. This is it. My name is Miles Morales. I was bitten by a radioactive spider. And for like two days, I've been the one and only Spider-Man. I think you know the rest. I finished my essay. I saved a bunch of people. Got hit by a drone. Did this with my dad. Met my roommate finally. Slapped a sticker where my Dad's never going to find it. And when I feel alone, like no one understands what I'm going through, I remember my friends who get it. I never thought I'd be able to do any of this stuff. But I can. Anyone can wear the mask. You can wear the mask. If you didn't know that before, I hope you do now. Cuz I'm Spider-Man. And I'm not the only one. Not by a long shot"
— Miles Morales
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse is a 2018 American computer-animated superhero film featuring the Marvel Comics character Miles Morales, produced by Columbia Pictures and Sony Pictures Animation in association with Marvel. Distributed by Sony Pictures Releasing, it is the first animated film in the Spider-Man franchise. Directed by Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey, and Rodney Rothman (in Persichetti and Rothman's feature directorial debuts) from a screenplay by Phil Lord and Rothman, it stars Shameik Moore as Miles Morales / Spider-Man, alongside the voices of Jake Johnson, Hailee Steinfeld, Mahershala Ali, Brian Tyree Henry, Lily Tomlin, Luna Lauren Velez, John Mulaney, Kimiko Glenn, Nicolas Cage, and Liev Schreiber. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse premiered at the Regency Village Theater in Los Angeles on December 1, 2018, and was theatrically released in the United States on December 14, in Dolby Cinema, RealD 3D, IMAX 3D, and 4DX formats. A sequel, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, was released on June 2, 2023, and a spin-off film is also in development.
Plot
Bitten by a radioactive spider in the subway, Brooklyn teenager Miles Morales suddenly develops mysterious powers that transform him into the one and only Spider-Man. When he meets Peter Parker, he soon realizes that there are many others who share his special, high-flying talents. Miles must now use his newfound skills to battle the evil Kingpin, a hulking madman who can open portals to other universes and pull different versions of Spider-Man into our world.
Why It Goes Into the Spider-Verse
- The movie acknowledges from the start that there have been too many adaptations of Peter Parker's Spider-Man already, and instead focuses on Miles Morales' Spider-Man which hadn't really been done before.
- The animation, although it can be slightly choppy and distorted at times, is absolutely amazing, very attractive, breathtaking and outstanding. It truly feels like it's an animated comic book, with loud and gorgeous use of color and even several different styles blended with spectacular results (like anime in the form of Peni Parker and SP//Dr., a Looney Tunes style cartoon in the form of Spider-Ham, and a gritty film noir with Spider-Man Noir). The designs of Peni, Spider-Ham, and Spider-Man Noir don't even look too out of place either and instead blend in. This movie was the one that caused films like The Bad Guys and The Mitchells vs. the Machines to have a similar approach to the visuals.
- Aaron Davis and Jefferson Davis are made more likable and realistic than their comic counterparts, with Jefferson just being a normal police officer instead of a SHIELD agent and Aaron Davis while he's still a cat burglar is still a caring uncle to Miles and his death is well executed and emotional.
- Very likable characters, especially Miles Morales, Peter Parker, Gwen Stacy, Spider-Ham, Spider-Man Noir, and Peni Parker.
- Miles' personality and origin are changed so he doesn't feel too much like Peter, unlike the comics where his origin there is pretty much a retread of Peter's.
- The movie portrays the death of the Ultimate Universe's Peter Parker, which is a nice nod to the source material.
- Spider-Ham is a funny comic relief who is extremely well animated.
- To add to that, his backstory was EXTREMELY funny. He was a spider, but he got bitten by a pig, and that turned him into a pig.
- Plus, one should speculate that Spider-Ham, a comic-relief with few powers of cartoon physics, would ruin or downplay emotional scenes, including the one that took place at Miles' apartment after the Prowler's death, but he did not to maintain a balance between comedy, action, and drama in the film.
- He even said the very quote that shook Miles and the Spider-People: "Miles, the hardest thing about this job is... you can't always save everybody", which was executed well enough for a comic-relief to be powerfully heartwarming for a while.
- A special guest appearance by Miguel O'Hara/Spider-Man 2099 (Oscar Isaac's character), who travels to a 1967 New York City and argues with that universe's Spider-Man during the post-credits scene.
- Great voice acting from actors such as Shameik Moore, Hailee Steinfeld, Jake Johnson and Nicolas Cage.
- Compared to most other Sony Pictures Animation films, the casting choice is flawless as it seems that they cast actors based on talent alone rather than celebrity status similar to that of Pixar or Dreamworks.
- Plenty of nice nods to the comics and even the Sam Raimi Spider Man trilogy. They also mocked One More Day (which is universally considered the worst Spider-Man comic to exist).
- There are many great lines, like "There's three, actually", the scene where Peter and Miles sit down and think, Peter's final words in the movie "Not bad, kid" and more famously, the scene where Miles says "Hey".
- Great soundtrack by Daniel Pemberton with songs like "Sunflower", "What's Up Danger", "Hide" and "Scared of the Dark".
- Amazing action scenes. The best one would have to be the final battle with Miles Morales being able to fight well, including the part where he uses his "Hey" attack in front of Kingpin.
- While the movie does focus on the other spider people, they don't steal the spotlight from Miles, giving good representation for the other main characters and the protagonist himself without them hogging the spotlight for marketing purposes which this movie avoids, making Miles' story important to the side characters themselves while still being important to Miles himself.
- The mid-credits scene makes a tribute to the late Stan Lee who died in November and Steve Ditko who died around June.
- Kingpin makes for an entertaining villain while also giving room for other minor villains such as Doctor Octopus, managing to do it right unlike Spider-Man 3 and The Amazing Spider-Man 2.
- Also, his backstory is incredibly sad, when his wife and son realized his violent nature and lead them to die in a car accident.
- The pacing is incredibly excellent.
- The film ends with Miles in his dorm listening to music when a portal suddenly opens up above him, with Gwen's voice asking Miles if he's got a minute, confirming that not only we are getting a sequel, but the part one and two was confirmed for 2023 and (formerly, as Beyond the Spider-Verse was delayed indefinitely) 2024, as what would happen in part one.
- It avoids product placement (besides Sony headphones, but at least Sony is the distributor) (examples being Coca-Cola becomes Koca-Soda, FedEx becomes RedEx, and Google becomes Backrub, Google's original name)
- It manages to be funny, without being too funny, examples being when the security guard tells Miles that he knows he snuck out, and his spider-sense telling him to play dumb, and he asks who's Miles, and the spider-sense tells him "Not that dumb" as well as the album "A Very Spidey Christmas" which is deliberately made to be bad and is a satire of selling out.
- Very good character development. Miles starts out as some introverted teenager, who didn't want to be Spider-Man, but at the end of the film, he becomes a good Spider-Man and enjoys it.
- It subverts the "buddies separate before the third act only to regroup" cliche, because they don't get into an argument, the other Spider-People wanted to keep Miles safe.
- The iconic "What's Up Danger" scene.
- There are some Easter eggs to some of Phil Lord and Chris Miller's works, Most notably Clone High, such as the scene at Time Square where Gwen/Peter B. Parker was explaining their backstories where they were transported to Miles' dimension, you can see a poster featuring JFK and Abe in the background on the far right (which you can see here).
- Another reference to Clone High would be the Spider-Man Christmas Album, which references the JFK Sings the Er-Uh Snowflake Day Hits Album.
- There's also a blink-and-you'll-miss-it cameo from another Lord and Miller film, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, where when the collider is collapsing, you can briefly see the FLDSMDFR being sucked into it.
- Good use of emotional moments like Aaron's death as mentioned before, A conversation between Miles and the rest of the Spider-People involving Aaron's death, SP//dr being destroyed during the final battle which led to Peni crying, and the Spider-People returning to their worlds.
- Stan Lee has a posthumous cameo at one point during the film as a comic shop owner who sells a mask to Miles, as well as voicing J. Jonah Jameson in the post-credits scene.
- Overall, Not only it saved the reputation of Sony Pictures Animation after the infamous Emoji Movie, which caused people to not take them seriously but saved the reputation of Columbia Pictures after their average yet controversial film, Sausage Party.
- Ever since the release of this film, their films have been amazing or at worst, average.
Bad Qualities
- The film isn't suitable for viewers with photosensitive epilepsy due to its constant use of strobe lighting.
- This applies to the Marvel logo playing before the film.
- With so many characters being crammed into the film, including no less than 6 different Spider-People, not everyone gets time to have proper development, and some of the minor characters aren't very fleshed out as a result. Spider-Man Noir, Peni Parker, and Spider-Ham all get pushed into a secondary role and don't get much to shine. This hits especially hard for Noir Spidey, as Peni and Spider-Ham at least got noteworthy scenes in the final battle, Noir doesn't even get that.
- Speaking of Peni, she has been targeted in the new "everything's offensive" craze because her anime aesthetic, being a "genki girl" (bright eyed and happy) and speaking her native language is straight up racist according to this person, who probably watched Beauty and the Beast and had no problem with the gratutious French because they're white. The Asian nerd is a stereotype but it's not racist, and the other tropes are used by Japanese people, and literally she was based on anime, the bright eyed cutie is a common character, and her reputation is great among actual Japanese people.
- Spider-Man's death, while breathtaking, may come across as disrespectful to some Spider-Man fans.
Reception
Critical Reception
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse was universally acclaimed by critics and fans for its animation, direction, characters, story, voice acting, humor, and soundtrack. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 97%, based on 383 reviews, with an average rating of 8.77/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse matches bold storytelling with striking animation for a purely enjoyable adventure with heart, humor, and plenty of superhero action.". On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 87 out of 100, based on 50 critics, indicating "universal acclaim". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film a grade of "A+" on an A+ to F scale, while PostTrak reported filmgoers it surveyed gave it a 90% overall positive score and an 80% "definite recommend," as well as a 5-star rating. It is considered by many to be one of the best films of 2018, let alone the best-animated film of 2018, which was a strong year for animated films with movies such as Isle of Dogs and Incredibles 2, and even the 2010s.
Awards and Nominations
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse won an Academy Award and Golden Globe for Best Animated Feature.
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
The movie has a sequel confirmed and will release on June 2, 2023. The film will be directed by three of them; Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers and Justin K. Thompson. In December 2021, the title was announced for Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, revealing that the third film Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse was set to be released on March 29, 2024, until it was revealed to be removed from the release schedule.
Trivia
- It was the first non-Disney/Pixar film to win the Academy Award for the Best Animated Feature since Rango (2011), as well as the first non-Disney/Pixar film since Happy Feet (2006) to win when a Disney/Pixar film was also in contention—and was similarly successful at the 76th Golden Globe Awards, the 72nd British Academy Film Awards, and the 46th Annie Awards.
- This was the first film to use the current Sony Pictures Animation logo (albeit the variant).
- The producers of the film, Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, are also known for writing and directing The Lego Movie, and 21 Jump Street as well as being to creators behind Clone High.
- Some people also jokingly consider this as Sony's apology after the release of The Emoji Movie.
- Despite the film receiving critical acclaim and being a box office success, it is the lowest-grossing Spider-Man movie to date.
Videos
External Links
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse at the Internet Movie Database
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse on Rotten Tomatoes
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