Movie Review: “Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse” May Be The Best Superhero Film Yet

Miles Morales becomes the Spider-Man of his reality and crosses paths with his counterparts from other dimensions to stop a threat to all reality.

Just when I began to wish a radioactive spider sunk its poisonous fangs into my flesh so I wouldn’t have to endure another Spider-Man film – or any superhero feature, for that matter – out comes the uber-kinetic, subversive, paradigm-shifting “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” – and it’s animated! When I first saw the trailer, I thought, “This looks like a Cartoon Network spin-off, a made-for-TV feature that got the big-screen treatment due to its central protagonist’s enduring popularity.” Boy, was I wrong. “SM:ITSV” is meant to be seen on the largest possible screen, preferably in 3-D (yes, I said it), and preferably more than once, to catch all of its nuances, visual gags and moments of wit and poignancy to rival any of the previous Spidey installments, including the much-heralded “Spider-Man 2.”

Produced by Phil Lord and Chris Miller, the duo behind “The Lego Movie,” “SM:ITSV” has the same aesthetic, a stop-motion/CGI/hand-drawn animation style, but taken to a whole new level. Each frame contains so much visual candy, your eyes may as well be on aquarelle fire. No wonder the film required three directors – Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey, and Rodney Rothman – to ensure this colorful chaos is organized. The decision to animate proved to be ingenious, as it allows for an insane amount of impossible-in-real-life shots, cuts, zooms and perspectives, and imbues the film with an overall authentic comic-book feel, previously unmatched by any Marvel or DC feature. Panels slip into each other, pages flip on-screen, the fourth wall is destroyed, and it’s all a jolly blast.

In terms of tone, think a kid-friendly “Deadpool,” without the vulgarity or utter reliance on meta-references. This alternate-dimension Spidey, named Miles Morales (voiced by Shameik Moore) is sardonic, insecure, flawed but ultimately heroic – oh, and he just happens to be black, which the film addresses eloquently and subtly, as opposed to making diversity its Central Theme. Miles’ origin story is just different enough to pique our interest – and then he encounters all the parallel dimension Spideys, which includes an arrested-development loser (a hilarious Jake Johnson), a young girl getting over her friend’s death (Hailee Steinfeld, potentially returning in the anticipated all-female Spidey sequels), a somber Spider-Man Noir (Nic Cage having an absolute blast) and the film’s biggest scene stealer, the Looney Tunes drop-out Spider-Man/Peter Porker (John Mulaney). Every time I thought things couldn’t get any funnier or trippier, here came Porker and his impromptu, spot-on delivery.

Forming a team, all the Spideys now have to confront the evil Wilson Fisk (Liev Schreiber), as reality crumbles around them, all of their worlds collapsing on each other. Fisk, aka Kingpin, actually has a legit, tragic background as opposed to just being a run-of-the-mill villain. That said, the actual plot comes second to the film’s visuals, its sheer number of gags and messages, those of love and perseverance and not giving up, not to mention the importance of family and embracing diversity. None of this is shoved down your throat, by the way. Startling, I know.

The film’s main message – essentially, that we are all Spider-Man – is shockingly simple and even more shockingly effective. It side-steps melodrama and excessive sentimentality in favor of something real that truly resonates. It brims with love for the source material, but also respect for its audience – it’s been a while since I had attended a more boisterously cheerful press screening. The Q&A with the filmmaking crew just further reaffirmed what “SM:ITSV” makes abundantly clear: that when entertainment elevates instead of pandering, when real challenges are met and overcome in the production process to achieve the best possible result, when so much real love is invested into a project as opposed to tailor-making it to appease the widest-possible demographic, that’s when near-masterpieces such as this slip through the cracks. Before seeing “SM:ITSV,” I would have paid to not be subjected to another Spider-Man movie. Remarkably, I now can’t wait for the next one.

In theaters Friday, December 14th