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It turns out that villains (Liev Schreiber and Kathryn Hahn) have created a device that allows parallel universes to interact with one another, meaning Spider-Men from other worlds find themselves in the same New York City at the same time. Now they must work together to return to their own worlds and prevent an interdimensional catastrophe that could destroy them all.
Into the Spider-Verse isn’t just one of the best Spider-Man movies, it’s one of the most entertaining superhero movies period. That’s primarily because screenwriters Phil Lord and Rodney Rothman, who co-directed with Bob Persichetti and Peter Ramsey, don’t shy away from the heroes’ comic book origins. Instead, they embrace them, integrating the medium’s illustration style and narrative techniques into how they tell the story.
It’s like viewers have been sucked into a comic book rather than seeing one adapted to match our perceptions of the real world. The animation is intentionally two-dimensional rather than the Pixar-style CGI audiences have grown accustomed to. Narration and sound effects often take the form of on-screen text as we move from one scene to the next. Best of all, because the filmmakers and audiences both accept this is a cartoon world, the story is able to go a little bonkers with its characters and take surprising risks with its story.
The plot has genuine stakes, which means some intense action sequences push the boundaries of the movie’s PG rating, especially considering characters don’t always make it through them. My eight-year-old daughter tried to play it cool, but I caught her covering her eyes a few times. I can’t say I blame her.
I particularly love how Into the Spider-Verse seamlessly integrates various interpretations and eras of the Spider-Man mythos, even when it seems like illustration styles wouldn’t fit together. In fact, that jarring mismatch is one of the film’s best attributes. It takes a little while to get used to, but it ends up being a real treat.
You’d never see these endearing oddball characters in a live-action movie, but they make sense here. Jake Johnson is terrific as an overweight, middle-aged Peter B. Parker, and Hailee Steinfeld is so outstanding as Spider-Gwen (aka Gwen Stacy, Peter’s former girlfriend) that the studio is already developing a spin-off around the character.
Nicolas Cage and John Mulaney (one of the best stand-up comedians around) bring the funny as Spider-Man Noir, a black-and-white ’30s-era gumshoe, and Spider-Ham, a Looney Tunes-style cartoon pig. Finally, there’s even an anime teenage girl named Peni Parker (Kimiko Glenn) who has a psychic bond with a radioactive spider that controls a giant robot. I’ll give you a second to read that sentence again. Yeah, it’s weird – and delightfully so.
The rest of the voice cast is equally compelling – especially Moore, who helps make Miles Morales one of the greatest cinematic interpretations of Spider-Man ever. He’s right up there with Tom Holland, who I consider the best.
Brian Tyree Henry and Mahershala Ali are also outstanding as Miles’ police officer father and misguided uncle. (Those two actors are having an incredible fall, considering Henry is also starring in “Widows” and “If Beale Street Could Talk,” while Ali is in the Oscar conversation for his work in “Green Book.”) Heck, even Aunt May (Lily Tomlin) gets a couple of cool hero moments.
Although it’s pretty darn close, Into the Spider-Verse isn’t perfect. Like most modern superhero movies, everything leads to a fight over a glowing doohickey in the sky that will destroy the world unless the good guys can stop it. Granted, the fight is trippy and gloriously animated, but after almost two hours of buildup, it ends up feeling a bit anticlimactic.
The screenplay tries to point out that it’s winking at this convention, as it does with the host of other tropes it subverts along the way, but it’s not quite as successful with this particular cliché. Still the movie recovers nicely after that, wrapping up the story and teasing at some other places the franchise can go if the studio deems it successful enough.
Based on pre-release buzz and internal calculations, that seems like a given at this point. In addition to the previously mentioned Spider-Gwen spinoff, Sony has already greenlit a full-blown sequel; not too shabby for a semi-experimental movie that’s just hitting theaters.
While Into the Spider-Verse might be a bit too long and intense for younger viewers, big kids, teenagers and adults will have a blast. Just when it seemed like the genre was getting repetitive, leave it to executive producers Phil Lord and Chris Miller (21 Jump Street, The Lego Movie) to breathe new life into it.
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse is rated PG for frenetic sequences of animated action violence, thematic elements, and mild language.
Grade: A-
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