directed by Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey and Rodney Rothman
written by Phil Lord and Rothman
I have to be honest; before I watched this film I was actually winding up for a hate-filled tirade against "Ralph Breaks the Internet" a movie I found so abhorrent in its storytelling I gave it a 1/10, and I was preparing to go into greater detail as to why I hated it so much. It turns out the antidote I needed for the vitriol I had for a movie that I hadn't expected to despise so much was a movie that, all thinks considered, I hadn't expected to like so much.
Unlike Peter Parker, Miles Morales, a latter-day iteration of Spider-Man, has a much briefer history. Introduced in 2011 by Brian Michael Bendis and Sara Pichelli, he was a teenager with an African-American father and a Puerto Rican mother, created partly in reaction to the presidency of Barack Obama, and partly as a result of the semi-serious campaign by then-obscure actor Donald Glover to play Spider-Man. Whatever the motivations behind his creation, Miles clicked as a character and like Peter Parker before him, resonated with teenagers everywhere. He was created as a replacement for Peter Parker in the "ultimate" Marvel universe, which is basically a world that exists parallel to the one that most people casually acquainted with Marvel comic books knows. In that universe, Peter dies heroically, and Miles, who also gains his powers from a mutant spider-bite, reluctantly takes up the mantle. I followed his adventures for the first three years of his publication history. Bendis' stories, however, got increasingly monotonous, and I drifted away from the book, especially after Marvel migrated Miles from the "Ultimate" universe into the mainstream or "616" universe.
While I was genuinely excited to hear that Miles Morales would be getting his own Spider-Man movie, the thought that it would be produced by Sony Pictures Animation, whose track record has ranged from the competent (e.g. Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs) to the dreadful (e.g. The Emoji Movie) filled me with trepidation, even though production would be shepherded by the talented duo of Phil Lord and Christopher Miller (the minds behind the aforementioned Cloudy, The Lego Movie, and both 21 Jump Street and its sequel 22 Jump Street). Even though the trailer was extremely promising and the advance buzz was good, I had my concerns; this particular iteration of Spider-Man seemed intensely geek-centric. Would mainstream audiences get into it? It took Marvel several years and four movies to really draw people into the notion of a shared universe; how easy would it be for audiences to swallow a movie about multiple universes colliding? Not even the critics' glowing reviews could put me at ease. I mean, even the character's creator, Bendis, hadn't managed to make him that compelling.
As it turns out, all the hype was justified.
Here, as in the comics, Miles Morales (Shameik Moore) is the 13-year-old son of policeman Jeff Davis (Brian Tyree Henry) and nurse Rio Morales (Laura Lauren Velez) who lives in a world where Peter Parker (Chris Pine) fights crime as Spider-Man. Miles is about to start the year at a prestigious, science-oriented middle school, but he'd rather be hanging out with his "cool" Uncle Aaron (Mahershala Ali) and creating street art, notwithstanding his massive potential. During one such hangout, Miles is bitten by a strange, mutated spider marked 42, which he brushes off without a second thought. When he acquires strange powers like sticking to walls and a mysterious sixth sense, he rushes back to the scene where the mysterious spider bit him, and stumbles onto a deadly battle between Spider-Man, and the Kingpin (Liev Schreiber) and his minions like Norman Osborn and the mysterious Prowler. Apparently, the Kingpin is trying to use some kind of particle accelerator designed to open portals to different realities, hoping to achieve a goal that, for once, isn't about money but something more personal, but is no less motivated by self-interest, and is no less destructive. When an explosion stops the accelerator, things go horribly wrong for Spider-Man, which Miles witnesses to his horror, just shortly after he promises Spider-Man to take the machine out for good. Before he is able to finish the job, however, Prowler chases him off.
The accelerator has opened the doors to four different realities, and as a result four different Spider-people end up in Miles' world: schlubby fortysomething Peter Parker (Jake Johnson), Gwen Stacy aka Spider-Woman (Hailee Steinfeld), Peter Parker from the 1930s, aka Spider-Man Noir (Nicolas Cage), Peni Parker (Kimiko Glenn) and her radioactive spider-powered robot Sp//dr, and Peter Porker, aka Spider-Ham (John Mulaney). All of them are on borrowed time, and all of them know that they have to close the portals Kingpin has opened up before all of their realities collapse. They'll need Miles' help, as well as that of the late Spider-Man's spunky Aunt May (Lily Tomlin) but even that may not be enough against Kingpin and his formidable army of superpowered minions.
As superb as this movie is in terms of its craft, from basics like the writing, direction and voice acting, to its eye-popping, astonishingly original animation style, what really grabbed me was how the filmmakers were able to make something so deeply steeped in comic-book lore so accessible. This movie doesn't require watching eighteen movies that came before it (though there some jokes that only make sense to those who've followed the Spider-Man movies). Also, knowledge of the comics lore can actually be a disadvantage here as, in my case, it spoiled a major (albeit somewhat predictable) plot twist for me. This is sublime writing here, by people who have real reverence for this character and the world he inhabits. Even though Peter Parker is not central to this story, it still remains true to Spider-Man's core values. The film's credo is basically that anyone can wear the mask, anyone can be Spider-man, because it's not the powers that make a hero, but the will to use them to do what's right.
It's a relatively simple message, but it's the way the film conveys it that makes it so amazingly effective. Like Peter Parker before him, and just about every other Spider avatar in the film, Miles carries the weight of guilt from very early on in the film, and the thought that he didn't do enough to help out someone in need is what drives him forward, even when his powers and his own body aren't necessarily up to the task. He carries the burden of not only the power he gains from the spider bite but the sense of responsibility that comes along with it. The extended cast of characters requires a little extra time to tell a complete story, which hurts the movie ever so slightly, but in the end it's all worth it. While credit must go to Brian Bendis for creating much of the material from which this story was derived, not only in terms of Miles' origin but even the "Spider-Verse" story itself (which borrows heavily from "Spider-Men II"), writers Phil Lord and Rodney Rothman craft a story that is just that much better than its various sources, and makes the absolute most out of its medium.
And boy, what a medium it is. We're living in an age in which the technology used to create animated films is so advanced that one could argue that it's only a few steps away from creating a feature film that could pass for a live-action film, with none the wiser. The thing is, with the passage of time, this technology has become so slick and seamless that even as the wizards at Disney and Pixar lead the way, they are also just as prone to putting out supremely competent but increasingly clinical fare like Finding Dory or The Incredibles 2. There's a warmth missing from several of their more recent films (and I will no longer even mention by name Disney's most recent movie which I detested, even in spite of all of its technical wizardry). The makers of Into the Spider-Verse, however, eschew the more "traditional" approach to computer-generated animation and embrace a more rough-and-tumble, hybrid finish that evokes the four-color, early adventures of Spider-Man on the printed page. Sony's previous work has shown they are just as capable of fluid motion as the best of them, but what they've gone for here makes for a much stronger storytelling experience than anything that's ever come out of not only their studio but almost all of their rivals. It's a visual experience similar in impact if not technique to last year's sumptuous Loving Vincent, but this time married to a much stronger story and featuring a much richer voice cast.
On that note, Shameik Moore does an excellent job embodying Miles' youthful insecurity, and later, his steely resolve. Someone like Donald Glover, who'd voiced the role on a television show, might have been a safer choice for this character's big-screen debut, but Sony's gamble on a relative unknown has paid off, as he delivers a performance that really helped me, as a viewer, really root for the character. Jake Johnson's a perfect fit for the disheveled, over-the-hill Peter Parker, just as Chris Pine is for the "ultimate" Peter Parker (and do sit through the credits for Pine's hilarious "Spidey Bells" Christmas song, as well as the customary after-credits treat featuring Oscar Isaac). The supporting players do a great job filling up a pretty large ensemble, but there were definitely a few standouts for me, like Steinfeld as fan-favorite Spider-Gwen, and legendary comic-book geek (and, I'm told, pretty decent actor) Cage as the stylish Spider-Man Noir.
This is a movie that needs not just to be seen, but experienced in theaters. It's a sensory feast quite unlike anything that's ever come before it, and as comic-book based movies go, it really is a blast of fresh air breathed into a genre that didn't even know it needed it.
9.5/10
