Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse just became your must-see December film

Spider... sweatpants? That's just one of the many weird things you'll find in the hilarious, entertaining <em>Into the Spider-Verse</em>.
Enlarge / Spider… sweatpants? That’s just one of the many weird things you’ll find in the hilarious, entertaining Into the Spider-Verse.

I’ll keep this glowing review short for two reasons: because I’m on vacation, and because there’s not much I need to say to make my point.

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse is right up there with Black Panther and Deadpool 2 as one of the best comic book adaptations in theaters this year. What’s more, it’s easily the best comic-nerd film in years to warmly embrace the kinds of viewers who know their comics canon front and back, all without intimidating the inevitable kid and newbie viewers attracted to this incredibly family-friendly adventure.

Miles and Peter and Gwen and…

  • Peter Parker (Jake Johnson) and Miles Morales (Shameik Moore) put on their thinking hats. (Their Spider-thinking hats, maybe?)
  • Miles starts out with his own makeshift costume…
  • … but eventually finds his way to a lab full of other options.
  • I’m a big fan of his final suit. (WARNING: The next image includes the other Spider-people I didn’t reveal in the review. You’ve been warned.)
  • Peni (Kimiko Glen), Spider-Ham (John Mulaney), and Spider-Man Noir (Nicolas Cage) round out the rest of the cast. They’re all fantastic in their own ways. (I’d kill for more Mulaney/Cage films. They’re a pretty terrific comic-relief duo here.)

If you’ve seen the posters or looked at the film’s title, you might have figured out the film’s big twist: this is a film about Spider-people, not just one Spider-Man. (Just in case you’ve been living in a cave, I’ll spare you a few specific details on who does and doesn’t make a cameo, and you can remain ignorant by not clicking through the above gallery; its final image gives away the whole cast.) In very good news, this angle does not disrupt or dilute Spider-Verse‘s focus on a few important characters and their relationships.

Mild-mannered, teenaged whiz kid Miles Morales (voiced by Shameik Moore) gets his first feature-length turn as a Spider-hero, seven years after his Marvel Comics debut. Some of his backstory will look familiar: streetwise Brooklyn kid is forced to attend a fancy prep school by his parents, doesn’t fit in, yadda yadda yadda, spider-bite, hero. The exact nature of his relationship with both his father (a by-the-book cop, voiced by Brian Tyree Henry) and his uncle (a cooler ne’er-do-well, voiced by Mahershala Ali) diverges from some of Miles’ comic stories, but the film establishes the Morales family dynamic so briskly—and sets up Miles’ internal conflicts in such touching fashion—that you’d think this had been the original Miles story all along.

On top of that story, Miles must also face off against a version of Peter Parker that doesn’t exactly match up with the Spider-Man from his personal collection of comic books. We get a few fan-wink moments when Miles tries to rationalize the Spider-Man he’s heard of with the one he meets, and these winks are fun enough. But more importantly, Spider-Verse establishes and intertwines an interesting pair of redemption stories for both characters.

This narrowed focus means that once a bunch of other Spider-people show up, they’re relegated to supporting-role status—meaning, they offer more in the way of visual gags, comic relief, and surprise action moments. And these are all solid, fan-service stuff. For most of the supporting Spider-people, their here-and-gone-again status doesn’t feel abrupt; Spider-Gwen is a noticeable exception, because her cross-dimensional warping leaves her with minimal stakes in this adventure. She’s not dumped with a one-dimensional romantic-projection role, thankfully, but it’s not much more substantial than that—and the result is a relative waste of stellar voice actor Hailee Steinfeld.

Comic patina?

A good example of how astonishing this film can look at its best (but also how stupid its "comic" dithering effect looks).
Enlarge / A good example of how astonishing this film can look at its best (but also how stupid its “comic” dithering effect looks).

Even without its comic tie-ins, Spider-Verse stuns as a purely CGI adventure film. An unfortunate “comic print” patina covers the entire film, which results in obnoxious dithering and pointillism effects. That’s the only complaint I have to offer. Everything else—the variety in scenery, the level of detail, the fight choreography, the over-the-top web-slinging that would be impossible to stage in a live-action film, and the Technicolor dreamscape of the final battle—is jaw-droppingly good.

Couple that with some clever takes on existing character canon and the fun surprises that emerge thanks to the multiverse conceit, and you have something that I describe in the following glowing fashion: Spider-Verse feels more like a complete, fun graphic novel than any comic-book film in recent memory. I would not hesitate to suggest this to any friend, family member, parent, or random stranger this holiday season.https://arstechnica.com/?p=1428413