“Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” (PG)
With their live-action version of Spider-Man off to new adventures with the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Sony Pictures has spun an inventive new way to bring other Spidey tales to audiences with Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. Uniquely animated, the film feels fresh and exciting even though the story is heading in a direction fans will be able to predict from the very beginning.
“Into the Spider-Verse” tells the tale of two Spideys, Miles Morales (voice of Shameik Moore) and Peter Parker (Jake Johnson) – as well as others with the same unique superpowers – as they are all brought together from other dimensions after an accident involving a time-altering device belonging to the criminal mastermind Kingpin (Liev Schreiber). Assembling with decidedly different versions of Spidey, including Spider-Man Noir (Nicholas Cage), the pig-like Peter Porker (John Mulaney), Peni Parker (Kimiko Glenn) and Spider-Girl (Hailee Steinfeld), Miles and Peter must find a way to prevent Kingpin from completing his mission and drastically altering history forever.
Apart from hardcore readers of the Spider-Man comics, “Into the Spider-Verse” will feel completely fresh to movie fans in that it introduces Miles Morales, a relatively new character who was introduced to Marvel Comics universe in 2011. Like Peter, Miles was bitten by a radioactive spider, and like his frontrunner, he must awkwardly learn how to use his new powers. Fortunately, in “Into the Spider-Verse” Peter is there to help him out, as well as Peter’s resourceful Aunt May (the always great Lily Tomlin).
Marked by a form of animation that feels like it’s part hand-drawn and part computer-animated (ultimately it feels like a motion comic, which generally have three-dimensional characters amid two-dimensional background), “Into the Universe” may take a while to acclimated to for newbies, but before too long your eyes and adjust and you are drawn into the action just like any other animated film.
In a sense, it’s like you’re watching a comic book coming to life with occasional dialogue blocks and thought bubbles. Of course, being that the film is animated opens the floodgates for animators to get really creative, and at times “Into the Spider-Verse” ventures into a psychedelic time warp not for any other reason than because it can.
“Into the Spider-Verse” could best be categorized as a superhero adventure, but the film has plenty of humor and heart as it delves into such themes as the importance of family and friendship. Not surprisingly, the action overwhelms the narrative in the very busy third act, a trapping that superhero films have an incredibly hard time avoiding. That’s not to say the excessive action is a bad thing, just formulaic.
“Into the Spider-Verse” is punctuated by an especially poignant moment when the late Stan Lee turns up in a cameo during the film (the first of many Marvel fans will see following the comic book legend’s death last month at the age of 95). Directors Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey and Rodney Rothman also pay respect in the end credits to Lee with a quote from the Marvel icon, as well as a heartfelt thank you to Lee and illustrator Steve Ditko (who died in June at age 90), who together created one of pop culture’s most enduring superheroes with Spider-Man.
Lammometer: 7.5 (out of 10)
Tim Lammers reviews movies weekly for The KQ92 Morning Show,” “KARE 11 News at 11” (NBC), WCCO Radio, WJON-AM, KLZZ-FM, “The Tom Barnard Podcast” and “The BS Show” with Bob Sansevere.
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