Spiderman: Into the Spider-verse (2018)

mini review

There have been six standalone “Spiderman” movies that have come out since 2002, not including the Tom Holland performances in the three MCU movies. Some were very good, some were very bad, but none of them really hit stood out as anything special.
Until now.
2018’s “Spiderman: Into the Spider-Verse” was outstanding.
Miles Morales (Shameik Moore) took up the mantle (web?) in place of his universe’s Peter Parker, then gets to meet five other Spider-people from varying realms.

Because this was made by Sony, who owns all of the rights to the cinematic Spiderman, there was a lot of product placement for Sony electronics and there were lots of references to the other Spiderman movies. Some of those references didn’t pull any punches.

Possibly the coolest part of this movie was the animation style. It was done up to look like a comic book, complete with shading done with hatch-marks and the occasional narration bubble displayed on-screen in a pop-art box.
Absolutely gorgeous.

By the nature of making it as a moving comic book, there was lots of 4th-wall breaking, which was both thematically fitting and used just the right amount to be entertaining but not overbearing. Think “PG Deadpool.”

John Mullaney’s “Peter Porker” was over-the-top cartoon-y, and just on the verge of being obnoxious, but the creative team behind this film apparently recognized the fine line they were walking and tread it very, very carefully. They had to the potential to create their own Jar Jar Binks, but showed incredible judgement and restraint.

The 2-hour runtime was the perfect amount of the necessary character arcs for Morales and his Spider-peers. Some goofy scenes lasted a little too long, while some excellent cinematography shots didn’t last long enough, but those are minor, preferential nit-picks.
Same with the music. I wasn’t a fan, but that’s just due to my tastes. The fact that this movie had a clearly-defined soundtrack and musical tone is outstanding.

I will note that there were considerably more deaths involved than I was expecting for a PG flick, but none of them were graphic or gruesome, just… more.

This was a kid’s movie designed to be enjoyed by audiences of all ages.
Phil Lord and Chris Miller worked on this one; they also worked all four LEGO movies and, “22 Jumpstreet,” which just shows their incredible comic talent streak continues.
I wish I had seen this in theaters.