Review – Spider-man: Into the Spider-verse (By: Dwaipayan Mondal)

Unless you’ve been living under a rock the past decade or so, you’ve probably seen the Spider-Man origin story played out in numerous iterations before – a teen gets bitten by a radioactive spider and suddenly develops power.

But this animated movie is anything but similar to its predecessors. Of course, our brand new Spider protagonist Miles Morales is bitten by a spider and develops powers, but he soon realises he isn’t alone out there. In a way, it’s the coming-of-age story of our friendly neighbourhood Spider-man! Miles navigates through the responsibilities of being the eponymous hero, pulling through tragedies and setbacks.

Directors Peter Ramsey, Bob Persichetti and Rodney Rothman have done a wonderful job. Multiple spider characters was never going to be an easy task, but the movie does justice to the characters of Spider-Man Noir, Peni Parker, Peter Porker! There are no weak links in the entire cast or the story. Special mention to the brilliant voice acting; Shameik Moore infuses Miles Morales with a lot of heart, while Jake Johnson does a delightfully laid-back take on Peter B. Parker. Hailee Steinfeld brings spunk to fantastically attired Spider-Gwen; Nicolas Cage is especially hilarious as Spider-Man Noir, and Liev Schreiber perfectly captures the looming presence of the film’s main villain, Kingpin.

The result is outstanding. The outcome of this unique concept is a movie which is a heartwarming, enthralling, enchanting, funny and at times thrilling. It is a roller coaster ride into the world of comic books presented in an audio-visual medium.

The notion that a comic book movie lacks seriousness and that an animation film won’t have adequate fight sequences,have been put to rest here. What surprised me was the gravity with which the situations were handled. It can be anyone under the mask. One scene, that also appears in the trailer, is really beautiful; when Miles jumps off a tall skyscraper and the camera is upside down, as if he’s rising instead of falling. The movie sparked a huge trend on social media, where people created their own spider-personas or spidersonas!

One of the uniques aspects of this movie is the animation–in addition to the 3D animation typical of Sony projects, Into the Spider-Verse also employs multiple comic book styles and textures. From the text boxes popping up to the various techniques used to render each of the spider-people from other dimensions, every layer is carefully crafted. For instance, Spider-Ham is rendered like a 3D version of the classic Looney Tunes, while Spider-Man Noir is completely in black and white and Peni Parker is drawn in an anime style. This variety of style offers Into the Spider-Verse a depth and texture that animated movies rarely, if ever, possess.

The animation also particularly shines in showcasing many of the film’s action scenes, bringing to life certain battles that could never be realized in live-action. Altogether, the effect of the excellently executed animation is that Into the Spider-Verse truly feels like a comic book come to life, which provides for a wholly fresh and unique movie experience. The music, featuring artists such as Swae Lee and Vince Staples, is perfect as well.

Many superhero movie fans who think that superhero fatigue is near can go and experience it in nearest 3D centres to witness how new and refreshing the concept is and how it can become a mainstream genre with little invention and improvisation.

                                                            

                                                            -------- Dwaipayan Mondal--------