It's been a week since I managed to hoodwink my dad into going to see Into the Spider-Verse, and if he hated it, I'm happy to say that it fulfilled all my expectations, and on top of that was a great exploration of decades of Spider-Man history. Perhaps unsurprisingly, since they share some behind the scenes folk, it's up there for me with Lego Batman as a humorous but expansive take on a superhero's mythos.
I think the last time I regularly read new Spider-Man comics was around 2000 or 2001, when J Michael Straczynski was writing the character (pretty damn well, as I recall) and 9/11 happened. So I've missed out on a whole hell of a lot of continuity, not least the idea that there might be a bunch of different Spider-folk running around.
I had an idea of Miles Morales, of course, and of Spider-Gwen, so it was nice getting acquainted with those characters properly. And it was cool to see other takes, including Nicolas Cage's wonderful portrayal of Spider-Man Noir. I happen to love alternate versions of characters, especially from different time periods, so that really made me want to check out the Noir stories.
Not only that, the animation was really well-done, to the point that it looked like rotoscoping at points. Though my one complaint was that some stuff out of the main focus of most shots (and sometimes within the main focus) was weirdly doubled, as if it was meant to be a 3D movie. I kept having to check the other viewers with me in the theater to see if they were wearing those special glasses.
But to get back to the Lego Batman comparison: the thing I loved about that movie was that all 80 or so years of Batman's continuity were fair game, and the filmmakers made reference to lots of the most important parts of that continuity.
Into the Spider-Verse did something similar, though it told a more straight-forwardly serious story, which also meant that it had to keep its references relevant to the story (except for the post-credits scene). That generally worked, even when they threw in references to Spider-Man 3 and Tobey Maguire's dance moves.
But overall, it showed that the animated versions of comic book movies are light years ahead of the live action versions in terms of inventiveness, humor and fan service (if that's not a dirty word). Lego Batman, Teen Titans Go to the Movies, and Into the Spider-Verse are able to do a lot more with the characters than The Dark Knight or Spider-Man: Homecoming, because the expectations are probably lower and the studio probably expects fewer people to go see them. So they can throw in stuff like Stan Lee cameos (yep, even in Teen Titans), references to Earth-616 (which I've only recently learned is the standard Earth of Marvel continuity) and dumb jokes that really only appeal to comic book geeks like me.
So it was a really fun movie, a really beautifully shot movie, and if you haven't seen it yet you should check it out. Fandom may be at a level of toxicity where you can't give Miles Morales a live-action movie starring Donald Glover, but this is somehow better, because the filmmakers can use a bigger canvas to tell their story. And I'm looking forward to seeing what's next, whether for these animators or for these characters.
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