New Release Review: Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse

Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse

(2018. Director: Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey, Rodney Rotham. Starring: Shameik Moor, Jake Johnson, Hailee Steinfeld)

SYNOPSIS

In this Golden Globe nominated film, mild-mannered Miles Morales is bitten by a spider and then sees Spider-Man, (also known as Peter Parker) die. He then teams up with another Peter Parker, (yet another) Peter Parker, Gwen Stacy, Peni Parker and Peter Porker to save New York from Doc Ock and the Kingpin.

Origin stories in Super-Hero movies are overdone to the point of being a joke. We've already been introduced to a new Spider-Man some three times since 2002  (in Spider-Man, The Amazing Spider-Man, and Spider-Man: Homecoming.) A movie consisting entirely of origin stories therefore sounds like it should be a dreadful idea. However, the success of Spider-Man: Enter The Spider-Verse rests on three pillars: The fantastic visual direction, the evocative, emotional character writing and a well-layered soundtrack which is euphonious and complements the art like a fine wine. This is a film all about families and father figures and this informs a lot of what the viewer is watching.

There are five characters in this film who are, essentially, the same person, but each of them is singled out and presented in such a way as to avoid the ‘which dwarf is that?’ problem which plagued the Hobbit films (and which is annoyingly common in action movies.) Each iteration of Spider-Man has their own costume and their own art style. With just the slightest bit of carelessness, the art could have clashed horribly throughout the film. Instead, every frame is beautifully, thoughtfully done. Stylised noir imagery, aggressively two-dimensional anime stylings and the subtle depth of the computer generated scenery occupy the same visual space and then achieve a pleasing mixture. The film could have felt like a collage, a mish-mash of different art styles stuck together, but instead it feels like a mosaic with all the individual elements blending together to produce a greater whole. There is no jarring repetition of background or a failure to synch lips. Instead, through some motion-capture imagery and good old fashioned animation, the characters live and breathe on-screen. Some films can feel ‘flat’ even at the cinema, but the animators have embraced the freedom of the third dimension with a gusto that gives the film a visual depth many a blockbuster would envy. It’s definitely a film to see in 3D where possible. The film is also full of Easter eggs for fans, from subtle jokes about masturbation involving hairy palms to the righting of some outstanding and egregious comic injustices involving the physics of falling. The trivia notes on IMDB will be a must-read.

The choreography is also worth mentioning. The camera and the audience are never lost or confused about where characters are in space and time and, whilst there are jump-cuts, they serve to capture the frenetic ebb and flow of the action rather obscure them. Physics is an often unwelcome guest in movies. People have been shown falling and scraping along a road surface without a scratch or a spark. Not so here; everything has a weight and a sense of inertia to it, from cartoon buses to roof tiles. This natural grounding, rather than the more cartoonish lack of consequence often found in live-action, makes the film feel more ‘real’ than reality itself.

The soundtrack is a heady mixture including some old school rap as well as a variety of instrumental pieces (some specifically composed for the film). This combination keeps in step with the pacing and emotional shifts of the story. There are even some gag songs in the credits, which let the movie magic linger a little longer and provide some more laughs.

The characters are wonderfully voiced.  When watching movies featuring people in masks, you're relying on the sound of voices and the rhythms and idiosyncrasies of speech to make a mark in a limited time. My personal favourite was the fast-flowing and convoluted speech of the noir iteration of Spider-Man whose lines were filled with the colour and ferocity of speech last heard in Rian Johnson’s Brick (and who was voiced by none other than Nicholas Cage!). This reviewer must admit that any character who introduces himself as “punching Nazis on a professional basis” removes from me any pretence of objectivity. I'm going to take a shine to you. Where the film falls down is that, in the attempt to be light-hearted and inclusive of younger audiences, it brings in characters that are more cartoonish. The comic relief is adeptly done but these characters break the immersion that the rest of the film has worked so hard to establish. (For example, you find yourself pondering why Spider-man costume eyeholes are needed for nostrils rather than focusing on the plot.) Having said that, the representation was of a higher calibre than the majority of Marvel films, and, whilst not perfect, is certainly worth noting. The film leans heavily on the relationship between fathers and sons in both the main plot and a major separate sub-plot., Unfortunately, this means less screen-time for female characters. The final scene between Miles and Peter is a very effective passing of the torch, which is mirrored a few minutes later with a coming together rather than a coming apart of a young man and his father figure.

Clocking in at nearly two hours long, it's a fast paced film that is effective in building stakes and tension. It has great comedy whilst also having the emotional honesty to have real sadness. The traditional Marvel cameo is there which is unexpected but touching. A lot is done and the twists are handled skilfully with just the right amount of foreshadowing. Screenwriters Phil Lord and Rodney Rothman are clearly fans of the medium from which they are drawing and have doubtless been in contact with writers of the comics. There are some potential plot holes, say, when a character appears unexpectedly in a place they shouldn't have been, but this may well be clarified on repeat viewing.

This film is a call to action in the stale and unpleasant political air of 2018; reminding and inspiring us that anyone can be a hero by doing the right thing at the right time. It's the sort of thing worth reminding people worn down by the daily torrent of abuse and injustice flooding the world. Representation matters. If seeing a Spider-Man that looks like you onscreen makes your blood fizz and makes you want to save the world - then mission accomplished.

Review by The Guildmaster.