By now, you have probably heard that Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse is fantastic, which its 97% on Rotten Tomatoes with almost 250 reviews in should indicate. It’s a movie that was not really on my radar until recently, but my hype slowly grew for it over time, in roughly this order:
- Wait, this is actually going to be in theaters?
- Wait, New Girl’s Jake Johnson is Peter Parker?
- Wait, this is from Phil Lord and Chris Miller?
- Wait, this has a 97% on Rotten Tomatoes with almost 250 reviews?
I saw it Friday and it absolutely lived up to the hype. It is easily the best Spider-Man movie ever made, it is definitely one of the best Marvel movies ever made and it genuinely might be one of the best superhero movies ever made period. And that is not overselling it.
But the movie, which tells the tale of a young Miles Morales (Shameik Moore) being mentored by an alternate universe Peter Parker (Johnson) and a bunch of other Spider-people ranging from Gwen Stacy (Hailee Steinfeld) to Spider-Noir (Nic Cage, oh god yes, Nic Cage). But the other half of why it works is that it’s a visual spectacle unlike pretty much anything I have ever seen, which makes seeing this in an actual movie theater a must, even in an age when “wait until it’s streaming” is the norm for many people.
I find myself in that camp more often than not. Compared to all the fantastic TV shows I can watch and video games I can play at home, dragging myself outdoors to a movie theater is an expensive pain that rarely seems worth it. “Rarely,” however, absolutely encompasses Into the Spider-Verse.
The entire film is shot like a comic book, in terms of its texturing and even its “BOOM! BAM!” onscreen sound effects. But it’s more than that. It’s a visual feast that perfectly encapsulates the vibe of Miles Morales himself, high energy, artistic, brilliant.
What I found myself thinking after the film ended was that it wouldn’t have worked any other way. This movie would not have been nearly as good even if it was a $200 million live action blockbuster because it would have lost all this incredible animation. And it wouldn’t have been good if it was just a standard Dreamworks/Pixar animated style film either. It needed this kind of flavor and artistic brilliance to stand out, and stand out it does. I genuinely cannot remember being this moved by a film’s visuals, in addition to its story, in a very, very long time.
It’s for that reason that this plays so well in a theater, and hopefully what will drive Spider-Verse to make a ton of money and a greenlit trilogy, at the very least. While most superhero blockbusters are better on a big screen, Spider-Verse is not just full of big action scenes that require large-screen viewing, but the entire experience is like watching an animation masterpiece, the likes of which the genre has never seen before.
Do yourself a favor and go see Into the Spider-Verse immediately. It’ll hang around theaters for a little while, but do not wait until it’s on demand, or you’ll miss at least part of what makes this experience so great.
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