Into Spider-Verse, a must see for any Spiderman fan Spoiler-Free
Hey guys from planet-m, been a while since my last blog, but I’m back with something new. On the 8th, I noticed Spider-Man into Spider-Verse was in the cinema for a limited time before its official release, so I went to see it and I have to say it’s a great film, if you’re a fan of comics, the medium of animation, spider-man and all the stuff in his multi-verse then you have no reason not to go to the cinema and watch this film.
For this blog, I’m gonna go over a few of the basic elements of the film spoiler free and I hope by the time you’re done reading you will go and see Spider-Verse or at least have tickets booked, because I’ve already seen it and I’m just waiting until it’s back in cinema so I can see it again.
Story:
Now if you’ve seen the trailer you know it’s about Miles Morales learning to be Spider-Man while at the same time there is a race against time plot with several other spider-people trying to get back to their universes.
I will admit I didn’t think they would be able to pull this off, but the film properly paces itself and uses its visuals to help move the story forward, perfectly balancing Miles’s hero’s journey with the race against time plot, especially in a way that makes the film feel new and not like a cliché. Much like Homecoming it treats you like you’ve read a Spiderman comic and have seen the movies and if you’ve read Bendis and Sara pichelli’s run on Ultimate Spider-Man along with the original Spider-Verse event then you will be rewarded by the details in this film.
Spider-Verse also has maturity to it, now I don’t mean in the way like it’s too dark, this is a PG family film, but I don’t mean PG like they make one adult joke like in Frozen, I mean PG in the way the first Star Wars Films, Iron Giant, Batman The Animated Series and The Incredibles were PG, you know it’s PG, but PG back when it still meant something. The film is capable of balancing multiple tones in a way that allows it to just tell its story without having to pander to any specific age group, so trust me this a film that everyone can watch, remember animation isn’t just for kids.
Characters:
This film has a large cast of characters, even before I saw the film, I wondered would the film be able to make all characters likeable and work well in terms of the plot and the answer is yes it does. Each character plays a unique part in the story there really aren’t any throwaway characters, they all serve a purpose and those who are the focus of the main story are the ones you can understand the best as we are shown their reasons for their involvement and what is their driving motivation, even on the villains side, I will admit that some characters can be one note, but they still have personalities or moments that make them likeable.
Animation/Designs:
I love the animation style, from start to finish, the design of each character is unique and allows both exaggeration in their designs and a wide range of expressions. The flow of the animation is both fast paced and a bit sketchy as they lowered the frame rate to give the characters movements a stop motion look, which works well with characters like Miles as he’s just getting used to his powers so the frame rate helps his movements look a bit more clumsy yet energetic at the same time.
The film also manages to bring the best attributes of the comic medium to animation, adding written sound effects to movements, using narration boxes to show the characters thoughts and the use of colour and exaggeration in order to make specific moments more epic, much like that of a comic book, this is helped by the fact that writer Brian Michael Bendis and artist Sara Pichelli were brought in as consultants on the film.
The film doesn’t just stick with one style in its characters designs as one character utilises an anime character design and expressions, while another character uses classic Chuck Jones looney toons animation, which gives the film a good sense of variety to show that these characters are from other worlds with different rules.
Conclusion:
Spider-verse (despite being another setup for a Sony-verse) still manages to be a good film and Miles Morales story first, from the beginning you could tell that this project wasn’t a corporate mandate for someone, this was a project that directors Bob persichetti, Peter Ramsey and Rodney Rotham put a lot of time and care into making.
It captures everything you’d expect from a Spiderman story while at the same time bringing in new characters and an incredible animation style that you want to see more of. Plus, if this does well there will be a sequel and few spin-offs, so here’s hoping for a Spider-man 2099, Sp//dr and Spider-Gwen film.
9/10 go and see it as soon as possible
I have to say it’s great to be back and if you have any suggestions for future blogs please leave them in the comments below, thank you for reading.
