Spider-man is dead, long live Spider-man. Into the Spider-verse is an animated movie about Miles Morales. Wait, Miles who? Shouldn’t that be Peter Parker?
The story
You probably know about Peter Parker, a.k.a. the Spider-man, with his wife Mary Jane and his aunt May — played by Tobey Maguire. Or maybe you’re more familiar with the Andrew Garfield version with Gwen Stacy. Or you know him as Tony Stark’s protégé. Seven movies, and let’s not forget the TV show from the seventies. All about Peter Parker.
This animated one, though, is about Miles Morales. Miles is a young man living in Brooklyn, who has managed to get into a prestigious school, but would rather spray graffiti and design stickers.
Miles is out spraying with his uncle when he gets bitten by a weird spider. Soon after, he starts sticking to things and sensing danger. He returns to the place where the spider bit him, only to find the real Spider-man fighting the Kingpin’s forces there. Spider-man hands Miles a USB device and tells him to use it to save the world. Then Kingpin crushes Spider-man’s head.
The Kingpin is trying to open a portal into another dimension and with Spider-man dead, he might succeed.
The characters
Miles — voiced by Shameik Moore –struggles to live up to the high bar set by his father. He was already in over his head before he met Spider-man and things quickly get harder for him.
Luckily, Miles is helped by a Spider-man from another dimension, voiced by Jake Johnson. This Spider-man is a washed up version of Peter Parker (Peter B. Parker) who divorced Mary Jane and became depressed. And Jake Johnson — The scruffy guy from New Girl –is a perfect fit for the voice.
Wilson Fisk a.k.a. the Kingpin — voiced by Liev Schreiber — is trying to get his wife and son back. They died in a car crash when they fled after seeing Fisk and Spider-man fight and Kingpin naturally blames Spider-man.
Plot versus character
The movie is pretty complicated, and juggles a lot of characters. However, it manages to stick to its guns: the story of Miles and the washed up Peter B. Parker.
The art style is interesting, and the movie takes full advantage of it. You can do things in animation that you can’t do in live action movies, and this movie does them.
In short
If you like Spider-man at all, go see this movie. If you dislike superheroes in general, you might still like this one, but probably not. It’s a fun thrill ride, with a good emotional core, but still a superhero movie.
