I may be in the minority, but having grown up reading Spider-Man comics and watching all the classic Spider-Man cartoons, I have never been completely satisfied by a Spider-Man film. Sure, Sam Raimi’s series was ground-breaking and its lead Toby Maguire was decent, but the trilogy never captured the sly playful nature of the web slinger. Marc Webb’s The Amazing Spider-Man films were certainly better in some areas, but too dark for my taste. And Jon Watts’ latest take is promising, even if it is early days yet, though Tom Holland hasn’t shown enough charisma for my spider senses.

Going into the superb Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, I had no idea that after 16 years of watching the superhero in numerous Marvel outings on the silver screen, I’d finally watch a film that truly captures the spirit of the character.

For me, Spidey is about doubt, self-discovery and personal growth, more doubt, cockiness to mask the doubt, the joy of being Spider-Man, and of course, plenty of sarcastic one-liners to confuse a usually more powerful adversary. But above all, the superhero is about having a big heart. It is a pleasure to say that Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse manages to tick all the right boxes by giving us not one, but multiple versions of the character from various universes, all wonderfully characterised.

Along with gorgeous animation, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse gives us not one but multiple wonderfully characterised versions of the superhero from various universes

The hero here is Miles Morales (Shameik Moore) who replaced Peter Parker in the Ultimate Spider-Man comic books when the popular and relatively young line (in comic book terms) was rebooted, setting off angry racists online that couldn’t accept a black Spider-Man.

Here, like the best Spider-Man stories, he is presented as a high school-going teenager who struggles with unpopularity while being weighed down with real-world issues like a conflict between his strict disciplinarian of a father, police officer Jefferson Davis (Brian Tyree Henry), and his cool carefree uncle Aaron Davis (Mahershala Ali). To complicate his life further, Miles is bitten by a radioactive spider, right before the Peter Parker (Chris Pine) in his universe is killed by super villain Kingpin/Wilson Fisk (Liev Schreiber).

Before Peter Parker dies, he tasks Miles with stopping Kingpin’s particle accelerator, as he fears it will destroy the parallel universes it seeks to connect. Here, from the other universes show up in Miles’ world several other variations of the superhero, including an older Peter B. Parker (Jake Johnson) and Gwen Stacy as Spider-Woman (Hailee Steinfeld). Peter B. Parker reluctantly becomes Miles’ mentor, and the two have excellent chemistry. This Parker is hilarious because he is something of a has-been, having divorced Mary Jane Watson in his world and being in poor physical shape. His quips about plot clichés are both amusing and clever, as they grant Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse a sly sense of self-awareness capable of tickling the funny bone of many a comic book aficionado. Certainly, the film can at times be unavoidably predictable with its share of genre tropes, but Peter B. Parker’s commentary at least lets us laugh about it.

Before Peter Parker dies, he tasks Miles with stopping Kingpin’s particle accelerator, as he fears it will destroy the parallel universes it seeks to connect. Here, from the other universes show up in Miles’ world several other variations of the superhero

Other versions of the character that show up are equally amusing, including a Noir Spider-Man voiced fittingly by Nicolas Cage, an anime Peni Parker who reminded me of D-Va from the game Overwatch, and a cartoon pig variation named Peter Porker/Spider-Ham (John Mulaney).

While all the characters are memorable, it is the wonderfully characterised Miles Morales, as a flawed yet determined young man, who helps Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse climb to great heights.

The film also features some outstanding production values. To start with, the voice-acting is excellent, hitting all the right emotional chords. Then, there is the out-of-the-box and cutting-edge animation, designed to bring comic book panels to life in awe-inspiring dynamic fashion, combining old-school hand-drawing techniques with modern technology. This results in utterly gorgeous-looking animation which, like every other dimension of the film, is clearly a labour of love.

Rated PG for frenetic sequences of animated action violence, thematic elements, and mild language

Published in Dawn, ICON, December 23rd, 2018