Spider-man: Into the Spider-Verse pushes you to learn more about the iconic character, beyond Peter Parker, and creates a franchise you’ll want to see more of.
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Spider-man: Into the Spider-Verse pushes you to learn more about the iconic character, beyond Peter Parker, and creates a franchise you’ll want to see more of.
| Director(s) | Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey, Rodney Rothman | |
| Written By | Phil Lord, Rodney Rothman | |
| Date Released | 12/13/2018 | |
| Genre(s) | Action, Adventure, Comedy | |
| Good If You Like | Spiderman
The Marvel Formula Films You Know Were Made To Produce Sequels |
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| Noted Cast | ||
| Peter Parker (Older) | Jake Johnson | |
| Miles Morales | Shameik Moore | |
| Gwen | Hailee Steinfeld | |
| Peter Porker (Spide Ham) | John Mulaney | |
| Kingpin | Liev Schreiber | |
| Olivia (Doc Oct) | Kathryn Hahn | |
| Aunt May | Lily Tomlin | |
| Jeff | Brian Tyree Henry | |
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Spider-man: Into the Spider-Verse‘s Plot
Spider-man: Into the Spider-Verse is an origin story that knows it is an origin story and recognizes, at this point, you’re tired of Spiderman origin stories. It features Peter Parker handing the ropes to Miles Morales but not before featuring various other Spider-people and their backstory. We get Gwen losing Peter, multiple Peter Parker’s losing someone, and Spider-Ham’s backstory. Pretty much everyone had someone who died and this led to them taking the spider-person role seriously. Miles is no different.
However, perhaps the thing which does help Miles be unique isn’t just because he is Afro-Latino, or listens to hip-hop, but because he feels sort of disconnected from the rest. Gwen has Peter, and all the different versions of Peter live out the same story, with slight differences. Miles’ story is of the ilk of most modern remakes. They take this classic character, change his ethnicity but, unlike so many which do swaps like that, they add in a sense of culture. Thus making Miles seem made to create a new and noteworthy character rather than to cash in on what is accepted and respectable (this is taking note Miles has existed for 7+ years
Other Noteworthy Facts & Moments
- There is an end credit scene, and Polygon breaks it down.
Highlights
Builds Interest Into The Extended Universe
Sony has 0 interest in ever giving Marvel/Disney the Spiderman property back. Hence us being on our 3rd live-action Spiderman
Maybe it is because, with the inclusion of Miles, it shows there is a Spiderman for everybody. If not the writing which makes it so everyone acknowledges the story is not brand new. That is, on top of giving everyone a unique personality to fall in love with, equal opportunity at making you laugh and cry, as well as show themselves as ass kickers.
The Villain’s Motive Is Complicated
Like Spiderman: Homecoming, we don’t get a villain who is evil for the sole sake of being evil. What Kingpin ultimately wants is his family back. And while he is likely to destroy New York in the process, and the reason he lost his family was trying to kill Spiderman, you understand his plight. We don’t get his backstory into why he became a villain, leaving you a bit lost if you don’t know the character, but you get it. Especially since he didn’t just lose them as in his wife divorcing him and kid was taken away. He lost them because, as they were leaving in a car, they got into a vehicular accident.
On The Fence
There Is A Female Villain, But She Lacks Complexity
Compared to Kingpin, the gender-swapped Doc Oct deserves praise for being a rare female villain in a male-dominated movie, yet also deserves criticism because her character is basic. At best, she is a genius who works for Kingpin. At worse, she is there for the sake of balancing out the male to female ratio of which, only Gwen, Aunt May, and Doc Oct are the only notable women of the movie. Oh, and yes, Miles’ mother is also in the movie but his relationship to his dad, Jeff, is made far more important.
Bringing it back to Doc Oct though, perhaps the biggest issue is even with Kingpin just getting this emotional motive, with no real background on the character, he has something. Doc Oct just wants to see her experiment work and gives us absolutely nothing else. Thus making her seem like a waste of a villain, especially since Doc Oct is probably one of the most recognizable in the Spiderman universe.
Overall: Positive (Worth Seeing) | Buy Tickets on Fandango
While I won’t call this the best-animated movie of the year, just because it has a handful of emotional moments and jokes, it is definitely one of the best movies coming out this week. For on top of creating an interest beyond the Peter Parker we’ve seen, countless times, it also presents one of the few movies which makes you want sequels, spin-offs, TV series, and things like that. Which for Sony, and the Marvel brand as a whole, is increasingly becoming rare as their formula remains good but slowly is becoming predictable.
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