"Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse" Provides an Excellent Animated Counterpart to the Franchise
By: Keaton Marcus
Miles Morales (Shameik Moore) in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
Genre/Action/Kids/Family
Age Rating/9+
Lemonradar/88% sweet
So, What’s the Story
Hi, this is Keaton Marcus (13) from Sweet and Sour Movie Reviews and today I will be reviewing Sony/Colombia’s newest Marvel installment, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. Miles Morales, a teenager who lives in Brooklyn is struggling in his new elite boarding school, feeling different; When his Uncle Aaron takes Miles to the underground, he is bitten by a radioactive spider, and acquires the powers of Spider-Man. However, when a new villain known as Kingpin arises, and uses a Universe Collider to bring different dimensions together in hope of bringing his family back, he fails, and brings and unique versions of Spider-Man to Brooklyn. The Collider causes earthquake-like destruction to New York, and the team must stop Kingpin before he tries again.
How Was The Cast?
Refreshingly unique to other installments in the inter-connected Spider-Man universe, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse is utterly successful in bringing unfamiliar actor Shameik Moore to take on the role of Miles Morales, bringing laughs, and above all, a truckload of diversity. Supporting roles include actress Hailee Steinfeld as Spider-Gwen/Gwen Stacy, Jake Johnson as Peter B. Parker, and even two more seasoned veterans, Academy Award winner Nicholas Cage voices Spider-Man Noir, and Academy Award winner Mahershala Ali voicing Uncle Aaron.
As noted, known for Dope, Incredible Crew, The Watsons Go to Birmingham actor Shameik Moore plays Miles Morales. Black Panther started the diversity stand-up for superhero films earlier this year with an all-black cast, including Chadwick Boseman and Michael B. Jordan, and scored an impressive 85% “sweet” on the Lemonradar. With Spider-Verse released, scoring an even better 91% “sweet”, it turns out that you do not need a bunch of superstars to make a great film. Sony/Colombia takes the risk on this, and Spider-Verse seldom follows the generic layout for a common Spider-Man flick. Shameik Moore, new to the film business, delivers a magnetic performance, leading the film with hip-Spider-Man type acting and bringing many laughs that Tobey Maguire nor Andrew Garfield ever delivered. Playing the best-acted Spider-Man there is, Moore is phenomenal having terrific chemistry with the surrounding cast members. Amidst the loud music, colorful animation and surprisingly thrilling action sequences, Moore delivers the family-friendly, diverse, and funny neighborhood Spider-Man that we thought we would never have.
Secondly, we see actress Hailee Steinfeld known for Ender’s Game, The Edge of Seventeen, 3 Days to Kill, True Grit etc. voicing Spider-Gwen/Gwen Stacy. Performing in last weekend’s Bumblebee (70% sweet/sour), Hailee leads with a committed performance, remaining the best Transformers hero to-date, Steinfeld delivers another solid outing in Spider-Verse. She introduces the character of Spider-Gwen to the big-screen for the first time with a bold, unique performance that really works. Steinfeld makes genuine gender diversity amidst the cast, and after Bumblebee, the actress opens up to a completely different, but yet another kick-ass female character, and audiences truly care about Gwen Stacy just as much as the run-of-the-mill Peter Parker (crossing the fingers that Gwen gets her own film).
Thirdly, known for The Mummy, Tag and 21 Jump Street, actor Jake Johnson voices Peter B. Parker. Not just the common, by-the-numbers Peter Parker, nerdy, skinny and weak, Johnson’s Parker is a lazy bum, which although is strange, at least the actor never adheres to the generic formula. Johnson, wasted last year in Tom Cruise’s horrible fantasy reboot, The Mummy (35% sour), and delivering just a supposedly average supporting role in this year’s comedy, Tag, the unfamiliar actor needed something new. His newest role in Spider-Verse is actually very good, delivering a nice, refreshing, Peter Parker from another universe, brings the common laughs, and has natural chemistry with the other talents on-screen. As mentioned, two veterans also join the cast, actor Nicholas Cage carries a surprisingly committed performance, and introducing Spider-Man Noir to the big-screen with an above-average outing, delivering a sign that despite all of Cage’s slumps, he can still act with a good director (s). Otherwise, Academy Award winner Mahershala Ali hands out a fantastic, twisty performance as Miles’ uncle, and the villain, Prowler who is a new-Terminator-type character that is overall triumphant.
Is It Worth Your While?
Directing this Spider-Man spin-off are the three filmmakers Rodney Rothman (known for his work on Forgetting Sarah Marshall, 21 Jump Street, The Five-Year Engagement), Peter Ramsey (Rise of the Guardians) and Bob Persichetti (animation department for Treasure Planet, Shrek 2 etc.) who all direct with style.
They find an amazing balance between dazzling animation, an intelligent story, resonating messages, fantastic lead performances and another successful diverse superhero pic, that may be at times cluttered with wonderful characters, but the many positives make Spider-Verse one of the best superhero origins of all time.
Rothman, one of the fantastic directors, also wrote the heroic screenplay with Phil Lord which resonates with the actors, and conveys the laughs, and creative writing that we would never expect from an animated Spider-Man pic. After Ruben Fleischer directed this year’s Venom (70% sweet/sour) with incoherence, Sony/Marvel offers their best film to date.
Special effects wise, Spider-Verse stands at a skinny 90M budget, and features dazzling animation, that is not only creatively used, it holds a layout of a superhero comic book creating a never-before-seen superhero pic to the audience. The film is colorful, and a huge step-up for the Sony Animation department. The film debuted with over 35M, delivering the biggest animated opening of December, keeping the superhero alive, and topping the Box Office. The following weekend, the film grossed over 16M and crossed 73M domestically after the five-day weekend. To date, the film has grossed an impressive 91M domestically and over 156M worldwide. It has yet to debut in Japan, while looking at another good third weekend, and looks to cross 100M in the next couple of days. Compared to other Spider-Man pics, the film looks to be way more profitable. Spider-Man (139M budget), Spider-Man 2 (at 200M), Spider-Man 3 (at 258M), and then Andrew Garfield rebooted the franchise with The Amazing Spider-Man which stood at (200-230M budget), and The Amazing Spider-Man 2 at 200M, all the way to a possible 293M budget, then the money-making franchise was rebooted again, starring Tom Holland, with Spider-Man: Homecoming standing at a 175M budget. Storyline wise, unlike most action films, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse finds amazing balance between intelligence and visuals;
Standing at 100 minutes, the film has a perfect running time, delivering just what the audience expected, and so much more. This spin-off has brains and a diverse story, all the other Spider-Man flicks run over 2 hours, though Spider-Verse proves that you do not need a bloated running time nor an inflated budget to deliver a quality story
Aging ‘The Multiverse’
Much more family friendly than other superhero flicks, Spider-Verse carries a reported PG-rating, and is a very good Marvel-type installment for older kids. The film includes moderate, animated action sequences that are loud for the youngest of viewers, some rude language and very mild sexuality.
The violence includes common comic-book action sequences, dialed down, with large-scale destruction, including many loud explosions from the Collider, gun-fights, and a long-scene of hand-to-hand combat in Aunt May’s house, the multiverse causes earthquake-type rumblings and destroys many buildings in Brooklyn and Kingpin/Wilson Fisk is brutal, and does not stop his violence until he finds his family.
Language wise, there are uses of crap and hell, and insults such as janky, old, broke, hobo, fat, stupid, dumb and pig. Sexuality wise, there are many scenes of flirting between Miles and Gwen, and Miles uses a flirtatious move on her learned from his Uncle Aaron, and later they hug, but do not go further than that.
Best Spidey Showdown
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse 91% sweet
Violence: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆
Language: ⭐⭐☆☆☆
Sex: ⭐⭐☆☆☆
Age Rating: 9+
Spider-Man 90% sweet
Violence: ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆
Language: ⭐⭐☆☆☆
Sex: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆
Age Rating: 12+
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse 91% sweet
Storyline: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Cast: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Role Models: ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆
Spider-Man 90% sweet
Storyline: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Cast: ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆
Role Models: ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆
News Related to Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
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Rated: PG
Run Time: 100 Minutes
Director: Rodney Rothman, Peter Ramsey, Bob Persichetti