For the longest time, Spider-Man was my favorite superhero, even if I wasn't that well acquainted with the character outside of Sam Raimi's trilogy. If you read my reviews of Raimi's first two films, you pretty much know that I grew up with those movies, and Spider-Man 2 was my favorite superhero movie of all time before I finally saw Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy. So needless to say I was beyond excited for Into the Spider-Verse leading up to it's release last week. And you know what? This may actually be my favorite Spider-Man movie, ever.

Now yes, Spider-Man 2 has a very special place in my heart and I'm very nostalgic for it, and maybe it has a better understanding of the character of Peter Parker, but this is easily the most fun I've had watching a Spider-Man movie.

Now this could have very well been bad, considering most of Sony Pictures Animation's films, aside from the first Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, who produced this movie, funny enough), haven't really been all that good, especially with a certain disaster from last year. Gratefully, this movie is actually handled with a considerable amount of care in terms of the animation (which is some of the most unique animation I've ever seen in a film) and the humor, which makes sense because as I said, it's produced by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, and Phil Lord was also one of the writers on the film as well, so it definitely has their style all over it, despite not directing it.

Yeah, there's a lot of Easter eggs and call-backs to other Spider-Man movies, especially in the film's opening scene, and those are all fun, but it's the characters that make this movie so much fun, and despite the fact that there are a lot of characters in the film, it never loses focus of the real hero of this story, Miles.

I've admittedly never known much about the character of Miles Morales, but him being the lead character is something that I was intrigued by, and something I'm sure the fans were insanely happy with. And let me tell you, I now want to read every single Miles Morales comic... although I'd have to continue on with the Ultimate Spider-Man comic in order to do that. From his first appearance, Miles is instantly likable, and the great part of it is that he's not instantly a perfect hero. It takes up until near the end for him to really feel comfortable with his powers and really embrace them.

Not that the other characters aren't great though. Jake Johnson's Peter Parker is hilarious and acts the way you'd expect an older Peter Parker would, Hailee Steinfeld as Gwen Stacey is also fantastic, John Mulaney as Spider-Ham is just fucking awesome (who ever thought we'd see that character in a movie?), and Nicolas Cage as Spider-Man Noir is literally the most perfect thing you could imagine.

Look, I'm not gonna lie when I say that I haven't truly loved a Spider-Man movie this much since Sam Raimi's Spider-Man 2. Even though I enjoyed both Amazing Spider-Man movies as well as Homecoming, I think this film is considerably better in regards to characters, storytelling and just entertainment value in general. And you know what? Even though I've already seen it twice, I wanna see it again. I'm serious! I haven't loved another movie all year! And just a reminder, make sure you stick around for that post-credits scene. Trust me on this, it's amazing.