It does not surprise me that the best Spider-Man movie is about Miles Morales. 

What always bothered me about the Peter Parker origin is that it required the death of his Uncle to implore Peter to do good. He’s a hero because he’s guilted into it - he’s trying to make right something that can never be corrected. He was raised in a middle class family with strong parental figures clearly guiding him to do good and he was educated well - to near genius levels... but it was being bullied that made him want to bully others once he got powers. Not that I find the guilt inherently uncompelling - I just know that without that incident with his Uncle, Peter wanted to profit off his abilities more than anything.

Miles is raised in a loving environment as well - with a cop father, nurse mother - a couple of do-gooders - but he has a ne’er-do-well Uncle who’s fun to be around. Of course Miles also grew up in a world with Peter Parker’s Spider-Man - so he had a template to follow once he got powers - but it felt natural that he wanted to be a hero to follow in his parents footsteps. Miles has a bit more reason to stray from any good path and figure out a way to profit off his powers to emulate his Uncle, but his grounded home life left little doubt.

All this leads into the main theme of this film which was finding that confidence within yourself in order to pave your own path. Something everyone struggles with, it’s a huge part of growing up and it doesn’t get any easier.

The animation style was wild! I felt like I wanted to head back to my apartment and crack open some comics after seeing this. I wondered at times if this was a 3D showing because of all that was happening on screen. It was kinetic and colorful - deserving of praise.

The writing was whipsmart - funny and touching at all the right levels. It never felt overwritten, just loose and engaging.

It did feel a little like Spidey was channeling his inner Deadpool with the merchandising gags and whatnot but that’s it’s own thing and it’s easy to shrug off... But Spider-Man Christmas songs...? Ehhh...

Anyway, brilliant fun! I’m glad it was better than I expected from the initial teaser trailer - I’m happy I saw it in theaters and I can see why it was sold out so many times when I was looking to see it.