75

I’ve seen this three times now and I’ve still yet to fully understand the insane hype Into the Spider-Verse gets. Of course the animation is strong and clever, the voice acting is exceptional and the music is perfect. However, I’ve always struggled with this being ranked among the greatest movies of all time when the story just isn’t there. Most importantly, Kingpin: for as cool (and wide) as he is, he certainly doesn’t get enough development and use to make me ever care for his story or understand his motivations as being anything more than surface level with a generic backstory. He’s a thin villain mixed in a mostly otherwise solid coming of age story. And then there’s Uncle Aaron. He’s intended to be an extremely impactful character except we also barely get to know him and his motivations are left under-explored. I wish I could feel for his connection with Miles and vice verse but I don’t because he’s barely utilized in the film. Both of these characters are fan favorites and I simply don’t see the depth there to understand why they’re so loved. 

Outside of my gripes with those characters though, the film is a pretty standard teen story that manages to excel by having tons of style and a relatable lead even among the absurdity of the multiverse mechanism. Miles’ (Shameik Moore) school experience and time spent with Gwen (Hailee Steinfeld) and his family feels authentic and makes for a believable emotional connection with these characters. The writing is also very efficient with its character introductions which I admire for most of the characters. And of course the visuals have to be talked about. The visuals are truly memorable with pretty exciting animation. It’s not quite on this insanely high peak level of animation that people claim it to be but it’s still strong (edit after watching it: Across the Spider-Verse’s achievement in animation, on the other hand, DOES deserve the hype). And how could anyone forget about the score (Daniel Pemberton)? So many sequences are elevated by being paired to perfectly fitting songs. 

The last 25 minutes or so of the film is less interesting than everything that precedes it and I still have my gripes with some of the character work but Into the Spider-Verse is an otherwise powerful example of the value in animated comic book films. Animation as a medium is so conductive to the crazy comic book style and this film achieves a distinctive style with ease. This being a touching coming of age story wrapped in that chaotic multiverse style only reinforces the fact that this is yet another memorable outing for Spider-Man and a win for comic book films as a whole. 

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