What’s better than Spider-Man? TWO Spider-Mans (or is it Spider-Men?)! Either way, take that thinking to its conclusion, like Lego Movie co-writer Phil Lord did, and you end up with Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, a cinematic universe to end all cinematic universes.
Spider-Man (Jake Johnson) has hit a bit of a rough patch in middle age, as has teenager Miles Morales, who just got bitten by a radioactive spider and is going through some changes as a result on top of struggling with fitting in a his new school. Right after being bitten by that pesky spider, Miles stumbles into a science lab where another Spider-Man (Chris Pine) is trying to stop the Kingpin (Liev Schreiber) from opening a dimensional portal. During the battle, Kingpin kills that Spidey but not before the first Spider-Man, the middle-aged one, is sucked through the portal that the Kingpin’s machine created.
Confused? You should be, but the most amazing thing about Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse is that this jumble of Spider-Mans (Men?) makes perfect sense on-screen. And that’s a compliment in two ways. First, because there is so much happening in this movie that it has no right to make sense, and second, because there are a whole lot of other amazing things about this movie.
Spider-Verse’s animation, particularly the art style, is stunning. A number of other superhero films have taken inspiration from the comics, whether in using captions, multiple panels, or bright colours. Spider-Verse takes that to a whole other glorious level, owning its comic book roots and jumping off the screen even in classic 2D.
Spider-Verse is also remarkably accessible. This is not a solo superhero film with only two or three familiar characters to track. Spider-Verse is chock full of obscure one-offs, alternate takes that faded away, including an entire “Ultimate” comic book line that was canned by Marvel in 2015 due to lack of interest. All of that can sit comfortably in the background but no prior knowledge of anything is necessary, even of Spider-Man, to understand and enjoy this film.
ASSHOLES WATCHING MOVIES 
Interesting!
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I love Spiderman. A simple comment, I know, but…
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Saw it this past weekend and it is absolutely stunning. In a year with some amazing superhero movies this probably is my favorite.
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It’s such a fun movie. For me, Black Panther is still my favourite superhero film of 2018 but this one is great in its own right.
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I cannot wait to see this! Jake Johnson is a great actor.
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I got to see this in a preview screening, and I was blown away. I like Spiderman. I loved this movie.
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I was amazed with everything going on in this movie the script and Miles story was so strong. Agreed about the animation as well. I wasn’t big on the idea of seeing this but it was worth the trip to the theater!
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Miles is a great character and it’s awesome that there’s room for more than one Spidey!
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Great review! I loved this, it was stunning to watch.
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Good review. I wasn’t really expecting much from this movie. However, I was completely blown away on how much I like this movie. Plus, the animation was great. I wasn’t completely sold on it at first, but it definitely grew on me.
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I had no expectations until Venom provided a sneak peek. After that, I was hoping the rest would be as good as that snippet. Turns out, it was even better than I hoped!
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I know this movie’s about Miles Morales becoming the new Spidey, But I wish Peter Parker didn’t die twice. I’ll also miss Stan Lee’s cameos too
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I’ll miss the cameos also but rumour has it he filmed a bunch before he died. I guess we’ll see. It was nice to see Stan in this as well as Ralph Breaks the Internet.
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Definitely looking forward to this one.
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So cool that this made sense on screen and that it was visually stunning- definitely want to watch this- great review!
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Surprised myself by loving this. Innovative, beautiful, brave, bold. Miles is a well-developed, interesting character who feels so much more in touch with the real world than almost any other super hero, including other iterations of Peter Parker. I’ve been bored AF with comic book movies for a long time but this is a re-invigoration of the genre, a game changer, a new standard. Watching it felt like something special.
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I thought the script was really strong. Not a lot of fat on the script. The story was always moving, and always finding interesting ways to give us necessary information. I loved what they were doing with music, and missed it when they backed off about half way through. Loved the distinctive look of the animation.
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I was glad you enjoyed this as much as I did. I thought it was great that it had a bunch of geeky details but none of them got in the way of the story, and the few necessary details were explained so well and so efficiently. In the hands of less skilled storytellers, this would have been a mess, and instead everything fit together so well (like the character intros being done 3 at a time).
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