Finally Watched…Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse

Welcome to the first of the banked reviews, as I pushed through movies before cutting the cord and going full ad-sponsored streaming.

It looks like second time was the charm. I was actually able to watch Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse on my second attempt, the first time glitching during playback and only giving me about half the film.

This was Marvel trying to push Miles Morales and Sony trying to get something to actually be successful while trying to hold on tight to the rights of a character they haven’t gotten right since Sam Rami’s second film with Peter Parker. I’m actually watching the Icons Unearthed series on the Spider-Man movies. I’ve gotten through the two episodes that go over the making of the first Rami film, and it’s quite interesting.

For the record, I am one of those whateveryouwantocallmes that says Miles Morales is Miles Morales because that’s how he’s marketed more often than not. Peter is “Spidey” and Miles is “Spin” in the preschool show even though their suit-up stock sequence both has “Spider-Man” in the background text. Otherwise the Peter costume is marketed in merch as Spider-Man and the Miles costume as Miles Morales. You would think they’d want him to step out of Peter’s shadow by giving him his own superhero identity rather than being a white man’s also-ran, but that’s not how they think at Marvel. So does this movie at least earn Miles some respect? Is there something to this character once you get past the name issue?

RELEASE DATE: 2018

RELEASED BY: Columbia Pictures, Marvel Studios, and Avi Arad Productions

RUNTIME: 1hr 57 min

RATING: PG

VIEWING SOURCE FOR THIS REVIEW: I should have wrote that down. I’m thinking either FX or TBS/TNT if not one of the Starz Encore previews or that brief time we has MGM+

STARRING: Shameik Moore, Jake Johnson, Hailee Steinfeld, Mahershala Ali, and Brian Tyree Henry

SCREENWRITERS: Phil Lord (story) and Rodney Rothman

DIRECTORS: Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey, and Rodney Rothman

BOX OFFICE: $190,241,310 domestic gross, $384,298,736 worldwide gross, according to IMDB

ESTIMATED BUDGET: $90,000,000 (estimated) according to IMDB

The Plot: Miles Morales thought having to go to a private school would be the lamest part of his life. Then while tagging an underground tunnel with his uncle, Aaron(Ali), Miles (Moore) is bit by a spider that’s glitching in reality. After seeing his reality’s Spider-Man (Chris Pine) die and dealing with powers he doesn’t know how to control, Miles meets alternate universe versions of Peter Parker (Johnson) and Gwen Stacy (Steinfeld, and a trio of other dimension-displaced spider-people. Miles must get them to help stop Kingpin’s (Liev Schreiber) attempts to breach the multiverse and endanger his world, while getting them home. Too bad this is is first week with spider-powers.

Why did I want to see it?: If you’re asking that, you’re clearly new here. It’s a Spider-Man movie (allegedly), giving Miles Morales his first spotlight, and it’s ground zero for the current multiverse craze. Not the origin of all multiverse stories, because that’s a long history, but it’s probably why Marvel Studios and Sony want spend more time using and abusing the concept.

What did I think?: Let’s start with the big element we knew about going in and I had concerns about: the animation. Not the art style itself, done by drawing over computer character models. That gives it a unique look that rather works. I do enjoy most of the character designs, because I’m still disappointed with what they did to Spider-Ham (John Mulaney), which has sadly become the “official” look of Peter Porker. The animation, on the other hand, looks like a bunch of dropped frames. While I got used to it over the course of the movie it was still obvious, though having it more so in Peni Parker’s case (Kimiko Glenn) might have been intentional, like what they did to…I mean with Spider-Ham.

When I first tried to watch the movie I got cut off during it because of a glitched recording, so having a version of Peter that was a total loser bothered me, though he does undergo a character arc that hopefully will bring him closer to Mary Jane (Zoë Kravitz) in his reality. I did ignore him talking to the MJ of…wait, they really dubbed it Earth-616B? Or is it 1610-B, 1610 being the original Ultimate universe that Miles came from? Thanks a lot, Sony AND Marvel Studios, for completely #$%#$%ing up Marvel Comic’s dimension listing gimmick. If you hate the comics so much STOP ADAPTING COMICS AND MAKE YOUR OWN ##$% THING, YOU HACKS!

Back on track. Getting to see the whole thing made his arc better, and it’s not the original Spider-Man. He ends up being a hero again and I’m okay with it. Gwen doesn’t really get a character arc, and it’s disappointing that she’s “Spider-Woman” instead of “Ghost Spider”, but I don’t know if Marvel Rising had come up with the name yet. At least they didn’t call her Spider-Gwen outside of the comic cover gimmick they used to introduce each of the spider-folks, which has a good payoff for Miles later. At least she gets to do something in this story. Peni uses her tech skills to repair the key to the dimension collider and that’s it, while Spider-Man Noir (Nicholas Cage–yes, THAT Nicholas Cage, who actually does pretty well)…is introduced to a Rubik’s Cube and Spider-Ham In Name Only does funny cartoon stuff. Not sure why they bothered.

Of course, this is Miles’ movie, and they do a good job with him. He has to learn how to be a hero and control his powers, including two more than the usual spider-hero. (I think he has a third one now in the comics.) I like how the relationship grows with his father, and how they handle a reveal of Miles’ uncle’s connection to all this. He undergoes a good journey to become his own Spider-Man, and while it’s long past time he got out of Peter’s shadow and became his own hero with his own identity instead of an also-ran, he does prove worthy of the title “superhero”. The only misstep is the bit about “anyone can wear the mask”. Maybe, but there’s more to being a superhero than the mask, which Miles shows he has at least.

Was it worth the wait: I’d say yes, but that glitched recording from the first time I tried to watch it, and that’s when I finally caught it, should have been when I got to see it. Even this one came with a glitch, recording an extra hour after the movie. But at least I got to see it. It’s good and I might watch it again in the future. Now I just have to see about the sequels.