Getting Into- Into the Spider-Verse

There was another, non-aquatic  superhero film my daughter and I caught and enjoyed immensely last month:

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.

We were both very excited about it as soon as we saw the first trailer, and loved the film itself.

Which is kind of weird since neither one of us likes Spidey all that much.

Part of the draw was trusting the Lego Movie guys would deliver something frenetic and fun, especially after seeing evidence of that in the trailer and sneak peek at the end of Venom.

It delivered on expectations and then some. Here are ten reasons in no particular order:

1) The multiverse idea was handled and presented extremely well.  It’s a cool concept in general and the parallels and differences of he Spider-characters were all handled appropriately.

2) The animation was not only extremely engaging, but maintained differences for each different universe that interacted.

3) Spider-man has always been a visually dynamic character making transitions to film and TV look awesome.  Having a bunch of Spider-folks working together added to that.

4)  Peter Parker has evolved past the original idea of an identifiable, normal kid from New York into a massively popular figure with a long history.  By using alternate versions, the evolved version of Peter could be used, but the main character of Miles (and semi main Gwen too) fit the original idea of the character.

5)  From my daughter’s perspective, having female leads in Peri Parker and Spider-Gwen. (Bonus points for her pointe shoes and proper foot form) was awesome.

6) From my perspective, Spider-Ham, one of the more ridiculous and fun comic book ideas from my youth on the big screen was awesome. (Anabelle enjoyed him too. A spider bitten by a radioactive pig! What’s not to like?)

7) Spidey’s got one of the best rogues galleries in comics. This movie may have been the best use of multiple villains in one story I’ve ever seen.

8)  Nicholas Cage brought piles of insane fun to Spider-man Noir that equaled the craziness of his Ghost Rider, but in a way that made more sense in the story. And Lily Tomlin brought an Alfred level of awesomeness to Aunt May.

9) The tragedy of responsibility, a key element of Spidey stories, was there, but was overwhelmed by the links formed between all the different Spider characters, making the ending more satisfying and happy than usual for Mr. Parker’s solo outings.

10) Stan Lee’s cameo, with the release date just after he passed,  was perfect, sweet and true to both his legacy and the character he interacted with.