Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse
An animated marvel, in many ways
Did you think Tom Holland’s Peter Parker making everyone weep in Infinity War, or Insomniac’s Spidey perfecting videogame traversal was as good as the last 12 months could get for Marvel’s friendly neighbourhood wall-crawler? Think again. An animated wonder, Spider-Man: Into The SpiderVerse isn’t just up there with the best superhero films of 2018, it’s one of the best films of 2018.
Bringing fan-favourite mixed-race Spidey Miles Morales to the big screen for the first time, the film unites all manner of weird and wacky SpiderFolk, who are sucked into Miles’ world when Wilson Fisk’s particle collider bridges the gap between multiple dimensions. But the collider is on the verge of collapse, and only the Spider-Men, -Women and -Pigs can save the multiverse.
The first thing you can’t help but notice about Into The Spider-Verse is it looks spectacular. The film’s three
directors developed some inspired techniques to bring the film to life, including layering 2D line drawings over 3D models, and animating on “twos” (where characters only move once every two frames). The result is the closest any film has come to replicating the look and feel of a comic book on screen.
But style over substance this ain’t. Embracing the beauty of Spider-Man’s design – that anyone can wear the mask and be a hero – Spider-Verse is smart, heartfelt, irreverent and blisteringly funny. Simply put, whichever universe you’re from, don’t miss it. Jordan Farley