It takes a lot to get me to a Marvel superhero movie. At this point the franchise is a tired, brazen money grab, with endless concluding action sequences. But Spiderman: Into the Spider-verse had some unusually strong reviews and was praised for being out of the box. The film buff in me said go. So I did.
The movie is a comic brought to life. The graphics, drawings, and colors are all straight out of a comic book. Even when the animation isn’t broken out into panels, there is usually something bisecting the frame (like a column). Superheroes started as comics. Unlike the current big-budget dreck, this film is true to the original genre. The animation is visually arresting and fun to watch. My understanding is that new animation techniques were invented for it.
Then there is a great story. Young African American/Hispanic boy from Brooklyn gets bit by, well, a radioactive spider, and turns into Spiderman, or at least the potential to be Spiderman. First he’s got to figure it out.
The voicework from this film is wonderful, as is the story arc. The action scenes, normally so interminable to me when in live action form (see first paragraph) are actually enjoyable when presented in animated comic book form. There are some fun riffs on the hackneyed genre plot points, such as the time-space continuum.
I loved this movie. One of the best films of the year.
The Judge 