Into the Spiderverse: The AMAZING Spider-Men

Into the Spiderverse is a blast start to finish, Miles Morales is played pitch perfectly by Shamiek Moore in what somehow is an origin story, an end of career story and a mid-career story all at once. As a longtime Spider-Man fan i found this movie entertaining, surprising and super funny with plenty of references to movies, TV and the comics to keep my interest.

Kingpin, played by Liev Shreiber, is played in an interesting way that feels very organic to the character. He’s lost his family and has tapped into the multiverse to try and get an alternate universe’s version of them. Alongside Kingpin are Doctor Octopus, Scorpion, Prowler, Tombstone, Green Goblin and an endless army of faceless goons. I was genuinely stoked to see Prowler, who is in my opinion an underrated Spidey villain.

Teaming up with Miles are the Spider-men of many worlds– two are even lady Spider-Men! Time to reexamine your gender biases! (Before you guys skewer me that’s a loose quote from the movie) I really appreciated that each member of the team got a moment to shine, even though the best thing one of them did was die.

Easter Eggs abound especially in Aunt May’s shed and the pages of Mile’s roommate’s comic books. I won’t spoil any for you guys but I was pretty stoked to see the suits in Spidey’s arsenal, and Miles phone contacts, to name a couple things to look for. There were even references to this issue, which I happen to own!

I did find it interesting that this movie takes place in the currently defunct Ultimate Universe, which was destroyed in the 2016 event Secret Wars. I’m definitely gonna binge some Ultimate Spider-Man this week!

The animation style was mind blowing, it’s borderline impossible to explain but my goodness see this movie firsthand to see one of the better renditions of multiverse splicing I’ve ever seen.

I did also want to say I saw this movie with my 4 year old son and he liked it enough to sit through it and only fidget during the talky parts, a resounding victory if you have a kid who likes Spider-Man, although as I mentioned there are a couple off-screen deaths if you have a sensitive child. *Editor’s note: I guess that means I’ll be waiting for the digital release*

I will say the music was extremely pop music/ rap heavy for my taste, but I don’t hold it against it. Movies never have music I like anymore.