Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse

"This could literally not get any weirder."

"It can get weirder!"

Miles Morales (Moore) is a New York teenager trying to find his place.  He is a talented artist and struggling to fit in at his new boarding school.  Everything in his life changes when he is bitten by a spider.  The next day he starts exhibiting strange abilities that he can't control.  He discovers the Kingpin (Schrieber) has built a super-collider to access parallel universes.  He uses the machine, but is thwarted by Spider-Man (Chris Pine), who is killed in the aftermath.  Before Spider-Man dies, he tells Miles how to destroy the collider and save the world.

As the world mourns the loss of Spider-Man, Miles finds another Peter Parker (Johnson).  This Peter is Spider-Man in a parallel universe and was sucked into this world by the collider.  Peter agrees to help Miles, so he can return to his time.  They also discover Gwen Stacy (Steinfeld), Spider-Man Noir (Cage), Peni Parker (Glenn) and her robot, and Spider-Ham (Mulaney) were pulled into Miles world by the collider.  Can they team up to defeat Kingpin and his murderous minions and save the world?


Spider-Man was created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko in 1962.  He is a popular Marvel comics characters and has two iterations: Peter Parker and Miles Morales.  The character has appeared in numerous animated TV shows since the late 1960s.  Parker has appeared in films since the late 1970s.  Nicholas Hammond starred in 1977's Spider-Man, 1978's Spider-Man Strikes Back, and 1981's Spider-Man: The Dragon's Challenge.  Tobey Maguire starred in the Sam Raimi trilogy: Spider-Man in 2002, Spider-Man 2 in 2004, and Spider-Man 3 in 2007.  Sony rebooted the franchise in 2012 with Marc Webb as the director and Andrew Garfield as the title character: The Amazing Spider-Man in 2012 and The Amazing Spider-Man 2 in 2014.  Sony came to a licensing agreement with Marvel Studios, allowing the character to appear in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) and solo films for Sony.  This version of Parker is played by Tom Holland, who starred in Spider-Man: Homecoming in 2017 and Spider-Man: Far From Home in 2019 and appeared in the MCU films Captain America: Civil War, Avengers: Infinity War, and Avengers: Endgame.  The Morales version of Spider-Man was created in 2011 by Brian Michael Bendis and Sara Pichelli.  This is the film debut of the character.

The Good:
Most people know Spider-Man and his origin story (at least the traditional Peter Parker origin story) is well-known.  They give each of the various Spiders a chance to do a brief recap of their origin story, while the file serves as Miles origin.  The film also references the live-action Spider-Man films, the animated TV shows, etc.  It is a love letter to Spider-Man fans

The Bad:
I don't have any complaints.  The story is interesting and moves as at a good pace.  The villains aren't overly defined, but they aren't bad.

Other Comments:
-The animation is great.  The style is distinct for each of the Spiders: Spider-Man Noir is black and white, SP//dr is cartoony-anime, and Spider-Ham is kiddie animation almost like the Looney Tunes.  Everything looks hand-drawn, but is CGI animation.  The film won the 2019 Oscar for Best Animated Feature.
-It feels like a comic book.  After Miles is bit by the spider, thought boxes appear.  It doesn't seem gimmicky and adds to the story.
-They use well-known villains: Kingpin, Doc Ock, Green Goblin, without taking the focus away from all of the Spiders.
-They wisely leave the story open for potential sequels.  Two sequels, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse and Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse, are also in the works.

-They are also planning to make a spin-off about the Spider-Women. 

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018) 117 minutes
Director: Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey, Rodney Rothman
Starring: Shameik Moore as Miles Morales / Spider-Man
Jake Johnson as Peter B. Parker / Spider-Man
Hailee Steinfeld as Gwen Stacy / Spider-Woman
Mahershala Ali as Aaron Davis
Brian Tyree Henry as Jefferson Davis
Lily Tomlin as Aunt May
Luna Lauren Velez as Rio Morales
Zoe Kravitz as Mary Jane Watson
John Mulaney as Peter Porker / Spider-Ham
Kimiko Glenn as Peni Parker / SP//dr
Nicholas Cage as Peter Parker / Spider-Man Noir
Liev Schrieber as Wilson Fisk