'Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse' is the best Spider-Man movie and I am prepared to argue about it

Story

Miles Morales, a teenager who lives in Brooklyn becomes the Spider-Man of his reality and crosses path with 5 other 'Spider-People' from alternate dimensions. They all have to come together to stop a threat to all their respective realities.

This story is very unique. Is this movie the first one to tell this kind of story? No. However, a story like this hasn't been told against the backdrop of a superhero movie. It feels bold and like nothing you've seen before.

Acting 

This movie has some of the best voice-acting I have ever heard. All the characters felt like real people and were able to relay emotion and nuance without seeing any of them and I commend them for that. 

The cast is packed with recognisable faces (or voices). Jake Johnson
, Hailee Steinfeld, Mahershala Ali, Brian Tyree Henry, Zoe Kravitz, John Mulaney, Nicolas Cage, Liev Schreiber and Chris Pine. When I look at the cast list, all the actors are perfectly cast and all their voices fit their characters to a tee. You focus more on the characters than the people voicing them.

Shameik Moore is a stand-out as Miles Morales. Even though he's adult playing a kid, you never feel like Miles is older than he says he is. Miles as a character is unique, not just because of his Afro-Latino upbringing which isn't drawn attention to in a good way. The movie never feels the need to tell you that he's Afro-Latino, he just is. Miles in a kid and at no point do you feel like the movie compromises on that. He's allowed time to grow and mature but he's also allowed to just be a kid.

Jake Johnson is pitch-perfect as this movie's version of Peter B. Parker. He's the older version of Tobey Macguire, Andrew Garfield and Tom Holland's Spider-Man. I like this version because it is one we haven't seen before. He's older and less enthusiastic and a great contrast to Miles who is a lot younger and newer to being Spider-Man.


I can't talk about the acting in movie without talking about Bryan Tyree Henry who has been killing it lately. (If you haven't seen Widows yet, do yourself a massive favour and go see it. He's fantastic in  it ) He brings so much emotion and humour to the role. The same goes for Mahershala Ali, his performance is so good, I didn't even know it was him until the credits rolled. 

Writing/Direction

Even though they didn't direct it you can tell that Phil Lord and Chris Miller were involved in the project. If you're familiar with the Lego Movie, you'll recognise their movie making style. The humour is very similar to the aforementioned movie and in this movie, it really works. There is a perfect balance of humour, action and heart, which makes for a really compelling movie
Even though this is more of a plot-driven movie, the characters aren't put on the back-burner. Even those who are clearly supporting characters are all given their moment to shine. 

This movie is very is very different from every other Spider-Man movie and that's not because of the change of main character (even though that plays a large role). It takes characters we are familiar with and gives them a new lease on life. It also introduces characters that mainstream audiences might not be familiar with like Spider-Gwen and Spider-ham to great comedic effect. 

Animation

I'm a self-professed animation snob. It can make or break an animated project for me (part of the reason why I'm not into Rick and Morty, but that's neither here nor there). The animation in this movie is some of the best I have ever seen. It's something I haven't seen before and I found it captivating from the beginning of the film till the end.

While doing research about the movie to write this review, I found out that the movie was animated to look like a comic book and some of the imperfections that appear in comic books made their way into the movie to make it look more authentic. The level of attention to detail really pays off because the look of this fi,m is so unique. I can guarantee that you haven't seen anything like it. 

Score/Soundtrack

The soundtrack is fantastic, I couldn't help but Shazam songs while I was watching the movie. All the songs fir the tone of the movie perfectly. Even though the movie is more soundtrack driven, the score is still a prominent feature and is a welcome addition to the film. It's almost as if the soundtrack is aware of what scene it's in because it feels tangible and real. 

I listened to the soundtrack on the way back from the cinema and I'm still listening to it now.  It's that good. Home by Vince Staples is my favourite song but I also recommend, Scared of the Dark, Hide and Sunflower. 

Overall Thoughts

Going into this I was very excited but also very scared, because I had heard so many good things because I had heard so many good things about the movie and I had hyped it up so much and I was worried that I was going to be a little disappointed with the final product because it didn't live up took Others expectations. However, I can say that I loved this movie from start to finish. It's so refreshing to have a movie that focuses on Miles Morales (mine and my brothers favourite Spider-Man) and his family. He's such an amazing character and he's finally getting his due from the general public.

Every single aspect of the film works from the voice acting to the story to the score and the animation. This movie is as perfect as it was ever going to be. At the end of the movie I turned to my sister and I said: "I can't wait to watch this movie again." And that statement rings very true, I'm excited to see all the little details I missed on my first watch. I'm going to be bold and say that this is one of the best aniamted movies of the last 5 years and I feel pretty strongly about that statement.