BLOOD WORK: SUPER HERO CINERAMA: SPIDER-MAN ~ INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE

I could go on the rest of my life reading comics and be fine if I never read another Spider-Man story ever (unless it featured Morbius or Man-Wolf). But there is something about the character that just connects with people, even me. SPIDER-MAN: INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE reminded of how a truly great character Spider-Man is and how he connects to us all.

Spider-Man is not one of my favorites, but I gotta give respect where respect is due. There's a reason why Spider-Man is (arguably) Marvel's most popular character and this movie captures exactly why he is so beloved.

Spider-Man has been through many film iterations. It happens when they've been making Spider-Man movies since 2002. Even with all the different versions of Spider-Man, never did I ever imagine we'd get a film like Into The Spider-Verse. This movie is nuts and way out there, but that is exactly why it is so good.

THE PLOT

Miles Morales was just your average kid struggling to fit in at school and find his place in life. After being bitten by a radioactive spider, Miles starts exhibiting strange powers. Happening upon a battle between Spider-Man and the Kingpin, Miles witnesses Spider-Man's defeat. Kingpin activates his new super collider, opening a portal to the multi-verse. With Spider-Man's dying breath he asks Miles to destroy the collider. But Miles knows next to nothing about his powers, let alone how to stop a super villain like Kingpin. Luckily Miles isn't alone as a few familiar and not so familiar faces arrive to help.

INITIAL IMPRESSIONS

2018 has been a crazy year for super hero films. We've received a record breaking 9 super hero movies and most have been very successful. Crazier still is the experimentation being done with super-hero movies creating film experiences unlike most you've ever seen. This fact never felt more evident than while watching Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.

I'm an avid and continuing comic book reader to this day and am fairly familiar with some crazy weird storytelling. But even I looked at the Spider-Verse comics and said, "that's too much for me."
I kinda felt the same way about the movie when it was first announced. But I've seen every Spider-Man movie in a theater since 2002. And strong word of mouth pushed me to begin the new year by going to the theater and seeing Into the Spider-Verse.

You know my stance on Spider-Man. Well, I had even less of a connection to the character of Miles Morales. But, wow, if I don't feel like I know him now. I enjoyed every minute of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. And it wasn't necessarily because of how crazy the concept was or even the action. This movie, at its core, is a very human story about real problems and real people. There were moments where the drama almost brought a tear to my eye. Take in this aspect along with everything else in the movie and you have something truly amazing and unique. On top of that this movie runs the gamut of emotions in natural and unexpected ways. I laughed a lot.

The voice actors were fantastic, surprising, and utterly delightful (yes, I'm including Nicolas Cage in that statement).

Visually there's nothing else like this movie. I found myself in awe while watching this movie based on the sheer level of detail and esthetics contained herein. How could one person have come up with all of these ideas on some many different levels? The answer is: they didn't. The collaboration involved here is astounding and it's truly remarkable how everything came together so wonderfully.

And of course seeing Stan Lee one more time was emotionally loaded too.

All in all, I came out of Into the Spider-Verse feeling very glad I had decided to go. I've seen all but two of the nine superhero movies this year (Incredibles 2 and Teen Titans Go! being the missing two), Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse was a surprise hit with me and among the better superhero movies I've seen (and not just this year, I mean).

Congrats, Sony. You nailed it with this one.

Overall Ranking: 7 out of 10