Over the past two decades, three white guys have played Spider-Man. There was the original, chubby-faced Tobey Maguire, the Coldplay-listening skateboarder (we don’t talk about him) and the best of the bunch, the charming and childish Tom Holland. Last year’s “Spider-Man: Homecoming” did what it could to reinvigorate the myth of Peter Parker, but after six live-action solo movies, even the most die-hard Spider-fans (this critic included) might be getting a little sick of the same old story.
“Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” is the cure.
The plot goes a little something like this: Middle-schooler Miles Morales (Shameik Moore) is a Spider-Man fan who winds up with arachnid powers of his own. Not long afterwards, he meets “Peter Parker” (Jake Johnson, “New Girl”), a washed-up, overweight Spider-Man from an alternate reality. “Peter” is just the first Spider-person to appear, as “Spider-Gwen” (Hailee Steinfeld), a black-and-white “noir” Spider-Man (a hilarious Nicolas Cage), and Spider-Ham (a pig with spider powers, played by John Mulaney) all show up as well. The “space-time continuum” is in jeopardy, and the group must learn to work together to get everyone back to their native universes.
“Pretty standard ‘Spider-Man’ stakes,” as Peter sarcastically puts it, but as a whole, “Spider-Verse” couldn’t be further from the norm. Directors Rodney Rothman, Peter Ramsey and Bob Persichetti inject so much style into the picture that “Spider-Verse” could be mistaken for an Edgar Wright film (high praise). The latter’s work on “Scott Pilgrim” is clearly an inspiration, with this latest take on the wall-crawler firmly embracing his comic book roots. The movie has a totally distinct look and feel (partially enabled by the use of a lower frame rate), and while it’s not entirely relevant, “Spider-Verse” is a love-letter to the last ten years (approximately since I started buying comic books) of Marvel comics, perfectly reinvigorating what’s worked.
It’s a sincere Spider-Man movie about Spider-Man, a postmodern meditation in the same vein as “The Lego Movie.” This makes sense, considering the film was co-written by Phil Lorde (half of the “Lego Movie” and the new “Jump Street” series), who brings a similar commitment to a multiplicity of narratives and the “meta” sensibilities that one has come to expect (Miles singing a song recorded for his own soundtrack is a fun detail). As plot jostles Miles between different father figures and the film juggles different aesthetics, it becomes clear that Ramsey, Rotham and Persichetti are trying to make a Spider-Man movie with something for everyone. What’s crazy is that they actually pull it off.
Because “Spider-Verse” doesn’t get bogged down by its hefty ambitions—on the contrary, the film is fast-paced and frequently hilarious. There’s some of the “Spider-Man in school” antics that made “Homecoming” feel so fresh, and the action is constantly enjoyable. Like its closest competitor, the excellent “Incredibles 2,” “Spider-Verse” makes a real case for animated superhero adaptations—the medium allows for six things to be happening at once, as we cycle between multiple, simultaneous beats during each of the energetic (and, at times, psychedelic) set-pieces.
It’s in the relationship between the disheveled Peter and the inexperienced Miles where “Spider-Verse” finds its real heart. As Peter shows Miles the ropes—or rather, the webs (couldn’t resist)–the pair bring out the best in each other. The solution to our Spidey saturation was never to replace Peter Parker. Rather, it’s about diversifying our definition of the hero. “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” is one of the best superhero movies in recent memory because it does just that.
And if that wasn’t enough, there’s the talking pig voiced by John Mulaney.
