“Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse”
By A.O. Scott Dec. 12, 2018
“Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” contains a vital element that has been missing from too many recent superhero movies: fun. Most of the better specimens of the genre, as well as the worst, assume a heavy burden of self-importance: the future of the planet, the cosmic balance of good and evil, the profit margins of multinational corporations and the good will of moody fans all depend on the actions of a gloomy character in a costume. Or a bunch of them. The alternative is an abrasive self-consciousness that pretends to be subversive but quickly turns sour and cynical. Either way, these movies can feel like a lot of work.
We can argue about that some other time. My point here is that this animated reworking of the Spidey mythos is fresh and exhilarating in a way that very few of its live-action counterparts — including the last couple of “Spider-Man” chapters — have been. Its jaunty, brightly colored inventiveness and its kid-in-the-candy-store appetite for pop culture ephemera give “Into the Spider-Verse” some of the kick of the first “Lego Movie.” The responsible parties (Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey and Rodney Rothman directed a screenplay by Rothman and Phil Lord) also hold onto the traits that have defined Spidey for more than 50 years. He is still a cerebral, introspective teenager from outer-borough New York, contending with existential confusions and merciless supervillains.
He isn’t Peter Parker, though. Well, he is and he isn’t. Playing with a conceit borrowed from theoretical physics — the hotly contested “multiverse” hypothesis — “Spider-Verse” proposes a multiplicity of web-slingers from different dimensions, all of whom converge thanks to disruption in the space-time continuum. There are a couple of Peter Parkers (voiced by Chris Pine and Jake Johnson). Also a futuristic anime heroine (Kimiko Glenn) with a robot spider, a cartoon pig (John Mulaney), a black-and-white film noir avatar (Nicolas Cage) and a canonical Spider-Woman, a.k.a. Gwen Stacy (Hailee Steinfeld).
The many faces of “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” include, from left, Peni (voiced by Kimiko Glenn), Gwen Stacy (Hailee Steinfeld), Spider-Ham (John Mulaney), Miles Morales (Shameik Moore), Peter B. Parker (Jake Johnson) and Spider-Man Noir (Nicolas Cage).
Credit: Sony Pictures Releasing the many faces of “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” include, from left, Peni (voiced by Kimiko Glenn), Gwen Stacy (Hailee Steinfeld), Spider-Ham (John Mulaney), Miles Morales (Shameik Moore), Peter B. Parker (Jake Johnson) and Spider-Man Noir (Nicolas Cage).
The main Spider-Man, in whose universe a variation on the familiar origin story unfolds, is a Brooklyn middle schooler named Miles Morales (Shameik Moore). The son of a hospital worker (Luna Lauren Velez) and a police officer (Brian Tyree Henry), Miles is a new transfer to an elite boarding school, where the side effects of the radioactive spider bite compound the usual humiliations and anxieties of adolescence.