(3) SPIDERMAN: INTO THE SPIDERVERSE

(2018-2023: SPIDERVERSE 1-2. And yes – I’m waiting for the upcoming third film)

 

Alright, let’s start at the beginning one last time.

One might have expected me to rank Spider-Man into the Spider-Verse in my Top 10 Animated Films, given it deservedly won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature in 2018, but I regard this computer-animated superhero film as a comic book film first and foremost (although it would absolutely rank in my Top 10 Animated Films). After all, the animation was intended to make the viewer feel like “you walked inside a comic book” – in some of the most stunning animation I’ve seen on screen.

The film also introduced audiences to Miles Morales and the concept of the Spider-Verse, essentially a multiverse of different, ah, Spider-Men (using that term somewhat loosely to include a cartoon pig and an anime schoolgirl). Miles and the other uncanny Spider-Men must save New York City, probably the world and possibly the multiverse itself from the villain Kingpin’s Super-Collider – which has caused different realities – and their Spider-Men – to bleed together, as it were.

The film is best encapsulated by its signature scene, the The Leap of Faith scene with its stunning visuals, fantastic music, great choreography, and the cathartic narrative moment of Miles finally becoming Spider-Man – “The entire movie was literally built around this scene, with the animators being shown a rough version of it to get an idea of what the directors wanted, almost all of which made it into the final version intact”.

In addition to the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature (as well as numerous awards), it won critical praise for its animation, characters, story, voice acting, humor and soundtrack – the critical consensus was “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse matches bold storytelling with striking animation for a purely enjoyable adventure with heart, humor, and plenty of superhero action”. Although my favorite critical statement was that the “the greatest triumph and biggest surprise of the film is that it is an LSD freak-out on par with 2001: A Space Odyssey” (but a lot more exciting than that film).

 

“This literally cannot get any weirder”

“It CAN get weirder”

 

And it got even bigger with the sequel film Across the Spiderverse in 2023, which ended on a cliffhanger awaiting the upcoming third film Beyond the Spiderverse in 2027.

 

FANTASY OR SF

 

I’m going with the SF genre – the concept of a multiverse tends to be identified with the SF genre and alternative histories or timelines, although there’s nothing stopping it being used for fantasy as well and it often crosses over into it, both in general and in these films.

 

COMEDY

 

Well, it wouldn’t be Spiderman without some wisecracking comedy, but it has more serious emotional depth to it than other entries in my top ten.

 

 

RATING: 5 STARS*****

S-TIER (GOD TIER – OR IS THAT SPIDER TIER?)