Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018): ‘Sony Manages Multiple Film Worlds’ – A Film Review

Introduction

At the turn of the 21^st century comic book films weren’t even a safe bet for studios to make. This is actually surprising now that the Marvel Cinematic Universe is so big, but initially Marvel had sold one of their biggest heroes to Sony. They made an original trilogy of Spider-Man films with Sam Raimi and despite their problems they paved the way for modern comic book movies, but they ended the series with the need for a reboot. The Amazing Spider-Man films were less fortunate but Sony wanted to keep the rights to Spider-Man from Marvel, they did eventually release their control and Spider-Man was integrated into the Marvel Cinematic Universe but Sony still have the rights and are still wanting to continue making films with the character. Enter Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.

The Drawn Together Spider-Man

The concept for this film really seems to be centred on the idea of the simultaneous universes; since Spider-Man is appearing in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse as well as the Marvel Cinematic Universe. This could be a tricky concept to master but the film uses this to a rather impressive potential. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse seems to push these realities into a concept reminiscent of The Drawn Together Movie. This helps the narrative have a bit more freedom but everything is subject to a ‘reimagining’. This works to taste, sometimes really well but sometimes not so much. This is paired with a self reflective humour making many references to the established franchises of Spider-Man. This works in the films favour as it doesn’t take itself too seriously, just enough to be entertaining and emotionally engaging. This does sometimes lead to misplaced jokes, that still work, but leaves you missing something none-the-less. SPOILERS: An end to an enemy is both funny but robbing you of their potential fight. END OF SPOILERS.

Comic Book as Film

The real show stealer for this film is the animation. Slightly on the CGI side it indulges itself in different styles and the complete melding of film and comic books. The film is painted, comic book styled and impressive. This helps give personality to both the film and its characters, which helps push the film into being both emotional and entertaining but above all unique. For such a stylish film it is quite surprising that the film manages to balance this with its self reflexive humour to create a film that doesn’t take itself seriously in spite of the artistic visuals. This is very much in consequence of this continued back story of a reboot after a reboot after a reboot; the constant new takes and reimaginings.

Conclusion

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse manages to exist in spite of itself: a creative take on a tired as anything formula. It manages to be entertaining and unique despite the monotony of being so used to the character and his back story. It is perhaps exactly where Sony needed to take their comic book hero. Despite the existence of a dominating cinematic universe, Sony have managed something very unexpected. Their character, their Spider-Man will exist.

Synopsis

Miles Morales manages to run into Spider-Man, before he is killed when trying to stop a device to merge different dimensions. This triggers an explosion causing various different Spider-Men to arrive. Their existence in the dimension is complicated and Kingpin’s henchman are hot on their tail.

Ratings

Entertainment:
Performances:
Predictability:
Technical:

A Note on My Reviews

Please read ‘On Reviews‘ for a guide to how I write film reviews. Any spoilers are appropriately marked and, though I personally prefer to know little about a film before seeing it, there is a synopsis below the review for any who wish to see one.

Films Mentioned

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (d. Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey, Rodney Rothman USA 2018)

The Drawn Together Movie (d. Greg Franklin USA 2010)

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018): ‘Sony Manages Multiple Film Worlds’ – A Film Review

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