Spider-Man into the Spider-Verse review: It makes the case animation beats live-action for comic book movies

Dir: Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey, Rodney Rothman; Starring: Shameik Moore, Hailee Steinfeld, Mahershala Ali, Jake Johnson. Cert PG, 117 mins

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse is the seventh Spider-Man film to be released in cinemas in the past 16 years. We’ve seen three different actors suit up for the role in Tobey Maguire, Andrew Garfield and Tom Holland. By all logic, we should be exhausted by now. The Marvel character’s first animated film, however, has done the near-impossible – totally revitalise him.

While we are still up in arms about whether superhero films should be light or dour, humorous or gritty, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse slips past unconcerned, combining so many of the elements the genre has strived for – visual flair, humour, genuine pathos, style, grand narratives – while making a strong case that animation is the natural medium for the comic book movie.

It may not be the greatest superhero movie ever made (the film’s noisy energy can sometimes drown out its more grounded moments), but it’s arguably one of the most ambitious.

It’s directed by Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey, and Rodney Rothman, but the film undeniably bears the markings of its producers, Phil Lord and Chris Miller, with Lord also serving as co-writer. The pair, known for The Lego Movie and 21 Jump Street, have shaped a personal brand from taking ideas that look foolish on paper and turning them into critical and box office hits. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse is no different.

It’s a risk not only to release a Spider-Man film slotted in between Disney’s own behemoths (last year’s Spider-Man: Homecoming and next year’s Spider-Man: Far From Home), but to release one that openly rejects the idea that Holland’s Peter Parker is the definitive Spider-Man, declaring that “anyone can wear the mask”.

Here, we get a fresh start with Miles Morales (charmingly voiced by Shameik Moore), who has appeared as Spider-Man in the comics since 2011. He still gains his powers from the bite of a radioactive spider, but we’re spared the more tiresome details: his parents are still alive, so there’s no Aunt May or Uncle Ben needed to raise him and/or die tragically.

The twist, however, is that he’s bitten by a spider from another universe. His world already has a Spider-Man. Or, more accurately, had a Spider-Man, as the film opens on the adult Peter Parker’s (Chris Pine) untimely death. As the barriers between dimensions start to dissolve further, Miles soon realises he’s far from the only Spider-Person around.

The mask can be worn, too, by a teenage girl (Hailee Steinfeld’s Spider-Gwen), a film noir detective (Nicolas Cage’s Spider-Noir), an anime character (Kimiko Glenn’s SP//dr), or a cartoon pig (John Mulaney’s Spider-Ham). There’s even an alternate dimension Peter Parker (Jake Johnson) who’s in the midst of a post-divorce emotional slump.

These are all characters who originated from the comics (yes, even Spider-Ham), brought together with the same gleeful lack of concern for rules or logic that has always steered the comic book world. It’s an attitude we so rarely get to see onscreen. Add to that, the film’s animation style carefully translates the cross-hatching and Ben-Day dots of comic artwork, alongside split-screen panels and dialogue boxes, and overlays all of it onto the now-standard 3D animation. The result looks like a graphic novel sprung to life.

However, what’s perhaps most quietly impressive about Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse is that it isn’t content to simply fall back on its sense of frivolity. It’s hilarious, undoubtedly, and packed with visual jokes to pore over (eagle-eyed viewers will spot that in Miles’s universe, Chance the Rapper finally released a fourth album), but it also carves out a touching family drama, as Miles is left in the emotional chasm between his feuding father (Brian Tyree Henry) and uncle (Mahershala Ali).

It’s a film, also, that makes the effort to see the world through Miles’s perspective, as an Afro-Latino kid in Brooklyn, and grounds it in that reality. Granted, the balance between all these things isn’t always perfect: it’s a busy film where each emotion, wonder or depth can be gone in a flash, but it’s a thrill to immerse yourself in a world like this, where everything feels possible.

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse is out in UK cinemas now