Film of the Week: Spider-Man: Into the Spider-verse

When Spider-Man: Homecoming was released, that was instantly recognised as the best Spider-Man adaptation. Whilst Sam Rami’s trilogy was – and is still considered – good, it hasn’t completely stood the test of time. It hasn’t aged well; started to crack around the edges. Then, the reboot came along with The Amazing Spider-Man, which wasn’t met with outstanding reviews and whilst there were plenty of comparisons with the reboot and Sam Rami’s trilogy, most of the time the trilogy won through – usually due to the amazing performance of Spider-Man 2. The Amazing Spider-Man 2 came along, and was met with even more criticism than the first film, signalling the end of any more films in that particular franchise.

With the MCU exploding rapidly all over the box office, and with leaked information of Sony and Marvel having conversations about bringing Spider-Man into the MCU, it was an instant reaction for fans, who campaigned to have that happen. A deal was made and the third reboot was made, but one that everyone liked. Marvel stripped out the origin story, and made the character much more like what we know of in the comics – a bouncy, witty, intelligent person. Spider-Man was saved. And, with the inclusion of Iron Man in Homecoming, Spider-Man’s installation into the MCU was official.

Then, Sony released the trailer of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-verse, and it looked decent, especially considering they included Spider-Ham in the list of characters. As much as I love Spider-Man: Homecoming, after only watching Spider-Man: Into the Spider-verse once, I instantly acknowledged it to be the superior Spider-Man film. Except, technically I can’t rank that higher than the other, for one reason on – one’s live-action and one’s animated. The fact that Spider-verse is animated, instantly gives the filmmakers the ability to do what cannot be achieved in any live-action film. So, Homecoming is the superior live-action Spider-Man film, whilst Spider-verse is the superior animated Spider-Man film.

Spider-verse captured the true essence of what Spider-Man is for a character. Granted, they did show an origin story, but it was quick. We all know what happens, but due to the main character not being Peter Parker, but instead Miles Morales, it had to show the origin story to pinpoint the differences between the two leads. However, that didn’t stop them from making Peter Parker the main Spider-Man, who’s been actively swinging around the city for ten years, before the King Ping defeated him.

It was an absolute nerd-fest, filled with hilarious references to past versions of the character, references to the most famous moments over the years, and the infamous – most notably the swagger dance Peter performed in Spider-Man 3, which got the whole screen howling with laughter.

I managed to catch a few references, some blatant and a couple of obscure ones, but I knew instinctively that there would be some Easter eggs that only the die-hard fans of Spider-Man would get, and that’s the beauty of this film being animated. They are able to do an incredible crossover event – even animate the different versions of Spider-Man in the style of their world, just to emphasis their being a multiverse.

However, the main reason why Spider-Man: Into the Spider-verse stands above the rest when it comes to referencing past versions of the character – even surpassing Lego Batman’s monologue of showcasing the many iterations Batman has gone through – and that’s during the post-credits scene. If you haven’t seen it yet, I will not be telling you what happens, but let’s just say it made the people who were in the know laugh hard with surprise and because it was genuinely funny. It also set up the sequel, which is going to be good, because the number of different versions of Spider-Man are practically endless – enough to fill a trilogy – and because it’s animated, there really is no limit to what can be achieved, and therefore I’m confident in saying it will remain at the top of my list as the best Spider-Man film (in the animation category.)

Thanks for reading

Antony Hudson

(TonyHadNouns)