SPIDER-MAN: INTO THE SPIDERVERSE (PG)
DIRECTORS: Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey STARRING: the voices of Shameik Moore, Jake Johnson, Hailee Steinfeld, Mahershala Ali. RATING:
THERE
have now been seven Spider-Man movies since the turn of the millennium. Do we really need another one? Probably not. Nevertheless, Spider-Man: Into the Spider
Verse is here anyway, and it just happens to be the most radical, free-thinking and up-for-anything of them all.
It is also wholly animated, which could be a sticking point for some Spidey purists.
They needn’t worry on this front, as the visuals here are first-class, vibrantly mimicking the textures and shading of mass-produced comics of yesteryear.
What drags Into the Spider-Verse into the modern era is how casually it brushes aside longtime central figure Peter Parker (voiced here by Jake Johnson) to focus on a younger, hungrier and street-smart Spidey.
His name is Miles Morales (Shameik Moore), a mixed-race honours student who needs to get the hang of his newly acquired Spidey powers ASAP.
Miles has a very different kind of back story to all those Peter Parkers that have come before, and Into the Spider-Verse is prepared to put some considerable time and energy into helping viewers get to know the kid.
If those efforts do pay off, it is largely because the large creative team that worked on the movie wisely never stray too far from the key Spidey maxim “with great power comes great responsibility.”
This intriguing contemporary origin story - which later on ushers in an additional group of, umm, let’s call ‘em Spider-figures - has its problems staying coherent at key junctures.
However, the inspired illustrative designs never once lose their appeal.