If you keep up with me at all, for some reason I haven't said anything about this movie. I have seen it. In fact, I've seen it multiple times. Off the bat, that should give you an idea how I feel about this movie. I honestly might put this to the top of my personal Spider-Man mountain over Spider-Man: Homecoming, which until this movie, my top Spider-Man movie.
There are so many things to say about this movie and I want to make sure I get all my feelings out there. I generally say this about all comic movies, but I look for these movies to be considered a legitimately good movie, not just "Good for a comic book movie". I am happy to report that this movie is the former.
Even if you don't know anything about Spider-Man, I think it explains things enough to get you up to speed. There are a lot of different Spider-Men that show up here and they make sure to give a quick, cool intro about each of them and how they joined the story. With all of this, the movie's main character is undoubtedly Miles Morales.
Let's start there. Miles was a likable character. What person can't remember that time in their life where they were old enough to try and be independent, but also young enough where they weren't able to do that fully just yet. That never stopped them from trying to be their own person and not have to be controlled by their parents. There was some excellent voice work by actor, Shameik Moore, that grounded Miles. He had to go on an emotional roller coaster ride with Miles and he expertly pulls it off.
Next, we have Jake Johnson, who did a fantastic job as the Peter Parker (with the dad bod) from a different dimension that became a mentor to Miles. What I liked about their relationship is they quickly move on from the gruff, "I don't want to teach you, leave me alone" aspect that they started off with. You felt a real bond between the two and the later scenes between them carry a lot of weight. It was believable because the story built it up that way.
To complete the main triumvirate of our heroes, there is Gwen Stacy, voiced by Hailee Steinfeld. She was also excellent and bounced off the other two characters well.
Let me also mention that the rest of the cast was great with appearances by other actors such as Nic Cage(!), Mahershala Ali, Brian Tyree Henry, John Mulaney, Liev Schreiber and Kathryn Hahn to name a few.
Moving on to other things I liked about this movie, the animation. This world was highly stylized and it was beautiful. There were pops of color every where. All the locations were fully realized and the characters themselves looked good and they were distinct. They were not cookie cutter at all. I also want to point out that I liked the diverse representation of New York (as it should be) and this does take place in Brooklyn, so that is reflected here. I think every race gets represented in one way or another and I think that is super important. All I could think about is how the kids that watch this will have something to see themselves in. This is the kind of movie I wish I had as a kid. I know I have said that a lot with my last couple of reviews, but that doesn't make it any less true.
The music selection was also key to the experience and it did not disappoint. Some of the characters had their own theme and the bombastic scores that appear during the fight scenes hit the right cord. This movie was VERY heavy, so the moments of levity that they have really help balance that out. There are some truly funny bits here.
I mentioned above how heavy this movie gets. There is a lot of tragedy in this story. Miles specifically. He goes through a lot in this movie and it's so much, you wouldn't blame him if he wanted to pack it in. This story does a great job showing the character that Miles has and you really root for him. You want him to overcome everything. It is a journey that I think is very well portrayed. He had help, but the fact that he actually responded to that instead of being a bratty kid only helped to further make him likable. By using alternate dimensions as a backdrop, they are able to drop in these other Spider-Men without it feeling ham-fisted. Even the reason for the rifts opening in the first place are also tragic. For those that have not seen the movie yet, I do not want to spoil it. This movie also moved at a quick pace, slowing down for more introspective moments from Miles and then kicking right back into the action. Miles has that moment that I always cheer for in movies like this. When he finally pieces it all together and starts to realize his potential. It is always an internal fist pump moment for me.
Finally, this movie is chock full of little easter eggs for those with eagle eyes. For instance, when Miles is scrolling through his phone to call his dad at one point, the names, "Bendis" and "Pichelli" appear on the screen. These are the creators of the Miles Morales character. There's the nod to that awful dancing scene in Spider-Man 3. There's your requisite Stan Lee appearance. Then you have the awesome re-imagining of some of his rogue's gallery here.
Even though it took me a long time to get there, these are all the reasons I really loved this movie. As you can see, I didn't really find anything to nitpick here, which is a rarity for me. Go see this movie if you haven't already!
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