Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse - Film Review

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Spider-Man hits cinemas yet again, having become the most regular comic book visitor to the silver screen in recent times (9 films since 2002), displacing Batman (10 films since 1989). This time, it's a fully-fledged animated film.

Animated films don't often get big cinematic releases. Occasionally, one will get a small release in cinemas, but very few get a $90 million budget and a worldwide cinema release. A true sign of confidence from Sony in the film is that they've released at a very busy time at the cinema with films such as Aquaman and Bumblebee also hitting the big screen.

There is a good reason why Sony has confidence in the film. It's a darn good product. It might not quite be suitable for me, but a lot of people will love this film, including kids and so it's a very good way of keeping the kids entertained these holidays.

The film is a little reminiscent of Deadpool in its use of humour, unstructured narrative and self-awareness. The film also has a modern cartoon approach to action, in that its high octane and there's a lot of things occurring every minute, with split screens accommodating lots of different characters doing lots of different things, all at once. It also drops more Easter Eggs than the Easter Bunny, referencing almost every movie and famous scene from past films and TV shows.

The animation is brilliant. The directors wanted the film to look like a moving comic book and they've successfully, using many traditional comic book techniques, as well as modern CGI animation. Spider-Man as a character works well in this setting and looks fantastic.

The storyline is busy but effective. Basically, with a multi-verse storyline, the writers have the freedom to do whatever they want as they can bring characters in and out whenever they want, and they're able to go quite out there with their ideas because, in the end, it doesn't matter, it will all return to normal at the end. So, as a result, we have a variety of different Spider-Man iterations. We don't get much in terms of character development, and we just have to accept many of these characters with little or no introduction.

For me, there was a little too much going on, especially visually, and I had to leave the cinema after an hour due to motion sickness. I returned and made to the end, but felt quite queasy after it, so be aware if you too suffer from motion sickness. I would have liked the film to have a little more space in the script to let the story breathe a little more.

But kids will love the film, as will many adults. If you like superhero movies, this one should appeal.



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