Critics Call Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse one of the Best Spider-Man Films Ever
It’s already been a very good week for new superhero movies. First, we published our round-up of early reactions to James Wan’s Aquaman, in which folks took to Twitter to profess their joy at the wildly ambitious, relentlessly fun origin story. Now we’ve got a proper review round-up of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, and they are uniformly gushing. Spider-Verse is currently sitting at 100% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, with some critics calling it the best superhero film of the year (considering that Black Panther came out this past February, that’s a serious compliment), while others say it’s either the best or one of the best Spider-Man films ever made. The lushly animated Spider-Verse follows Afro-Latino teenager Miles Morales (Shameik Moore) in his big-screen debut, as he finds himself on the adventure of a lifetime when he’s plunged into a bevy alternate universes. Miles crosses paths with Peter Parker (Jake Johnson), Spider-Woman (Hailee Steinfeld), and Spider-Ham (John Mulaney) to name a few. All the teasers and trailers were glorious, but you couldn’t be sure the film as a whole would be as good as everyone thought it might be until people got to see it in its entirety. Now that that’s happened, it appears the film lives up to the hype and then some.
So here’s your brief, spoiler-free review round-up, which should be all the motivation you need to get into a theater and see Spider-Verse on the big screen when it swings into multiplexes on December 14.
You’ve probably heard some hype over the last day about SPIDER-MAN: INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE. Allow me to be the voice of reason and tell you that…it is all true. One of the most incredible animated films I’ve ever seen, and probably the best superhero film of the past decade.
— Bilge Ebiri (@BilgeEbiri) November 28, 2018
Spider-man: Into The Spider-Verse is not only the best animated feature and best comic book movie this year, but one of the best movies of 2018 period. I don’t think another movie does a better job of bringing a comic book to life on the big screen. pic.twitter.com/EeDzaaoBqD
— Peter Sciretta (@slashfilm) November 28, 2018
Polygon‘s Susan Polo says that Spider-Verse is “one of the best action comedies of the year,” and “as a story, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse lives up to the hype, offering a classic coming-of-age narrative with a twist that only a comic book universe could provide.”
i09‘s Charles Pulliam-Moore calls Spider-Verse “the game-changing origin story you’ve been waiting for.”
USA Today‘s Briant Truitt calls it the year’s best animated film, and “a slightly insane, hilariously daring and often touching mashup of everything that makes super-flicks so darn popular with the introduction of a Spider-Man who’s ready-made for today’s generation of kids.”
The Los Angeles Times Justin Chang writes that the New York that Spider-Verse creates “springs to life in images that feel both vividly real and gloriously, proudly cartoonish, combining the vibrant, hyperreal texture of CG animation and the sharp, angular quality of classic comic-book panels.”
Into the Spider-Verse was directed by Peter Ramsey, Robert Persichetti Jr., Rodney Rothman and produced by the LEGO Movie creative dervishes Phil Lord and Chris Miller.
Featured image: Miles Morales (Shameik Moore) as Spider-Man in Sony Pictures Animation’s SPIDER-MAN: INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE. PHOTO BY: Sony Pictures Animation
