Spider-Man: Into the Spider-verse — Logan Fowler
Before I claimed a movie for this very piece, I told myself I wouldn’t go the obvious route. However, in mentioning to a friend that I was contributing to the Best Movies of the Decade article, he enabled/encouraged me that there was only one movie I should write about because (being the Spider-Man fan that I am) I should write about it.
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse is a multi-award-winning film that contains heart, humor, drama, depression, despair, and drive. It offers escapism and reality in a truly cinematic story. It does contain a template we know–a down on his luck/misunderstood kid gets super powers–but it puts that template on a brand new character in the form of Miles Morales (voiced by Shameik Moore). He gets to meet the Peter Parker we know pretty well and a Peter Parker who is like one we don’t know as much. He meets various Spider-people (including the aforementioned Parkers) and all of them find a way to teach Miles how to become the hero he doesn’t want to be, but has to be, and eventually embraces becoming.
It sounds complicated, but within the film is a layered, balanced, story that provides each character enough time to breathe and be memorable. It does as good a job–if not better–figuring out how to juggle a team ensemble in the same vein as The Avengers or Guardians of the Galaxy. Similar to the latter, it also has a phenomenal soundtrack.
There’s nothing about the movie that is strongly flawed. Missed opportunities? Sure. Overall, however, the movie is visually stunning and has a beautiful, beating heart to match. It is the best Spider-Man film to date, and I don’t think that any live action version of the wallcrawler will match this masterpiece any time soon.
What’s up, danger?
