January is the absolute arsehole of the year. All the other months are basically OK in and of themselves, but January just always works out to be a complete dick. Not only do we now have to suffer the obligatory "new year, new me!" resolution bollocks which inevitably last about the same amount of time as it takes people to get back to work, restock on Pop Tarts and go back to doing the same old stuff they did before, but because apparently nobody has been able to develop payroll software that can transfer money into your employee's accounts while you HR team isn't in the building, January appears to be roughly 17 weeks long and sucks the cash out of you like some sort of fiduciary vampire. Thank the maker for loyalty and points cards though, because I've managed to save around 50 notes on archery, birthday presents and cinema trips which means I might not end the month on a diet of dust and rainwater.
So it was that for the paltry sum of six of your pre-Brexit English pounds I was able to treat myself and my fiancée to an afternoon showing of Spiderman: Into the Spiderverse. A little late to the party, but at least we got there in the end. Turns out, treat is exactly the right word.
The clamour for the Miles Morales incarnation of Spiderman has been mounting since Sony made a deal with the Devil and allowed Disney partial rights to Spidey just in time for Civil War and the rumours of the reboot started. It was always a very, very long shot that we were going to get anything other than Peter Parker for that, which is fair enough and they did things right in Homecoming; they're clearly paving the way though because Into the Spiderverse did things just as right, even if they aren't MCU canon (they seem to gone for half Sony canon, half not for the sake of a couple of neat gags that land, so I guess we can let it slide).
On the face of things, you might be forgiven for being sceptical; this is another Superhero origin story after all, but it knows it and uses that fact to its advantage; Deadpool paved the way for all these self-referential bits and they manage to pull it off; when there are no less than five different Spider-folks to introduce you have to be smart about it. They went for some crackers too: Spiderman Noir is one of my favourite novels, and Nicholas Cage is my current favourite actor (still riding the delightful wave of existential terror induced by multiple viewings of Mandy) and Spider Ham is just bonkers enough to add some surreal brevity. Peter B Parker though, is arguably one of the best versions of the character we've seen; a slightly run down, tubby, worn out, jaded hero with marital issues but still somehow managing to be a half decent mentor. He's been heroing long enough that his enthusiasm is all but gone but he still manages to be more likeable than Toby Maguire ever was. It's not the same old take on things and it shows they've actually decided to put some thought into characters rather than just mashing set pieces together; the set pieces in the preceeding 6 movies were arguably the most enjoyable thing about them with the exception of Spiderman 3's frankly cringe-inducing and rightly ridiculed Emo Dance off moment which is one of the many reasons I never purchased that particular FVF or ever watched that movie again. There have, perhaps, been worse atrocities committed to celluloid, but not many I' ll wager and not by very much. Digressions aside, Miles is a relatable protégé whose development over the course of the movie is fairly predictable, but none the less satisfying for it. It's genuinely a case of the journey being more important than the destination, although there are enough feels knocking around at the end to get even the staunchest of eyeballs the old dusty treatment. The bad guys are a little one dimensional in places, serving as little more than spider-fodder but it's a small consideration really in the grand scheme of things. Doc Ock gets a gender swap, although it isn't as preachy and self-righteous as other similar endeavours, and Kingpin is, well Kingpin. Scorpion and Green Goblin look great but ultimately don't really do a lot and I had to work out who Tombstone was from the credits.
Much has been made of the animation style and credit where it's due, Into the Spider verse has been designed and put together immaculately. Full disclosure, I think they've made the stylistic choice to have the foreground and background drop in and out of focus on purpose, but I was genuinely convinced they'd accidentally put the 3D version on and failed to notice. I guess we'll have to wait and see which it was, but it was really distracting throughout the whole movie. Also, some of the outlines were out of whack (especially in the characters' eyes bizarrely) and it made me perplexed, then angry then perplexed again. I doubt anyone else even noticed it to be fair, but it's still bugging me now. Ha, bug pun.
It might not strictly be canon but it's certainly a worthy addition to the ever increasing suite of Spidey films and is infinitely more watchable than that third Sam Raimi movie. In the absence (for now) of a live action Miles Morales, it's definitely a step/swing in the right direction.
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