Yet, Spider-Verse’s humour isn’t overly snarky. Directors Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey and Rodney Rothman both send up and pay homage to myriad comic-book tropes, using animation’s limitless possibilities to transform Miles’ world into a virtual graphic novel whenever they desire. Perhaps not surprisingly, the directors of those previous films, Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, serve as producers on Spider-Verse, with Lord also acting as one of the film’s writers.īut Spider-Verse isn’t content to simply spoof Spidey’s narrative conventions. With its irreverent acknowledgement of previous Spider-Man films - 2007’s critically-derided Spider-Man 3 is prodded early on - Spider-Verse shares a tonal similarity to recent blockbuster comedies such as 21 Jump Street and The Lego Movie, both of which mocked the cultural ubiquity pf their source material. Parker (voiced by Jake Johnson), to bring down the Kingpin. Miles must team up with these displaced heroes, reluctantly led by the cynical Peter B. Tragedy soon strikes, though: Spider-Man is killed by the evil Kingpin (voiced by Liev Schreiber), who has created a supercollider that accidentally summons individuals from parallel universes who are their reality’s version of Spider-Man. When a radioactive spider bites him, Miles discovers that he has the same powers as his idol. Shameik Moore provides the voice of Miles Morales, a sensitive Brooklyn teenager who worships Spider-Man. Still, betting against Spidey seems unwise. Spider-Man remains a very popular character, although a question remains how an animated comic-book film will perform. Although not part of Disney’s Marvel Cinematic Universe, the film should benefit from audiences’ unquenchable appetite for superhero fare.

Spider-Verse swings into UK theatres on December 12 before arriving in the US two days later via Sony. The animation captivates throughout, combining comic books’ hand-drawn aesthetic with the flash of computer graphics But all that pop-culture playfulness doesn’t preclude Spider-Verse from delivering some thoughtful observations about the need for heroes and the importance of finding community. Sony’s animated adventure brings together several well-known iterations of Spider-Man - including the jokey Spider-Ham and the hard-boiled Spider-Man Noir - for plenty of clever, self-referential riffs and dynamic action sequences. 117mins.Ī confident blend of comic-book élan and stirring sentiment, Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse finds fresh ways to tell the familiar story of everyone’s favourite web-slinger. Dirs: Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey, Rodney Rothman.

Into the spider verse