First Take: Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse- who said cartoons aren’t cool

SYNOPSIS:

Miles Morales becomes the Spider-Man of his reality and crosses paths with his counterparts from other dimensions to stop a threat to all reality.

When Sony announced an animated Spider-Man film, the comic book world was skeptical. We knew their output, the studio’s issues, and most importantly their track record- Sony Animation did give us The Emoji Movie last year. But in a miraculous turn of events, they have blessed us with an absolute masterpiece, worthy of the 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

Peter Ramsey, Rodney Rothman and Robert Perschietti Jr are at the helm of this 1 hour 57 minute piece of absolute fan service- the pacing is bang on, the character development is superb, and it didn’t drag on, something which is rare in Sony’s Marvel Universe films- teasing this film at the end of Venom was a master stroke, as I can safely say that this is the best and most faithful Spidey we’ve seen on the big screen ever, with links to the past, and hints to the future. Working to a script from Rothman and the mighty Phil Lord (of Lord and Miller, who produced the film) the humour is fantastic, and there is nothing to fault with it at all. The animation is simply superb, and as he has done on so many great films this year, Daniel Pemberton provides the score to the action, capping off what has been an incredible 2018 for the composer (who did the original Peep Show theme, that’s one for you fact fans).

Add to that an incredible cast of talents which include Shameik Moore as Miles Morales, Jake Johnson as Peter Parker, Hailee Steinfeld as Gwen Stacy and many others- Mahershala Ali, Lily Tomlin, Brian Tyree Henry, Nicolas Cage, Chris Pine, Liev Schrieber and the final voice performance and animated cameo from Stan Lee- and you have a film which simply ticks all the boxes in a way no superhero film has done since Infinity War. It is THAT good. And it is not easy to win me, or the Great Men and Women of a certain cinema (some of whom were in attendance for this one) over- this simply changes the game forever in the superhero genre.

THE VERDICT

It’s bold, colourful, vibrant and uniquely different- and my god, this is worth experiencing on the big screen. See it big, see it loud, JUST SEE THIS FILM. There’s already a sequel in development. And I really want to see that sequel happen after seeing this one tonight.

RATING: 5/5

This early UK screening had only one purpose- and it was to raise money for MediCinema, a charity that brings the power of big screen entertainment to dedicated cinemas in hospitals around the UK- you can find out more about them at www.medicinema.org.uk.