"Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse" (2018)

People will tell you this movie is the “best film of 2018,” or the “best superhero movie of all time!” You will want to tap the brakes on that. Is it a good film? Maybe even great? Yes. But geek-culture is susceptible to something that causes it to become irrational: references and allusions.

“Spider-Verse” is chocked full of details from decades of other Spider-man stories: movies, comics, TV-shows, etc. They could have probably just strung together two hours of Easter eggs and the comic geeks would have swooned and called it the “best thing ever!” Add to that all of the flashy lights and bright colors seen here and they would have died and gone to some sort of geek-Valhalla.

But, the redeeming thing about “Spider-Verse,” the thing that makes it a great film if not the best, is the story. They tell a compelling valuable story here. In fact, with all of the sub-plots and characters form multiple dimensions, you get several compelling stories. People tell of being moved to tears multiple times during the running time.

In fact, the story is so good that I will give this film one superlative: it is the best Spiderman film ever.

P.S.

Another thing this film is is cutting-edge. The animation is amazing and innovative. After seeing “Spider-Verse” as a matinee, we were watching “Hidden Figures” for the first time last night. My son informed me that Mahershala Ali, a supporting actor in “Figures,” had played Uncle Aaron in “Spider-Verse.” I spent a good five minutes thinking that he looked nothing like himself before remembering that it is an animated film. “Spider-Verse” is clearly and unavoidably animated art, but it is so immersive and real at the same time, you forget you are watching drawings.