Action. Adventure. Super-Hero. Animation. And some hilarious comedy. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse was released in 2018 and was an instant blockbuster. Its box office was 384.3 million USD. This first film continued on to a second film in 2023, also a blockbuster, and eventually, a third film is set to be released in 2024.

The story is about a wacky teenager, Miles Morales who lives in New York with his parents. He is sent off to a fancy private school and wishes to go back to his old school in his neighborhood. But one day, he is bitten by a radioactive spider and becomes the Spider-Man in his universe. Miles always believed that there was only ONE Spider-Man, but it turned out that there were five other Spider-People from five other universes… and now they have ended up in Miles’s universe.

The other spider-characters are Peter B. Parker, Peni Parker, Spider-Man Noir, Peter Porker, and Gwen Stacy.

Together, all of them must defeat the supervillain of Miles’s universe, Kingpin, (who was trying to kill Spider-Man and use the “Super Collider” to reunite with his family who were alive in a separate dimension; and blamed Spider-Man for the death of his family in his dimension) and get back home, and as for Miles, he must discover his own, original way of being Spider-Man.

Shameik Moore plays Miles Morales really well. The style and personality of Miles Morales was incredible. Hailee Steinfield played Gwen Stacy who was great, but not as good; because of her expressions that were not as real as a live actor would express on the screen. Jake Johnson played Peter B. Parker, who was good at playing his weird, awkward parts. Kimiko Glenn played Peni Parker, an anime girl whose cranky or annoyed expressions really suited her character. And, of course, Nicholas Cage played Spider-Man Noir; Cage is an already famous actor and is good in whatever role he plays. Last but not least, John Mulaney played Peter Porker, who played the provoking voice of a pig Spider-Man.

This movie is super awesome and the dialogues are just so amusing. One of the funniest parts was when he said “hey” to Gwen. To explain, it was cringy. And there was also a funny part where Peter B. Parker sees his ex-wife MJ at a party and she asks about getting more bread, (he was disguised as a waiter) Peter B. Parker overly apologizes, but it was about their marriage, not the bread. So it was funny when he over-dramatically apologized because MJ was saying to not apologize for such a small thing.

What I did not like about this movie was how fat Kingpin was, because that was very unrealistic. But my favorite thing about this movie was the animation. It was like seeing a live-action comic playing on the screen.

One of the dominating themes of this story is to be who you want to be. An example is when Miles’s father sent him to a fancy school where Miles did not want to be and wanted to be back in his old school. Or when Miles couldn’t be like the other Spider-People. He had his own, unique, good qualities.

The MPAA ® ️ (The Motion Picture Association of America) rating of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse is rated PG for “frenetic (wild) sequences of animated action violence, thematic elements, and mild language.”

The people who would like this movie could be fans of Marvel, Spider-Man, or Super-Hero, Animation, or Action & Adventure. And also people who like comics would also like this film because of the comic-like animation.

I hope I convinced you to watch this movie because it is spectacular. And if you ever need help finding a movie—here’s the perfect, marvelous introduction to the Spider-Verse.

This review was written as part of the Journalism Blitz! Summer @ SPA camp.