Spider-Man 3D: Into the Spider-Verse

From the moment he starts singing Post Malone's Sunflower—and forgetting 60% of the lyrics—Miles proves himself a hugely likeable and relatable teen, with Dope star Shameik Moore walking a pleasant vocal tightrope between gawkish and charismatic. His sense of self takes a knock when he shifts schools; a problem that heightens exponentially when he gets his powers and meets more experienced Spider-Folk from alternate dimensions.

From a perfectly-cast Jake Johnson as middle-aged loser Peter B Parker to Nicolas Cage's hilariously over-intense Noir Spider-Man, these constant introductions poke fun at the messiness of origin tales, spinoff stories, superhero universes, and the parallel dimensions genre as a whole. More importantly, this humour sweeps the cliches off the stage, giving Miles' own origin some seriously significant distinction—especially with what it has to say about grief.

As a superhero film, Into the Spider-Verse is a superb shakeup. As an animated feature, it turns the whole production into something masterful, though calling it a "comic book come to life" doesn't fully emphasise this film's most eye-wateringly remarkable achievements.

Sony Animation Studios took graphic novel sensibilities, cinematically expanded on them, and gave every necessary detail thorough love and attention. I could geek out for literal hours about the dot-matrix shadowing, graffiti-pop colour scheme, playful onomatopeia, hypnotic camera lenses, subtle but significant shifts in framerate, the faultless merging of 2D/3D elements—every frame's a painting.

It's truly sensational to witness a blockbuster this visually daring on a massive screen. It's even more sensational that I found myself yelling: "Give me six more Spider-Verse films!"Hide