SPIDER-MAN: INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE
Directors: Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey,
Rodney Rothman
Cert: PG. 117 mins
The animated Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse is a fantastic film; hilariously self-aware, brilliantly stylised, poignant and inspiring.
In short, the film is about not being defined by the struggles and grief that life contains, but transcending them to help others and becoming a hero.
It’s similar to The Lego Batman Movie in that it takes an iconic comic book character with a storied history, and pokes fun at the ridiculousness of aspects of the mythology, but from a place of love.
The film is not part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but rather a cartoon with a distinctly fresh, wacky visual style. It’s essentially a comic book sprung to life.
Miles Morales (Shameik Moore) struggles with the weight of expectation from his father and his elite boarding school. He is bitten by a radioactive spider, setting him on his destiny to become Spider-Man.
When dimensions merge, several characters with Spider-powers get stuck in Miles’ dimension, and they must all team up. Through empathising with each other and working together, they learn that everyone has the potential to be a hero, and that they are not alone.
These alternate universe Spider-characters include Miles’ reluctant mentor, Peter B. Parker / Spider-Man (Jake Johnson); Gwen Stacy / Spider-Gwen (Hailee Steinfeld); and Spider-Man Noir (a very entertaining Nicolas Cage). Over the course of the story, they each learn, respectively, not to be defined by failure, the value of friendship in the face of tragedy, and not to take themselves too seriously.
Identity in Christ
As Christians, we have a great high priest who can sympathise with our weakness (c.f. Hebrews 4.14-16), and since he is with us and for us, whatever we face, ‘we are more than conquerors through him who loved us’ (c.f. Romans 8.37), and so we don’t have to be defined by the struggles of life, but can rather transcend them.
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse is fresh, funny, and heartfelt. The film contains flashing lights; as well as some intense sequences.
