For such an inventive premise and excellent animation, questionable plot choices are made and the themes and arc are surprisingly formulaic

Rating: 6/10 (6 April 2019)

I think this one is mostly "on me", as someone who never read comic books growing up and enjoys the ideas that movies leave me with, not the visual experience as much. Spider-Verse is undeniably creative and unique, particularly in its animation, which I think is the best I've ever seen, and the premise is a self-aware and original breath of fresh air in the superhero genre. The voice acting is good, and the comedy is pretty good (though I found the jokes revolving around Miles being young and being goofy in learning his powers to be trite and overplayed). While I was ready to love it, many plot points left me scratching my head and there was no sense of any real stakes. Among the frustrating plot points to me were the absurdity of the 3 new spider people, especially Porky (why? How does that make any sense?); the uncle coincidentally being the person working for Kingpin and tasked with chasing down Spider-Man; Kingpin's backstory scene, where we are following Miles escaping and out of nowhere cut to a memory of Kingpin's family dying after having no background on him at all, just felt very out of place and poorly edited; and other minor points. The story was quite predictable and followed a rote story arc, which contributed significantly to the sense that the outcome was never in doubt, keeping my emotional investment and engagement low throughout. In classic deus ex machina form, Miles struggled and gradually is improving in using his powers, and then right after his dad talks to him he magically has complete control and can win all the fights, is a beast out of nowhere? It had done such a good job of showing his struggles in being valued and succeeding in his tasks, so the flipped switch of him effortlessly and suddenly being powerful was a disservice to the rest of the movie. Thematically, it didn't feel like anything unique, as a standard coming of age story and with a message that anyone can be a superhero. It pays obvious and honest homage to the comic book form, more genuinely adapting the style than any movie I've seen before. It did many things really well, but the various plot point frustrations and the lack of emotional investment due to the lack of stakes made it a forgettable, if pleasant, movie experience for me. I certainly recommend it to others, as at minimum you'll get a fun, amusing and visually gorgeous movie and if you like the comic book style, it could be an all time great.