He didn't ask for his powers, but he chose to be Spider-Man.

Rating: 8/10 (16 March 2019)

I've always maintained that Spider-Man 2 is the greatest superhero movie of all time, and that starts with its Peter Parker. Early 2000s Tobey Maguire is a loser, let's face it. A scooter half-helm with a click-on strap isn't exactly a fashionable accessory, but for him it completes the look, the Amazing Spider-Man by night, a pizza delivery boy (boy, not man) by day. When he's consumed by the black symbiote in the Raimi trilogy's climax, that results in an unmentionable scene (even this iteration acknowledges this embarrassment). But isn't that just a perfect encapsulation of Maguire's Parker? He's not only the underdog, he's the furthest thing from cool. Before he was given those powers, he was Peter Parker first, and nothing can change that. The poignancy in this contrast is only heightened when he is passed down (Christ-like) through the train by the citizens he has saved, a normal New Yorker in a rubber suit.
That's why I've never really gotten on board with Tom Holland's Peter Parker (and the less said about Andrew Garfield, the better). He might face the same stakes as the teenage Miles Morales here, juggling great power and responsibility with English homework and the pitfalls of the high school social scene, but his faux-confidence just feels like confidence. Holland puts on the same 'I've got to save the world single-handedly' bravado as Shameik Moore, but that's belied by the fact that he's scheduled to face the world-ending threat of the Mad Titan Thanos just a few weeks after he first suits up. I can't buy his nerdy, outcast role when Holland is practically a teenage heartthrob, either.
We've come a long way from the awkward split-screens of Ang Lee's live action Hulk, but finally filmmakers have found a way of transferring the comic book aesthetic onto film. Spider-Verse is an electric jolt, an all-caps SPLAT amidst the conveyor belt of the MCU's codified blockbuster gloss, 3D motion amongst CGI flatness. Just watching the film is a joy in itself, as the directors lift the most eye-popping parts of the print medium onto the screen. From the squiggly lines of the Spider-sense, to the dialogue boxes that follow the action across the frame, to the way the half tone dots blend neon colours, you could pause at any moment and have the perfect wallpaper. Not that you need to; the directors speed-ramp at precisely the perfect moments to mimic the double-spread freeze-frames of the comic book, all without halting the fluidity of the action sequences. In, and then out.
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse comes at the right time, as the superhero film that audiences never knew we wanted, free from buckling under the strain and obligations of franchise building. Marvel captured lightning in a bottle with the witty irreverence of Pratt's Star-Lord, then proceeded to use that same brand of humour as a mouthpiece for the majority of their characters (turning one with the epithet of 'the Destroyer' into a silly punchline machine). Turns out, Holland's charm isn't nearly as endearing delivered in the face of universal doom. This tone is a little more appropriate as nervous prods in the dialogue of a transferring teenager still trying to find his place in 2nd period, let alone the world.
From the way the opening web-swings past the baggage of the Spider-Man franchise, deftly sidestepping the usual burdens of yet another origin story, we know we're in for a blast. The script is well aware of the audience's fatigue, riffing off our expectations through the meta commentary of a middle-aged, alternate universe Peter Parker. This jaded, washed up superhero speaks for all of us, and exposes the life that awaits these godlike figures after stardom. In that respect, he makes for the perfect partner for Miles, the pair of them foils for each other. In covering for his teenage protegee, Peter rediscovers part of his bygone heroism, which in turns inspires Morales to take up the mantle of his own neighbourhood's (or universe) Spider-Man. In a way, he is more a father figure than any of the other points of the Morales family triangle. He sacrifices his own life so a teenager doesn't have to, but leaves the option open for Miles to make that choice from himself. And when the suit fits, it fits snugly.