Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse

If you follow the comics industry even a little, then you probably know that there are many characters who at different times wore the costume of one or another hero. There are several Thors, several Iron Men, several Catwoman, several Spidermen. And this is only within the framework of one universe and one time. But there are also different time eras, and Multiverse, many possible universes in which the same superheroes live, somewhat different from the canonical ones. Spider-Girl, Ultimate Spider-Man, Spider-Man: House of M, Spider-Man 2099, Spider-Man 2211, Spider-Man 1602, Spider-Man Noir, Spider-Ham, etc. etc., in this list under a hundred names.

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse is Origin, that is, the story of the formation of Spider-Man Miles Morales, who took the place of Peter Parker, although the cartoon also contains the Spider we are used to, and not even one. Miles Morales is a black kid (the new Spider-Man is of African American Latin American descent) with a passion for painting and street art. He has a difficult relationship with his father, a policeman, and more trusting - with an outcast uncle, whom his father considers a failure. Miles is forced to study at an elite school, a grant for which he won, which is why the young man is cut off from his usual environment, friends and feels lonely. Well, and, of course, he is bitten by an unusual spider.

And while Miles, overwhelmed by new skills, gets stuck (often in the literal sense of the word) in one ridiculous situation after another, new troubles fall on his head. The Kingpin opens a portal between universes that can destroy our Earth, and Miles promises to Peter Parker in trouble to stop a powerful criminal boss. However, the newly-minted Spider-Man, who buys Spiderman's fancy dress in Stan Lee's shop (of course, what a movie about Spider without a cameo of its creator!) the Kingpin experiment.

You've probably already seen all of them in the trailers. They are Peter B. Parker, a parallel universe loser Peter Parker suffering from depression after his divorce from Mary Jane Watson; Peter Parker's friend Gwen Stacy from another universe, who became Spider-Gwen; schoolgirl Peni Parker from Earth-14512, who controls the SP // dr Suit with a radioactive spider inside (now we know who Blizzard copied D.Va for Overwatch); Spider-Man Noir from 1933 in a black and white world where the wind always blows and smells like rain; Spider-Pig Peter Porker, from the Spider-Ham parody comic series.

Surprisingly, the presence of such different, differently drawn and living according to different laws of characters (for example, Spider-Pig carries a huge sledgehammer in his pocket, and Spider-Man Noir does not see flowers) does not turn the cartoon into a ridiculous jumble of styles and memes, all the heroes get along well and complement each other. Watching their interaction, both under normal conditions and in battle, is a real pleasure.

In general, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse is a real delight for the eyes. Thanks to the mixing of styles, the cartoon turned out to be very different in different episodes, but always beautiful. Some freeze frames can be printed on a plotter and used as paintings, thanks to the ultra-detailed picture, stunning selection of colors and verified composition, they resemble the classic works of Japanese animators, the same studio "Ghibli", for example.

At the same time, in every, even super-realistic, frame, there is a clear reference to comics, sometimes in the form of explicit text boxes visualizing the hero's thoughts, and almost always in the form of barely noticeable shading or raster printing artifacts. It looks really cool, it's not for nothing that Sony patented a number of technologies invented while working on this cartoon. For example, a program that allows artists to "draw" directly on 3D character models by linking the drawing to 3D geometry; a machine learning system for "predicting" the position of drawn lines in the next frame; lighting algorithms to create the illusion of depth on a flat surface, etc. This is truly the next level of graphics in animated films.

Although our distributors position Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse as a children's cartoon, there is a lot of adult content in it, and this is not at all about nudity, obscene language or scenes of cruelty. It's just that the film raises quite mature topics: the attitude of children and parents; maintaining a balance between family and work; acceptance of loss; responsibility for their actions; motivation, etc. And some of the jokes here are completely adult, so it is not surprising that during the show, children ask their parents perplexed questions: "Why are you laughing?"

However, the cartoon has something to laugh at for viewers of all categories. Kids will be delighted with the scenes of Miles Morales teaching spider wisdom, older viewers - a set of Internet memes and the Spiders' irony in relation to themselves; adult viewers will appreciate jokes about family life, etc. At the same time, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse does not at all turn into an endless set of gags and sketches, there are very serious, even dramatic moments in the cartoon, almost all heroes and even antiheroes here have tragic features and quite sane motivation.

Almost two-hour cartoon looks literally in one breath. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse captivates, stuns, delights. Definitely the best animated film of 2018 and perhaps simply the best superhero movie to date. Even if you are cool about comics, even if you are tired of the Marvel assembly line, even if you do not like cartoons - be sure to go to Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. You shouldn't miss such films.

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