Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse Blu-ray Review - Wear the Mask

By: Lynn Barker

In Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, we learn that an older Peter Parker Spider-Man (voice of Jake Johnson) enjoys being the one and only Spidey. Meanwhile, in Brooklyn, teen Miles Morales (voice of Shameik Moore) listens to tunes and reluctantly dresses for classes at a posh prep school he hates. When Miles is bitten by a radioactive spider and begins to have Spidey-powers, he’s freaked. When he’s yanked into a parallel dimension, he learns he’s not the only Spider-person in the universe and that the survival of his home dimension will depend on him!

Bonus Clip: "Anyone Can Wear the Mask"

Spider-Beings unite!Courtesy of Sony Pictures

Posh School

Miles Morales, age 15, is pleasing his parents by going to a posh school across town called Visions Institute where he doesn’t fit in. His cop dad Jefferson (Brian Tyree Henry) and mom Rio (Luna Lauren Velez) are proud of him. He meets new student Gwen Stacy (Hailee Steinfeld), is smitten and goes to his lowlife uncle Aaron (Mahershala Ali) to get tips on handling girls. While laying down some graffiti in the subway tunnels, Miles gets bitten by a weird spider. Later, he starts manifesting Spider-man powers and is freaked. His pants are too tight and he’s sticking to everything!

Anyone can wear the maskCourtesy of Sony Pictures

Transported

We have a Spider-Man. Is Miles turning into another one? On touching the dead spider that bit him, he is transported into a weird parallel dimension. Back home he is aided by Peter Parker/Spider-Man who has to destroy a big collider machine that will open a black hole under Brooklyn and destroy Miles’ world! Inside the machine is criminal Kingpin/Wilson Fisk (Live Schreiber) who is running the show. He wants to go into the other dimensions in search of his dead wife and son. Peter is attacked by The Prowler villain and is very badly injured so he gives Miles the key to stop the collider before it starts up again. He’ll have to step up as Spider-Man.

Miles hopes to learn Spidey skills from PeterCourtesy of Sony Pictures

Multi-Spideys?

Prowler is now after Miles to kill him. Miles goes home and tells mom and dad to leave town. It’s isn’t safe here. The TV news says Spider-Man is dead. Miles goes to a costume store and the owner (Voice of the late Stan Lee) gives him a suit and tells him that anybody can wear the mask but they have to choose it. Even Mary Jane (Zoe Kravitz) tells the world they can all be Spider-Man heroes. Miles has trouble perfecting his powers. He falls off a building and breaks the collider key! He goes to Spider-Man’s grave to apologize but, there is another, older, less-in-shape Spider-Man there! In his dimension, he’s split up with wife Mary Jane who just didn’t see him enough. He was sucked here when a black hole opened up in his apartment.

Miles tries to learn more from PeterCourtesy of Sony Pictures

Need a New Key

The older Spidey keeps shorting out. His body can’t live long in this dimension and the collider key is broken. Now, he and Miles will have to team up to get another one from the Alchemix Corporation where Kingpin has given a scientist 24-hours to get the collider repaired. Miles discovers he has the power to go invisible. The two Spideys are caught by the scientist who is actually Doctor Olivia Octavius (Doc Ock voice of Kathryn Hahn). Miles is able to help rescue this Spider-Man and together they run off with a new “key” and have all the evil scientists chasing them. Someone is helping them.

The Spider-Verse is colorful and mind-blowingCourtesy of Sony Pictures

Spider-Gwen

From yet another dimension comes female Spidey Gwen who arrived in Miles’ dimension a week before. That’s who he met and liked at his school! They all wonder how many Spider-People are out there! Kingpin and Doc Ock will turn on the collider again the next day. Miles, Peter and Gwen go to Aunt May’s house. She knows about the alternate dimensions and is a little upset to see this Peter; older, a little paunchier etc. but she takes them to a hidden Spider-lair in her backyard shed. There they meet other Spider-Beings, a talking Spider-Pig called Spider-Ham (John Mulaney), Spider-Man Noir (Nicholas Cage), and a young Japanese Spider-Girl named Peni Parker (Kimiko Glenn).

Spider-Gwen is both hot and strangeCourtesy of Sony Pictures

Saving the Day?

Each of these beings from other dimensions has a power all his or her own. Can they combine and work together to stop the collider? Can those from other dimensions ever get home? Who is the mystery Prowler villain? Will Miles manage to gain enough confidence in himself and his powers to become the one Spider-Man of his/our dimension?

Multi-Spideys work to stop KingpinCourtesy of Sony Pictures

Bonus Features

On this great-looking and sounding Blu-ray/DVD/Digital set we get many really fun, informative and entertaining extras:

• Alternate Universe Mode lets you watch the film with juicy little details that didn’t make the final cut introduced by filmmakers throughout. There are storyboards etc. giving you extra story, scenes, etc. Fun but maybe watch after seeing the film the “regular” way first.
• Filmmaker Audio Commentary  by Directors and Writer/Producers is full of fun asides and insider tidbits. Well worth a watch!
• Original Short Film “Spider-Ham: Caught In a Ham” is another of the cute classic-looking cartoons starring Peter Porker/Spider-Ham. It’s way cute!

Spider-Ham in the new short filmCourtesy of Sony Pictures

• We Are Spider-Man explores the diversity in the Spider-Man universe and the premise that anyone can wear the mask. Many of the voice actors and filmmakers give their take on the issue and talk a bit on casting. Very nice extra!
• Spider-Verse: A New Dimension features details on the amazing comic book style of the film with CG and hand-drawn animation combining. Very cool!
• The Ultimate Comics Cast brings in fan fave characters and the actors filmmakers picked to voice them. What each actor brought to his or her role is discussed. Featured are Hailee Steinfeld, Nicholas Cage, Jake Johnson, Shamick Moore, Liev Schreiber, Katharyn Hahn and more. This is really fun.
• Designing Cinematic Comics Characters is a breakdown of character design in two parts that emphasize heroes and villains. Included are costumes, super powers, how characters move when they are animated, etc. Very cute to watch… lots of details.

Early design for Miles as SpideyCourtesy of Sony Pictures

• A Tribute to Stan Lee and Steve Ditko is a very warm nod to Spidey’s creators. The late Stan Lee appears in a 2014 interview. Very sweet.
• The Spider-Verse Super Fan Easter Egg Challenge reveals several hidden Easter egg details that are shown and explained by the writer/producers.. There are a lot of Stan Lee cameos drawn in, etc.  Really fun without revealing all of them. Great for uber-fans.

Peter Porker/Spider-Ham early designsCourtesy of Sony Pictures

• 2 Lyric Videos give us “Sunflower” by Post Malone and Swae Lee and “Familia” by Nicki Minaj. These are played over scenes from the film and include on screen lyrics for sing-along participation. Fun!

Wrapping Up

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse features colorful, comic book-inspired animation combined with an inspiring story, characters and great action. You feel like you have been sucked right into a comic book. All Spideys are ordinary people stepping up in extraordinary circumstances. The fact that they are so diverse and can still work together is just the way it should be!

Whoops. We are seen togetherCourtesy of Sony Pictures

This Blu-ray/DVD/Digital set gives you crisp visuals and sound and contains informative and fun extras. We don’t see much that could be added so we can award a full five stars!

Into the Spider-Verse Blu-ray Rating: 

Courtesy of Sony Pictures

Buy Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse March 19th

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