I think it’s fair to say that Marvel movies are almost always good. At worst, they’re as mediocre as the first Thor film, and at best, as impactful as Infinity War.

For most of their movies, Marvel accomplishes this by following a three-act formula that often involves a magic mcguffin and a quirky villain. But what happens when you mix this with the premise of a fully animated movie? I’ll tell you right now: not much, but Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse is still worth your time.

The story follows protagonist Miles Morales (Shameik Moore) as he learns to use his newfound superpowers with the help of a colorful cast of spider-men from other dimensions. Additionally, they have to thwart the plans of mob-boss “Kingpin” who risks destroying  the city of New York.

Spider-Verse’s story is well executed, largely due to the power of Miles’s character. The story centers around this boy learning to find strength in himself to control his new-found powers and defeat the villain. Meanwhile, he overcomes the struggles he faces in the beginning that cause him to be looked down upon by the rest of the spider-cast.

Two other characters, Peter Parker (Jake Johnson) and Spider-Woman (Hailee Steinfeld), have arcs that are not as defined but still fun to follow, as they face rough patches in their lives away from the spider-verse.

This movie’s art and animation style is gorgeous. Spider-Verse is made to look like a comic book. This alone is already visually pleasing, but on top of that, any significant internal monologue becomes a text box or thought bubble on-screen, emphasizing its importance.

Furthermore, the shot composition is excellent, as each scene tends to have a visual calling card that allows it to stick in your memory. Notable examples include a neon radioactive spider, crawling unnaturally through a dark subway chamber and onto the protagonist, as well as the infiltration of a smooth white, geometrically perfect research facility placed in the rugged East American woods.

Humor is standard for this Marvel film: present, funny, but not frequent enough to impede on the atmosphere of more serious moments.

My biggest problem with Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse is that I would have liked to see more development the rest of the spider-cast: Spider-Man Noir (Nicholas Cage), Peni Parker (Kimiko Glenn), and Spider-Ham (John Mulaney).

These are the more spontaneous characters you may have seen in the trailer. They  are very much side characters, but what they lack in development they make up for in style. It would have been cool to see more of a spotlight on these characters as well.

To conclude, Spider-Verse was a great film and I recommend that all who are interested in seeing it give it a shot. I give this movie a score of 94/100.