Look how cool that poster is! The whole movie is just as fun and exciting. The short review: Into the Spider-Verse is one of the best animation films of the decade.

The cinematic debut of Miles Morales, Spider-Verse is about this young man’s journey into great power and responsibility. Miles is just a kid at the start of a new boarding school in the city. Smart and talented in art, Miles has a lot to figure out. His police officer father wants him laser–focused on school while his Uncle Aaron lets him indulge more on his creative side. When Miles gets caught up in a dangerous plot being run by Kingpin, Miles’ life takes an unexpected turn.

The movie doesn’t take long to kick off with Miles being forced to take over as Spider-Man to try and stop Kingpin from doing unbelievable amounts of damage by messing with other dimensions of reality. This scheme brings five other Spider-People into Miles world and where the original Peter Parker left off, the others mentor him to become a greater person than he ever imagined he could be. There are a lot of trials and tribulations along the way.

Spider-Verse is a stunning achievement in animation. New animation techniques, a mish-mash of styles, and all the colors known to mankind are utilized to make one of the most unique looking movies I’ve ever seen. Words can’t explain how crazy this movie looks. Great character designs, a solid voice cast, and a snappy script make this a treat to watch from start to finish.

There’s very little to knock here and I have to really nitpick to come up with anything: Miles is clumsy through the entire movie until a switch suddenly flips and becomes unstoppable. The ramp-up to become confident and comfortable in his skin (so to speak) could have been done a little better. The way he gets the powers is also devoid of any creativity. Sure, there’s only one way to get the spider powers (Peni Parker’s backstory actually does a great twist on it) but this spider (which I think is mechanical, not biological?) just seemingly walks from Kingpin’s dimension collider on a mission to specifically bite Miles, which it seemingly knew when he’d be down in the sewers.

Still, none of that makes a significant dent in how great Spider-Verse is. Miles is awesome, the way all of these deep cut comic book Spider characters come together and the action scenes are fantastic. Everything you want from your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man is here.