Last week, I was lucky enough to attend a pre-screening for the brand new film, Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse. The only way I can explain it is that it is absolutely fantastic. I have never seen a superhero film like this one before. The combination of excellent animation, brilliant voice acting, and a stellar voice cast came together to form one of the best movies made this year.

Many people have tried to put this film down due to the fact that it’s animated. I feel like this is a terrible way to approach the movie, as it does things that would literally be impossible for a live action movie to achieve. While live-action films attempt to make superheroes as realistic as possible, Spider-Verse goes all-in on a true comic book feel for the movie. It was a huge risk, but it totally payed off.

Since 2002’s Spider-Man, the role of Spider-Man has always been Peter Parker. Since his portrayal, Andrew Garfield and Tom Holland have given the role their best shot. Now, Miles Morales, a Latino/African American teen, takes center-stage. Many people have found solace in Miles’ character, because they can relate to him more. Shameik Moore plays the role brilliantly in the film, really showing audiences the strong potential Miles has as a character.

Along with Miles, one of the main selling points of the film are the multiple other Spider-Men. Jake Johnson plays an older, more rugged Peter Parker; Hailee Steinfeld plays Gwen Stacey, a female version of Spider-Man; and Nicholas Cage plays Spider-Man Noir, a 1940’s detective style Spider-Man. After an accident with a dimensional rift, this rag-tag group of Spider-Men have to team up and take down Kingpin and get back to their own universes.

The prospect of bringing all of these never before seen characters together on screen seems like it would be a challenging task, but the film brilliantly pulls them together. Instead of taking 45 minutes to individually introduce every single hero like normal hero films, the movie ironically goes through each hero’s backstory in less than 5 minutes. It’s a great sequence that really shows off the fact that the directors knew what they were doing with these characters.

I really hope that this movie gets a sequel, as it would be great to see all of these characters on screen again. Don’t let the fact that it’s an animated movie turn you away, as it’s just as good as some of the best live action movies put out recently.