Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse           4 stars

I made a real departure from the usual movies I see and took a look at Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, 2018’s animated version of the web slinging superhero from the Marvel universe.  I have not seen all of the Spiderman movies, but I’ve seen enough to be familiar with his story and some of his various enemies.  This animated movie bears little resemblance to the earlier live action versions and looks much more like a comic book, with its bright colors and fast moving action sequences.  It departs from the usual story as it creates a new Spiderman character in the form of a black teenager who gets his spider powers in the usual way, but is very unsure of himself through much of the film.  The story is quite bizarre with a large assortment of villains brought together by the sinister Kingpin who is conspiring to build a giant supercollider in order to kill everyone or some such plot.  It also involves a collection of other Spidermen gathered from alternate dimensions that are brought together to defeat the evil Kingpin.  One interesting one is Spider-Ham, a cartoon pig Spiderman (voiced by John Mulaney) who always has a clever wisecrack in any situation.  The movie collected some of the highest marks for an animated movie so I decided to finally take it in for a change of pace.  The story absolutely does not stick to the standard Marvel background.  It’s perfectly suited to the younger viewers out there.