50 Essential Sci-Fi Films of the 21st Century (So Far)

With most Marvel content designed by studio executives and financiers to fit into a 35-film, 10-year plan, with its aesthetic, tone, and characters all cut from the same template, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse came out of nowhere. And this is in no small part because everyone involved - including producer Christopher Miller, writer Phil Lord, and directors Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey, and Rodney Rothman - had a vision, a new style, and the trust of the major players.

Into the Spider-Verse gives us our first cinematic outing with Miles Morales (Shameik Moore), and sidesteps the tired Peter Parker origin, diving into a fresh mythos. Miles is a high-schooler with a cop father and a crook for an uncle, whose brush with a radioactive spider gives him the classic powers plus a few new ones. However, while discovering his new abilities, he faces his first big challenge, as other Spideys - including Peter Parker (Jake Johnson), Spider-Gwen (Hailee Steinfeld), and an assortment of weird and wonderful Web-heads, including Nic Cage’s sublime Spider-Man Noir - join him to save the multiverse.

The script is familiar yet inventive, offering a plethora of new sci-fi elements and alternate characters that jell well with the world we know. The soundtrack uses hip-hop and R&B artists almost exclusively, both capturing and setting the zeitgeist. And the animation style is groundbreaking, blending computer graphics with hand-drawn comic book techniques for a vibrant, kinetic appearance that pays more than lip service to the source material. Excelsior!