Last night I got to see Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse while the score was played live by an orchestra and a DJ with a turntable. It was awesome! Seeing it on the big screen again reminded me of how much I love this movie and the soundtrack! A Brooklyn teenager named Miles Morales (Shemeik Moore) is bitten by a radioactive spider and, after waking up with superpowers which disrupt his life, he returns to the alley where he was bitten. He finds a secret lab with a supercollider created by Kingpin (Liev Schrieber) to access parallel universes in order to bring back alternate versions of his wife and son who died during an altercation with Spider-Man (Chris Pine). Spider-Man is ultimately killed while trying to destroy the collider but not before several incarnations of Spider-Man from parallel universes appear. These include a down-and-out Peter B. Parker/ Spider-Man (Jake Johnson), spunky Gwen Stacy/ Spider-Woman (Hailee Steinfeld), the cartoon Peter Porker/ Spider-Ham (John Mulaney), a monochromatic Spider-Noir (Nicolas Cage), and Peni Parker (Kimiko Glenn) a young Japanese girl who pilots a biomechanical spider. They help Miles discover his powers and find the motivation to fight Kingpin as well as other familiar villains. The animation in this movie is absolutely dazzling and the music by David Pemberton is just as exciting. The score was performed by Broadway Sinfonietta, an orchestra composed of women (mostly WOC) conducted by Emily Marshall, and they were a lot of fun to watch because the music features lots of percussion (the percussion section took up half the stage). I really loved all of the dramatic and exciting themes punctuated by the percussion, especially "Security Guard" as Miles runs away from school after discovering his powers, "Are You Ready to Swing?" as Spider-Man and Miles swing through the trees at Alchemax, and "Miles Morales Returns" when Miles joins the fight against Kingpin, but I also enjoyed the more poignant themes, such as "Destiny" (I loved the trombone) when Spider-Man asks Miles to destroy the collider before he dies, "On Your Way" when Miles learns the truth about the Prowler, "This Spark in You," when Miles' dad talks to him through his door, and "Saying Goodbye" when all of the Spider-People return to their own universes. Another really cool element of the score is the use of unusual sounds recreated on a turntable, such as the scratching in "Into the Spider-Verse," the howls in "Green Goblin Fight," an elephant trumpeting in "The Prowler," and the clicking of a pen in "Kingpin Clicks," and DJ Damage was on hand to provide these effects (he was also really fun to watch because was so animated). It is really cool when the songs featured in the soundtrack blend seamlessly into the score, particularly when Miles sings along to "Sunflower" by Post Malone and Swae Lee and when "What's Up Danger" by Blackway and Black Caviar (I love this song so much and I am not alone because the audience applauded for it) fades into "Miles Morales Returns." I love seeing films in concert but I think this one just might be my favorite because the sights and sounds were so dynamic! I hope Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse will be next!
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