Summary:
- Rotten Tomatoes picks out Sony’s Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse as the Best Superhero Movie of all time.
- The animated movie is ranked 21st in the Best Movies of all time list, with an impressive critic score of 97% and an audience score of 94%.
- Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse fully deserves the title, thanks to its unique take on the multiverse and groundbreaking animation style.
It’s never easy to pick out the best superhero movie ever, since each hero and franchise has their own dedicated fanbase. However, when stats come into play, one superhero movie rises to the top as the best of all time, as the popular movie rating website Rotten Tomatoes has shown.
Rotten Tomatoes regularly updates its ranking of the “300 Best Movies of All Time,” which blends critics’ reviews with audience feedback. Among the superhero genre, one film has soared to exceptional heights, and, as you can guess, it’s a Marvel-related movie.
As of May 2024, Sony’s Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse impressively ranks 21st overall, nestled between the 2015 thriller Spotlight and the 1940 classic The Philadelphia Story. With an astounding critic score of 97% and an audience score of 94%, it surpasses revered superhero films like The Dark Knight, Avengers: Infinity War, and even Pixar‘s The Incredibles.
While many people may be surprised by how an animated movie ousts all of the MCU‘s greatest titles to clinch the top spot, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse fully deserves the title. Here’s why.
Released in 2018, Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse introduced a vibrant new chapter to the Spider-Man legacy with its fresh approach in animation style and its focus on Miles Morales and a cast of multiversal Spidey variants, instead of the familiar Peter Parker. This film was groundbreaking, exploring the concept of the multiverse in a unique yet easy-to-understand way, years before its live-action counterpart, Spider-Man: No Way Home, tackled the subject.
What truly set Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse apart was its innovative visual style. It eschewed traditional animation techniques in favor of a bold, hybrid approach, blending both 2D, 3D, and other animation styles that mirrored the quality of comic books as much as possible.
This visual flair was perfectly complemented by a memorable soundtrack list, led by Post Malone’s Sunflower, helping to forge a connection with both Marvel devotees and general audiences, and brings out Miles Morales’ personality throughout the whole movie.
The success of Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse was no fluke, as evidenced by the follow-up, Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse in 2023. While the threequel, Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse isn’t released just yet, the first two movies’ immense success makes fans excited for what the threequel can offer to conclude the epic multiverse adventure of Miles Morales and his Spider-Gang.
While Sony intends the Spider-Verse as a trilogy, each installment of the franchise can easily stand on its own as a singular masterpiece, celebrated for its narrative depth, stunning visuals, and compelling music—truly a high point in comic book cinema.