Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse

5 outta 5

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is a fantastic sequel to the already fantastic Into the Spider-Verse. It takes the incredible animation style of the first film and evolves into several different visually lush and amazing looking universes. The film has huge dramatic beats and large-scale action, but it also remembers to keep things focused on the emotional journey of the two main characters. There’s also a spectacular number of Spider-People and bits of Spider-Man universes into one place making this film encompass all the Spider-Man worlds that came before, all pulled into one unique, very emotional, and extremely satisfying experience.

Miles Morales (Shameik Moore) is a high school student while also juggling his superhero life as Spider-Man. He is somewhat despondent after his origin adventure with several Spider-People from the multiverse ended with them going back to their home dimensions, leaving him on his own. With Miles constantly ditching his parents, Jefferson (Brian Tyree Henry) and Rio (Luna Lauren Velez), to do Spider-Man stuff, his antics have gotten him grounded. Back into his life swings Gwen Stacy aka Spider-Woman (Hailee Steinfeld), who has been travelling the multiverse the past year and half, tracking down people appearing in different universes which can cause problems with the fabric of reality. Also a problem for Miles is a new villain, the Spot (Jason Schwartzman), who can rip holes in the world and he has a direct hatred towards Miles’ Spider-Man. Gwen tells Miles that she is part of an interdimensional group of Spider-People led by Miguel O’Hara (Oscar Isaac), the Spider-Man of the year 2099, trying to contain this interdimensional breaking. But when Miles ends up unexpectedly tagging along to the Spider-Society’s headquarters, he finds out that dimensional reality hopping is complicated and just him being there may cause more trouble to the multiverse.

The film is evenly balanced between Miles Morales and Gwen Stacy as the two main characters. The opening of Across the Spider-Verse is all about Gwen’s life on her Earth, and the tragic demise of her best friend, Peter Parker. She is also in conflict with her dad, Police Captain George Stacy (Shea Whigham) as he tries to hunt down Spider-Woman for a crime she did not commit. There’s a dramatic confrontation between Gwen and her dad, at the same moment when a multiverse version of the Vulture attacks her world, and she meets Spider-Man 2099 and joins his Spider-Society. It’s a great moment that gives Gwen a new purpose as she leaves her old life and father behind. Steinfeld as Gwen puts in an emotional performance that bounces from glib to serious moments and the character animation is fantastic. Whigham as her dad has some brief but strongly dramatic bits.

By showing what Gwen has been up to, it makes Miles being alone hit a bit harder. There is a reason why Gwen and the rest of the Spider-Society were avoiding him, and it is a great twist on Miles’ place in the universe. Moore’s vocal performance has lots of different tones as Miles and the end puts him in a surprising spot for the next movie. There are a bunch of scenes where we get to see Miles’ relationship with his family, both Velez and Henry as his parents each have fun reactions to Miles repeatedly disappearing. Grounding the film with Miles and Gwen keeps things emotional for when it goes interdimensional bonkers in the second half.

The Spot starts as a villain of the week bad guy, as Miles derisively calls him, and grows exponentially as an interdimensional threat as Schwartzman’s performance goes big. Spider-Man 2099 is antagonistic towards Miles but Migquel has considerations about the fate of the multiverse and can be ruthless when dealing with threats to reality. Isaac’s performance also has him getting progressively crazier as it goes on. There’s also the return of Jake Johnson’s Peter B. Parker who is now a doting dad and is irresponsibly bringing his Spider-powered toddler into various superhero brawls.

The amount of different animation styles in the film is astounding as each universe has its own distinctive look. Even when Spider-People are in the same universe each one looks like they came from their own world with a unique art style, like the PlayStation’s Insomniac game Spider-Man looks like he’s rendered on a PS5, or the animated Spectacular Spider-Man looks like his own show. Even Ben Riley (Andy Samberg), an emotionally tortured Spider-Man clone, looks like he’s drawn from the pen of comics artist Mark Bagley. There’s a great way that this film integrates all Spider-Man canon into a single larger narrative, using comic panels, the TV shows, and the movies with some surprising usage of old footage and unexpected cameo appearances. One shot even references the comics marriage of Peter Parker and MJ, something that was undone years ago, and that seems like a direct dig at that continuity change.

By using these bits of Spider-Man lore, it creates a multiverse of the entire Spider-Man series. It even ends on a cliffhanger, but not annoyingly so. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse focuses on the multiverse crossed duo of Miles and Gwen and how reality is keeping them apart. The film features jaw dropping animation, kinetic action scenes and details poured into each frame. This is an incredibly ambitious animated experience and a great Spider-Man movie.