Back in 2018, Sony released a little movie called “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse”. It ended up becoming a great Spider-Man movie & a modest success for Sony. It also became a milestone for American animation with its crazy art style and fluid animation. The movie regularly ranks among the best superhero movies for a good reason. So hopes were high for “Across the Spider-Verse”. Can Phil Lord & Chris Miller pull it off again?
Lord, Miller, the directors of the movie (Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers, Justin Thompson), and the talented animators at Sony pulled off the unthinkable. They made a movie that’s somehow better than the last one. Go figure.
For fans of animation, this movie is an absolute treat. You can tell the team had more freedom and money to go crazy with their storytelling and by joy, do they pull it off. Between the chaotic pencil sketches of Spider-Man India’s (Karan Soni) Mumbattan, the 80’s magazine art style of Spider-Punk (Daniel Kaluuya), and the futuristic Nueva York of 2099, every inch and every frame of this movie just oozes style and swagger. My favorite was Spider-Gwen’s (Hailee Stanfield) world, animated with a beautiful watercolor backdrop that changes hue based on her emotions.
The animation team wasted no effort in crafting this movie with the utmost attention to detail. Even the needle drops that I’ve come to despise in Hollywood movies were a treat in this movie. Spider-Verse movies continue the proud tradition of having a killer soundtrack. The animation was fluid and the art style was absolutely beautiful. I think I spent half of my time marveling at the animation more than the story. I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that this movie is a milestone for animated movies the world over.
Alright, enough gushing about the animation. The story….
An altercation with a low level villain, Spot (Jason Schwartzmann) ends up escalating and endangering the multiverse and the family of Miles Morales (Shameik Moore). His attempts to save them puts him on a collision course with the Spider Society, a task force headed by Miguel O’Hara, the Spider-Man of 2099 (Oscar Isaac), who wants to protect the multiverse by any means possible.
It’s not all world-ending stakes and multiverse shenanigans though. The movie spends a good deal of time focusing on Miles’s struggle to balance his superhero life and his normal life which regularly lands him in trouble with his parents (Brian Tyree Henry & Lauren Velez). Of course, this movie also dedicates some time to Gwen’s troubled relationship with her father. The relationships have always served to ground the Spider-people and this movie threads the needle between family drama and crazy action wonderfully.
For Spider-Man fans, the movie tries to upend an important aspect of Spider-Man. Part of Miguel’s attempts to protect the multiverse boils down to letting the tragic events that make Spider-Man happen in their lives. If you’re familiar with the Spider-Man stories, you know Spidey’s life is peppered with tragedy. Uncle Ben dies, Gwen dies, Captain Stacy dies, Aunt May dies and Spider-Man vows to do better. It’s a tired, endless cycle across multiple Spider-Man stories.
Miles is essentially flipping the bird to the logic that Spider-Man’s story is one that’s defined by tragedy. “Spider-Man can save the world and his loved ones. It doesn’t have to be a binary choice“. Miles wants to change the template that’s plagued every Spider-Man. It’s a refreshing change of pace for a Spider-Man story and provides some clever meta-commentary on Spidey stories. Oh, it also provides one hell of a cliffhanger.
Yes, this is Part 1 of a two part story (Or Part 2 of a trilogy, I suppose?). The next movie “Beyond the Spider-Verse” releases next year. Apparently, every movie is trying to be like Infinity War nowadays. But Across the Spider-Verse does it much, much better than whatever the hell Fast X was trying to pull off.
As for cons…I dunno. I can’t find any. Maybe if I let the movie marinate in my mind for some time, I might find a nitpick. But I can’t find any major negative about the movie. The jokes won’t bring the house down, but they flew by fast enough that I can guarantee a steady chuckle.
That’s not even a nitpick.
With beautiful animation, a solid voice cast and a neat story, Across the Spider-Verse is a milestone for animated movies and one of the best superhero movies. It might even be the best Spidey movie you’ve seen (Mine is still Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 2, but this comes close).
I’m eager to see how “Beyond the Spider-Verse” will top this movie.