Rating of
4/4
A Brave, New Spider-Verse of Epic Proportions
Chris Kavan - wrote on 06/10/23
When Spide-Man: Into the Spiderverse came out, it was a seismic shift in the way I perceived animation. It was truly like comic book come to life and the style was unique and impressive. The also put together a knockout cast to voice everyone from our reluctant hero Miles Morales to a talking Spider-Pig. If you were as impressed with Into the Spiderverse as I was - Across the Spider-Verse is what made the first film so good - and manages to be even better.
Our intro doesn't even focus on Miles - instead we catch up with Gwen Stacey aka Spider-Gwen (Hailee Steinfeld) back in her home dimension still having a hard time connecting with anyone: her band, her father - and missing that connection she had. But a sudden appearance of a Renaissance-inspired Vulture - along with some new spider-friends, Miguel O'Hara aka Spider-Man 2099 (Oscar Isaac) and very pregnant Jessica Drew aka Spider-Woman (Issa Rae) - opens up a whole new world of possibilities, even as she makes a huge decision that will change everything about her personal life.
But Miles (Shameik Moore) is still our main hero - and he's having just as hard a time even though he has grown - and grown into his powers even as he also yearns for the connections he has lost - especially with Gwen. After running into his so-called nemesis Spot (Jason Schwartzman) he finally makes it to an important meeting between his parents, Jeff (Brian Tyree Henry) and Rio (Luna Lauren Velez) about his future college aspirations. His father is about to be named the new chief of police and both are concerned about his apparent lack of focus (because, you know - Spider-Man).
But the new world of Gwen and the current world of Miles are about to collide when Spot - whose powers involved being able to teleport via the spots that now make up his, well, everything - realizes these also give him to power to travel the multiverse (including a brief appearance in LEGO Spider-Man world and even the live-action Venomverse). Because Spot originated in Miles' world, Gwen pops in to track him - and catch up - and this leads to all kinds of trouble as Spot gets away and Gwen makes chase - with Miles using his invisibility to hitch an unwanted ride.
This leads us to the vibrant world of Pavitr Prabhakar (Karan Soni) in Mumbattan - and India-inspired spiderworld. If you want to showcase your stunning animation style - this is the point where the film absolutely pops. I loved everything about this set piece - the city, the style, the music - glorious. Plus, we also get introduced to he absolute coolest character in the film, Hobie Brown (Daniel Kaluuya) aka Spider-Punk. It looks like he stepped out of a Sex Pistols Album Cover, anarchy and all. His design is certainly unique - and so very, very perfect. Plus, the fact that Gwen seems to be hanging out in his world causes some great interactions between him, her and Miles. Spot manages to get what he came for - even more power - and Miles gets pulled into the world of Miguel O'Hara - and finds a hub for all things spider-verse related.
The film really deep-dives into the different variations from familiar to truly deep cuts. I especially liked the cowboy Spider-Man with his horse (who also wears a spider-mask for some reason) and Peter Parkedcar - an actual car that drives around. Some of the more important characters we meet are the brooding Scarlet Spider (Andy Samberg), Miguel's VR assistant LYLA (Greta Lee) and the tech master Margo Kess aka Spider-Byte (Amandla Stenberg). There are a lot of fun Easter Eggs and surprises throw in here as well - and it's fun to catch the nice touches all around. His friend Peter B. Parker (Jake Johnson) is also here, along with his young daughter Mayday (the future Spider-girl) and all this boils down to Miles realizing that in all these worlds and seemingly hundreds of spider variants - why has he been left out of the loop? Miguel lets him in on a secret - all these spider variants are park of a massive Spider-verse, a web that connects them all and they all abide by The Cannon - events that shape their lives, good and bad - and that if this Canon is disrupted, it can mean disaster, something Miguel knows first hand. The Canon includes things like a loved one dying (Uncle Ben), finding true strength, giving up the mask only to and come back and sacrifice and revealing your identity. But Miles is a true outlier and that is where Spot, Gwen and much else comes into play - and it points to where the future of this franchise is going to go.
What makes Across the Spider-Verse stand out among not just animated films, not just Spider-Man films, not just superhero films - but all of them together - is that it expands upon the world and characters we know and pushes them forward. Miles is a regular teen dealing with teen issues - but he's also dealing with some world-shaking issues as well. His relationship with Gwen is one that many of us can relate to even if the circumstances are certainly not anything close to what we could experience. Likewise, his relationship with his family - even heritage - is treated with respect.
On the other hand, Across the Spider-Verse also keeps thing so much fun. From the meme-tastic Spider-pointing scene to a literal Spider-cat, there are no shortage of light-hearted moments and pure fun to make you break out in a huge grin. I admit I'm no comic fan - other than Marvel Zombies I haven't read up on the vast material that covers Spider-Man - but I don't think it's a requirement to enjoy the film at all. The film ramps up the action as well - massive city-wide spectacles that are truly a wonder to behold. The film is said to be the longest-running American-made animated film but I didn't think it wasted a minute of that time as I found myself enthralled the whole way through. In fact, my ONLY gripe I can think of is that it ended too soon - I already know we're getting another film but man that ending kicker is a big tease of things to come and no post-credits fun either.
If you know me and my history, you also know that I rarely hand out 4-star ratings. I reserve this for films that I think truly are pinnacles of their genre. Across the Spider-Verse is an master class in animation. It puts almost everything the MCU has done recently to shame and it delivers enough Easter Eggs to make that bunny jealous. It made me feel like a kid again - in the best possible way - and it deserves to be watched on the biggest screen possible, probably a few times for good measure.
