Review: ‘Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse’
by Erik Amaya
Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse is an exhilarating expansion of its predecessor, both in terms of narrative complexity and artistic ambition. And like Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse, it never stops being consistently good.
Set a year a so after the first film, it picks up with Miles Morales (Shameik Moore) and Gwen Stacy (Hailee Steinfeld) dealing with isolation following the closure of the Multiversal rift. Gwen’s early scenes in her own universe, taking some inspiration from the more abstract moments of artist Robbi Rodriguez‘s Spider-Gwen run, are stunning in their telling of her origin story and their ability to use color in convey emotions. Miles’s universe, by contract, remains as it was in Into The Spider-Verse, but the animation is, somehow, even more expressive, stylized, and lively.
But while both face the unique struggle of being Spider-People, Miguel O’Hara (Oscar Isaac) has put together a Spider-Society of various spider-folks from across the Multiverse, including a very pregnant Jessica Drew (Issa Rae) and tons of delightful cameos from Spidey’s transmedia past — although, curiously, we never spotted Supaidaman, the Japanese Spider-Man who was reported to be featured in the film long before any trailers emerged. Miguel’s real reason for building the group, and keeping Miles out of it, constitutes a major spoiler, but it is at the core of the film’s genuinely fascinating conflict. Suffice to say, long time comic book fans will have a lot to chew on after learning Miguel’s true issue.
The conflict is presented in the Spider-Verse‘s energetic and anarchic love of animation. Various styles are on display with each universe glimpsed getting its own distinctive flavor. Techniques recall — among other things — 2D animation, pencil sketches, stop motion, and even a couple of scenes feature live action footage. The result is something that feels hyper but satisfying. When the film slows down to revel in the beauty of the Multiverse its created, it does so with a genuinely overwhelming shot that also underscores the emotions of two key characters. It’s breathtakingly confident for any animation, let alone one based around comic book IP.
The characters are also rendered with that confidence in terms of their stories and their looks; particularly Miles and Gwen, who both face challenges that are equally about maturity as they are about catching the bad guy. A couple of the newcomers are also given lavish treatment, with one becoming a stylistic marvel and the other getting a whole lot of characterization considering their fairly brief time on screen.
If the film has a fault, it may be that it is surprisingly less confident on where to end. A fairly minor spoiler follows, so skip the next paragraph if you want to go the film completely fresh.
In the last 15 minutes, several scenes appear as worthy places to hand off story to the upcoming third film, Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse, but the ultimate fade-to-black struck us as fairly arbitrary. This may be a side-effect of the movie growing in the telling and becoming two films mid-way through production. It may also be something we noticed because we cover film production as part of our job. Much of the audience at the public showing we went to last night were genuinely surprised to see Across the Spider-Verse conclude with a “To Be Continued.” We’ve known about that for the last 18 months. Caught off guard, this could lead to a less satisfying film-going experience, but the movie’s journey is so well-crafted that this potential snag is something we consider minor to the overall quality, bravery, and craft on display.
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is a celebration of animation and the peculiarities of superhero comics unlike anything committed to the screen so far. While it still digs deep with its emotions, it is also joyous in the things it gets to do by virtue of the format and source material. And that joy will follow you outside the theater even as you consider what lies ahead in movie 3.
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is in theaters now.
