Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse

Voices of: Shameik Moore, Jake Johnson, Hailee Steinfeld, Mahershala Ali, Brian Tyree Henry, Luna Lauren Velez, Oscar Isaac, Jason Schwartzman, Issa Rae, J.K. Simmons, Daniel Kaluuya, Karan Soni, Shea Whigham, Greta Lee, Amandla Stenberg, Andy Samberg, Jack Quaid, Rachel Dratch, Donald Glover, Kathryn Hahn
Directed by: Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers, Justin K. Thompson
Rating: PG
Genre: Animation, Action, Adventure
2023

Times Seen:
Tim: 2

Summary: Miles Morales (Shameik Moore) battles a new supervillain (Jason Schwartzman) and follows Gwen (Hailee Steinfeld) even deeper into the Spider-Verse.

Review:

Tim: Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse proved to be a massive success for Sony, winning the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. It was a thoroughly enjoyable, beautifully crafted film. Five years later, we get the sequel, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse and you can say the exact same things about this film. It's surprisingly good, expanding the scope of the original, pushing the boundaries of animation, and once again delivery an insanely entertaining experience. These movies are so good.

The story picks up where it left off and takes Miles Morales into new directions. We go further into the Spider-Verse in this film and see hundreds of variants of Spider-Man. That by itself is fascinating and the endless variations of this character are astounding. You see a cowboy Spider-Man, a vehicle Spider-Man, a Lego Spider-Man, Spider-women aplenty. In an endless multiverse of Spider-people, there's no shortage to the varies ways this character would show up. The movie really leans on the comics, having the 2099 Spider-Man play a large role, bringing in Ben Reilly, and even showing archive footage from the live-action Spider-Man movies. Diving deep into this character is quite a journey and the whole thing reminds you of why he's one of the most beloved characters of all time.

That's all the broader picture, though. This story is really about Miles and the film does a fantastic job of diving deeper into his character and continuing his arc. The most iconic, power line of the film is- "Everyone keeps telling me how my story is supposed to go. Nah. I'm-a do my own thing." Shameik Moore delivers the line perfectly and it gives you chills, how beautifully that encapsulates the character arc of Miles Morales through two films. He's a fantastic character and I hope we get many more movies featuring him as the protagonist.

I also wanted to mention the antagonist of the film, Spot. I absolutely love how he was depicted here. In the beginning of the film, he just starts out on his villainous journey. He's a joke. Miles calls him a "Villain of the Week". It's an apt description of so many villains from the comics, most of whom are awful and forgettable. Spot seems exactly that way at the beginning. As the film progresses, though, he becomes increasingly powerful and increasingly frightening. It's one of the greatest villain developments I've ever seen in a film. To start a movie with the character as a joke and then end it with genuine fear as to his powers- it's fantastic. I give Jason Schwartzman a ton of credit. He might seem like an unlikely choice to voice a villain, but he does a tremendous job.

While I have so much love for this film, I do have to acknowledge some flaws. First off, it's kind of nuts that the film is 2 hours and 20 minutes long. I saw it in theaters with my 8 year-old son and it felt long. We watched it again at home and had to break it up. I'm all for epic movies and I love this film embracing the scope of the story, but I think it could have been cut down some. It takes a lot to get through the film. Not all the scenes are required. The story suffers a little because it's a "To Be Continued" film. It definitely leaves on a cliffhanger, which makes the film feel less able to stand on its own. This isn't a major issue- Avengers: Infinity War did a similar thing and that didn't hurt the movie at all. But, it does make the film feel incomplete. Lots of things happen to progress the story, but it's missing a truly climactic end. We get a great scene of Miles running through hundreds of Spider-people, but then the movie goes on for another 30 minutes, so the climax feels distant by the time the movie ends. I also feel like the movie doesn't quite explain why it's a Spider-Verse. Does every character get their own universe? Is there an Iron Man-Verse? What's so special about this radioactive spider, that the whole universe is built around it and the Canon Events could destroy universes? The idea of the Canon Event is really cool and it brings a nice meta feeling to the movie, but I still didn't quite understand why the whole multiverse was built around Spider-people. No one seems to question this at all.

The voice cast is tremendous. I already mentioned how great Shameik Moore is at voicing Miles and Schwartzman was perfect as Spot. Hailee Steinfeld does great work as Gwen. I didn't love how Gwen was depicted as a character throughout this film- she makes some shady decisions throughout the film. Her character gets more of the spotlight, though (deservedly) and Steinfeld makes her feel like a complex, realistic character. Brian Tyree Henry and Luna Lauren Velez are wonderful as Miles' parents, as you'd expect from the first film. Jake Johnson does a good job once again voicing Mentor Peter. Daniel Kaluuya and Karan Soni emerged as wonderful new characters and you better believe they worked so well because of the voice talents of these two. I'm always glad to hear Mahershala Ali and it was excellent that he got to participate in this film a bit, too. I like Andy Samberg a lot, so it made me laugh to hear him as Ben Reilly. I have to shout out the film for including the actual Donald Glover (not just his voice) in the film. It's just a quick gag, but it was really funny. I'm a big Glover fan, so his presence here was quite welcome. Oscar Isaac was perfect as Miguel O'Hara. His character was complex and interesting and Isaac really brought a lot to him. I love that Isaac just delivers great performances in so many genre franchises. He makes this film better. As a whole, the cast is extensive, but excellent.

The animation is once again jaw-dropping. The combination of different animation styles, the sheer lunacy of everything that is depicted here- it's visually stunning. I loved the technical side of the film. This film looks like nothing else being produced today. When you combine this with the sound and music, Across the Spider-Verse is such an exceptionally crafted movie. I was quite surprised to see the film's three directors are different from the original film. They stepped in and continued the film in excellent fashion.

As you might expect, I'm a big fan of Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse. It's very close in quality to the original. I do think it's a bit long and feels somewhat incomplete, but the technical wizardry used to convey this story is dazzling. This is a huge success and further cements Miles Morales as a formidable character. I know the third film has been delayed, but I can't wait to see it.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 7.5



If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend:
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, The Lego Movie, Spider-Man