Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (2023) | REVIEW

Directed by Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers, and Justin K. Thompson — Screenplay by Phil Lord, Christopher Miller, and Dave Callaham.

With 2018’s Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, a vast team of storytellers caught lightning in a bottle, as they managed to make a film that not only captured what makes superhero and Spider-man films so electric and fun to watch, but they had also made an animated film with a groundbreaking animation style. At the same time, they managed to introduce the world to Miles Morales — a once lesser-known Spider-Man — in a way that made him an instant fan favorite. Into the Spider-Verse is one of the best animated films of the 2010s and arguably the century at the time of writing. Since then, a lot has happened. The idea of a multiverse film has become so mainstream that the Academy Awards has even given Best Picture to a multiverse-focused film. To add to that, we even got a live-action Spider-Man multiverse film with Spider-Man: No Way Home. It would be totally understandable to think that the idea of multiverse storytelling is played out and that no one is clamoring for more Spider-People. Thus, recapturing that same lightning in a bottle was not anywhere close to being simple. And yet, that is exactly what has happened with Across the Spider-Verse, the direct sequel to the 2018 animated hit. Across the Spider-Verse is not just more of the same.

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse takes place more than a year after the events of Into the Spider-Verse. Miles Morales (voiced by Shameik Moore) is trying to balance being his universe’s only friendly neighborhood Spider-Man, while, at the same time, trying to balance just being a kid in school. In true Spider-Man form, he’s not exactly living up to the expectations set by his parents. Meanwhile, Gwen Stacy (voiced by Hailee Steinfeld), the Spider-Woman of her universe, is struggling to really talk to her father, police captain George Stacy (voiced by Shea Whigham), who blames Spider-Woman for the death of his daughter’s best friend, their universe’s Peter Parker (voiced by Jack Quaid).

One night, while Spider-Woman is battling a universe-hopping Vulture (voiced by Jorma Taccone) from a Renaissance-inspired universe, a masked Gwen is cornered by her father and held at gunpoint. Gwen decides to reveal her identity to her father, but he is so disappointed and horrified by this revelation that he doesn’t back down and still insists on her arrest. That is when the leaders of the Spider-Society — a group of Spider-People from different universes hell-bent on fixing the universe-altering mistakes caused by the particle accelerator in the first film — invite Gwen to join them rather than face the consequences. Sometime later, Gwen travels to Miles’ universe. but she isn’t just there to reconnect, she is secretly tracking the villain known as The Spot (voiced by Jason Schwartzman), who Miles thought was just a villain of the week. However, The Spot is much more dangerous, as he has the ability to use the spots on his body to travel through interdimensional portals. On a whim and without telling her, Miles decides to jump through the same portal that Gwen does, and soon he is sent to another universe and caught up in something much bigger than himself.

From Into the Spider-Verse to Across the Spider-Verse, the original trio of directors has been switched out (they’re all now credited as producers) and replaced with another trio of directors with experience on animated projects such as Soul. Why exactly they did this I’m not sure, but there is no noticeable step down in quality. If anything, the five-year gap between the first film and this sequel has allowed for bright new ideas to form, and the result is a film that is arguably even more gorgeous than the groundbreaking original. It is a real highlight to see how the hundreds of different Spider-People in this film have been animated and designed, and it is both refreshing and eye-opening to see how the different universes have been brought to life. I already mentioned the Renaissance-era Vulture character — a genius world idea — but it doesn’t stop there. The character design of Spider-Punk (voiced brilliantly by Daniel Kaluuya) gives a unique and distinct energy to the character, and there has been seriously impressive attention to detail in designing minor characters. Fans on the lookout for easter eggs galore will be satiated, as the film is filled to the brim with characters from shows, games, movies, and whatnot. Seeing these characters blend with universes that they are not home to often makes them stand out in exciting ways.

But, to me, the biggest highlight was seeing how they made the different universes distinct from each other. We get glimpses of Spider-Punk’s universe, we get an extended stay in Pavitry Prabhakar’s Mumbattan-focused universe, and there’s even a LEGO universe that looks a lot more homemade and textured than the actual LEGO films that Lord and Miller worked on. Arguably the most fascinating glimpse into a universe is the one that Gwen Stacy calls home. Her’s is a world clearly inspired by certain Spider-Gwen comic book covers, and it comes to life in a way that highlights color and lighting to express emotion. One memorable moment is when two characters standing apart from each other are surrounded by their own colors, but when they finally hug one color triumphs symbolizing the love that is there between them.

Outside of arguably even more impressive visuals (and strong voice work with a lot of new additions like Daniel Kaluuya and Oscar Isaac) the thing that I was especially fascinated by was the actual story that this film presents us with. If Into the Spider-Verse was a film showing that anyone can wear the mask — anyone can be Spider-Man — then the story in Across the Spider-Verse feels like a deliberate attempt to comment on how Spider-Man and superhero films are expected to stick to canon and the tried and true formula. In the film, the Spider-Society makes it known that everything will fall apart if every iteration of Spider-Man doesn’t have the same canon events (their term for it). Every Spider-Man must lose a family member. Every Spider-Man must lose a police captain. In Across the Spider-Verse, Miles is expected to let this happen in his universe, and. if he refuses — if he intends to stray from the formula — he is an enemy of the Spider-Verse. This feels like a deliberate attempt by Lord and Miller to comment on the problem there is with only following story templates. As such, through Miles, the creative team has made a film about challenging the formula, a film that celebrates coloring outside the lines, and a film about protecting the values of the character rather than the safety of story and arc familiarity.

To be perfectly honest, I think I like this film even more than I liked the original hit. That said, I am hesitant about giving it the same score. One of the major reasons why is that the story feels incomplete. This is definitely a part one just like how the first Denis Villeneuve Dune film was. Though I trust the creative team to stick the landing, this middle chapter tees it up for the upcoming sequel so much that it doesn’t really feel like a proper ending for Miles, whose arc is incomplete. Perhaps this is why the film opens and closes with Gwen Stacy, who does complete an emotionally satisfying arc here. The only other nitpick that I do have is that the soundtrack is not quite as catchy and memorable as it was for the first film.

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is as visually breathtaking as the first film and arguably even more impressive in its inventiveness and attention to detail in animation style and blending of these styles. Every frame of the film is full of love for the medium, the characters, and the universe. Simultaneously, these storytellers have told a story about daring to not stick to the formula at a moment in time when superhero films need this kind of talking-to. Over time, this Empire Strikes Back of the Spider-Verse could very well become my favorite of these films, but the incompleteness of the unmistakenly ‘part one’ ending holds it back slightly for now.

9.5 out of 10

– Review Written by Jeffrey Rex Bertelsen.