Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse

Tonight, on Netflix, I saw “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse,” which came out in June, but on Netflix on Halloween Day. As one of the films that I was desperately wanting to see, how is this compared to the first Spider-Verse movie?

Nadine Whitney started her review by saying, “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is not only an antidote to superhero fatigue it is genuinely one of the most beautifully rendered animated features in years and possibly the best tent-pole release of 2023.” Even though it ends on a cliffhanger, the story is written carefully and brings Gwen Stacy (Hailee Steinfeld) to the level of co-lead with Miles Morales (Shameik Moore). The film focuses on family, sacrifice, and consequences with Miles and Gwen having to accept what being a superhero means for them as people, not just heroes.

The film starts with Gwen playing the drums as a way of venting. Back in her dimension, she is alone and feeling the pressure of being found by her father, Captain George Stacy, voiced by Shea Whigham, as guilty of the murder of her best friend Peter Parker. Eventually, Gwen has to tell her father that she is Spider-Woman, and he chooses to arrest her, leaving her all alone with no one to turn to. Whitney credited, “Her world is animated in a painterly style, soft watercolours that bleed in a spread in a melancholy fashion.” Soon she is brought into a new life, one who has Miguel O’Hara, voiced by Oscar Isaac, in charge and has congregated every multiverse Spider-Man to protect the Web of Life and Destiny from anomalies. One anomaly is Miles Morales himself.

In Miles’ dimension, the 15-year-old is balancing the life of Spider-Man with his school and home life. He’s become a better Spider-Man but as much as he tries otherwise, he isn’t a better son. The film gives time to developing his relationship with his father who’s about to become Captain Jefferson Davis (Brian Tyree Henry) and his mother Rio Morales (Luna Lauren Vélez). Fighting the “villain of the week” The Spot (Jason Schwartzman) who was created by Miles’ actions in the previous film sees him meeting a dimension-hopping enemy who has gotten the attention of Michael O’Hara and his Spider-Man team which includes Spider-Woman Jessica Drew (Issa Rae), Spider-Punk Hobie Brown (Daniel Kaluuya), and Gwen.

It's not long until Miles follows the team across the Spider-Verse where he meets new people like Pavitr Prabhakar/Spider-Man India (Karan Soni), Spider-Byte (Amandla Steinberg), and a familiar person from the first movie, Peter B. Parker (Jake Johnson) who is carrying his baby Mayday with him to fight crime, the baby that he was convinced by his time with Miles to finally have with Mary-Jane (Melissa Sturm).

The dramatic tension comes when Miles finds out that he was never meant to be a Spider-Man. The radioactive spider that bit him was from Earth-44 and brought to his dimension by Kingpin’s machine. Although Miles has experienced loss, he was never given his defining moment- the sacrifice that makes all Spider-Men. His dimension was supposed to have a Peter Parker who lived. Whitney said, “Miguel O’Hara explains that there are fixed points that keep the multiverse from imploding and Miles by dent of his existence, and by wanting to be able to save people from so-called pre-determined fates is an unwanted cog in the multiversal wheel.”

Directors Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers, and Justin K. Thompson and writers Phil Lord, Christopher Miller, and David Callaham expand on the already hectic and superb Spider-Verse. The animation is as mind-blowing as the audience has expected. Whitney noted, “Hobie Brown is made up of zine styled photocopies befitting his Punk name and attitude.” The dimension of Pavitr Prabhakar pays tribute to Bollywood. Every dimension of the Spider-Men travel though is an amazing collage of comic book art, fine art (Jorma Taccone’s The Vulture is a Da Vinci drawing), and cultural specificity. The writing is made to give the characters space to have their personalities and think about what being a hero means. There are a lot of well-placed visual gags, connected universes, and an excess of meaningful moments that support the tragedies that make Spider-Men who they are.

The action set pieces are dynamic and honestly astonishing. The film balances its drama with the madness of the multiverse, something that people might think the Doctor Strange sequel could have done much better. The question “Do you sacrifice a whole world to save one person?” is at the center of the film – for Miles the answer is why does it have to be a choice? Once he learns what is really at stake he to decide if he should do things his way.

“Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” is as perfect a movie can be both as an animation and as a superhero story. Whitney noted, “This perfection isn’t dulled by the fact that it is part one of a two-part story.” Like the comic books on which this is based it manages to be complete within itself but also something that will have the audiences wanting the next film. “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” is a brilliant film with imagined writing and characters we care about not to mention a visual masterpiece. It goes beyond the genre to be one of the most enjoyable and engrossing films of the year.

If you missed the chance to see this in theaters, watch this on Netflix. I promise you, if you loved the first Spider-Verse movie, you will love the sequel more. This is an amazing movie. Everything that made the first movie great, this one did more. You will love the animation, the action, the comedy, and the humanizing, emotional moments this film never fails to deliver. This is a must-see and is not to be missed.

Thank you for joining in on the review tonight. Stay tuned Friday for the continuation of “Steve Carrell Month.”