Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse
Given the success of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, there was always going to be a great deal of pressure on its sequel to live up to the standard set for it. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse doesn’t just do that, however – it betters its predecessor in almost every metric and delivers the best Marvel film, if not the best superhero film, of the last few years.
Across the Spider-Verse begins not with Miles Morales (Shameik Moore), the hero of the previous outing, but with Gwen Stacey in dealing with the fallout from the death of her universe’s Peter Parker and her role as Spider-Woman. During a battle with an interdimensional villain, she is unexpectedly aided by multiverse-jumping spider people, Jessica Drew (Issa Rae) and Miguel O’Hara (Oscar Isaac), and then chooses to follow them across the ‘Spider-verse’ after the fight. We catch up with Miles some months later back in his own dimension where he is, like countless spider-people before him, struggling to juggle his double life as a student and as Spider-Man. An encounter with Dr. Jonathan Ohnn (Jason Schwartzman), a mutated and disgruntled scientist who calls himself ‘The Spot’, coincides with a cross-universe visit from Gwen and Miles’ first leap into the multiverse. Meeting a cavalcade of spider-people, he is drawn into new existential dangers and is forced to question who he can trust and how he can save the people closest to him, while Gwen is left to question how best to fulfil her responsibilities to her loved ones and as Spider-Woman.
What cannot go without praise, if one had to pick something, is by far the animation and art style of Across the Spider-Verse. Upping the ante from the first film, six different primary art and animation styles are showcased throughout the 140 minute runtime, which beautifully emphasise the variety of the multiverse this series has created. Miles’ universe is of the comic book-in-motion style that dominated Into the Spider-Verse, highlighting the high energy and plucky humour of its resident spider-person, whereas Gwen’s universe involves a watercolour backgrounding style that underscores the heavier mood her character starts the film with. This is partnered with gorgeously smooth and dynamic depictions of motion that are perfect not only for the action-packed web-slinging, that is in no short supply, but also for quieter moments of contemplation and more slow paced human movement. For animation fans, Across the Spider-Verse is a visual smorgasbord that exceeds past the impressive standard set by its forerunner.
Across the Spider-Verse also delivers in terms of narrative, with heartfelt stories being told from all angles, but especially with Miles and Gwen, who share the spotlight this time as co-protagonists. The dialogue is snappy and engaging, and whilst it does essentially nothing new, the storytelling taps into the rich potential of the Spider-Man character and manages to demonstrate that however oversaturated the market is with superhero films it is still possible for these movies to weave an engaging tale.
What Across the Spider-Verse also does that is worth noting is that it delivers on the premise of a multiverse, which Into the Spider-Verse played with and the mainline Marvel Cinematic Universe has thus far failed to properly realise. While Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness merely toyed with the concept, this film actually depicts a believable multiverse that lives up to the implicit potential of the concept. You want a punk rock English Spider-Man? He’s in there. You want a virtual reality avatar Spider-Woman? She’s in there. You want a LEGO Spider-Man? Across the Spider-Verse has you covered. You want a cowboy Spider-Man with a Spider-Horse? They did that too.
