Miles Morales (Shameik Moore) and Gwen Stacy (Hailee Steinfeld) are back, this time chasing a new villain called the Spot (Jason Schwartzman) who has the ability to create space-warping portals. Gwen has joined a group of other multiverse-traipsing Spider-folks who have formed a team called Spider Society. Meanwhile, Miles is running into difficulties balancing his life as Spider-man with his relationship with his parents (Brian Tyree Henry and Luna Lauren Velez), and considers revealing his secret to them.
Clearly, the only superhero they should make multiverse movies about is Spider-man. "Spider-man: Across the Spider-verse," the sequel to "Into the Spiderverse," isn't quite as good as the first, but it's a wildly impressive piece of filmmaking on every level. It's also an excellent comic book movie, and more specifically an excellent "Spider-man" movie. Several live-action films have tried to do what "Into the Spider-verse" did with multiverses and meta commentary, but "Across the Spider-verse" makes it clear that pretty much the only way this is feasible is with animation. It not only sticks with the multiverse concept, but doubles down on it, including hundreds of different universes and Spider-people, mixing and matching animation styles, mediums, and genres.
Let's introduce an Indian Spider-man named Pavitr Prabhakar (Karan Soni) who lives in Mumbattan, and has movements based on Indian martial arts. Let's introduce a British anarchist Spider-Punk (Daniel Kaluuya), who is animated to look like he's been ripped from punk rock posters, in an entirely different frame rate from anyone else in the film. Let's make the Gwen Stacy Spider-woman come from a world of watercolor hues, where her emotions are mirrored by the color palette. As an animation nerd, the only place I've seen some of these concepts attempted has been in experimental shorts - beautiful, but underseen and underappreciated. This is the first mainstream film I've ever found that really embraces the full, dazzling potential of animation to this extent, and it's so gratifying to experience.
As you might expect, there are a ton of references in the film to just about every other piece of "Spider-man" media over the past fifty years, sometimes cramming a dozen different ones in a single shot. This doesn't feel like pandering, however, because the whole film is built on appreciating these endless variations, and there are so many that none especially stick out. This is also one of those cases where you don't have to be familiar with any of the references to get the jokes - a Spider-Cat, and a Spider-T-rex, and a Peter Parkedcar just become visual gags. There are action sequences where part of the spectacle is just having a multitude of Spider-folks onscreen at the same time, and it mostly works.
"Across the Spider-verse" is so much more ambitious than the first "Spider-verse" film and so much better at pulling off certain concepts that I wish I liked it more. However, it's designed to be the first part of a two-part story, to be concluded in the upcoming "Spider-man: Beyond the Spider-verse." "Across the Spider-verse" is very good as a part one, but without all the story payoffs and resolutions, it feels unfinished the same way that "Avengers: Infinity War" did. There are promising characters like the newly introduced Spider-man Miguel O'Hara (Oscar Isaac) and Spider-woman Jessica Drew (Issa Rae) who haven't had nearly enough time to make an impact yet, and I suspect that's because their personal histories will play a bigger part in "Beyond."
Instead, this movie is actually about Gwen more than anyone else, and her relationship with her father Captain Stacy (Shea Whigham). Amidst all the other chaos going on, this is the story that reaches a satisfying ending and helps to cement this Gwen as the best screen version by far. I really like where Miles's story is going, but his arc is far from finished. If "Beyond" can stick the landing, however, Miles will be in serious contention for the best screen Spidey of them all, animated or otherwise.
It looks like the next film has run into some major production trouble, and won't be making its 2024 release date. However, the last thing I want the creators to do is rush this. Sony should give them all the time that they need.
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