Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
My esteemed co-worker Christy Lemire started her review of “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” with a quote from her nine-year-old asking if he could see it again, so I’m going to do something similar and begin this one with a quote from my nine-year-old: “That may be the best movie I’ve ever seen.”
“Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” hits theaters this week, following in the footsteps of the masterful “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” with dazzling animation, unforgettable characters and complex themes. The first thing I wrote down after seeing it was “so much movie.” Like a young artist’s creation that breaks free of frame, “Across the Spider-Verse” is packed tight with incredible imagery and big ideas. It’s intelligent, exhilarating work that put me in mind of other great part twos like “The Dark Knight” and “The Empire Strikes Back.” Like those films, it makes you pine for what happens next (coming March 2024), and earns its cliffhangers by rooting them in young people’s story about refusing to submit to formulaic hero arcs.
“Across the Spider-Verse” picks up just over a year after the events of the first movie. Gwen Stacy (Hailee Steinfeld) has returned to her universe and is trying to keep her secret identity hidden from her father George (Shea Whigham). When an alternate Vulture (Jorma Taccone) drops into her reality, he brings along Spider-Man 2099 (Oscar Isaac), who is followed by a confident Spider-Woman (Issa Rae). They tell Gwen that they’re part of a secret Spider-Society that has been cleaning up inter-universe messes capturing villains who end up in the wrong one and sending them home again. When Gwen’s identity is blown with George, she joins their crew to fix multi verse mistakes.
Of course, Miles Morales (Shameik Moore) is essentially one of those errors himself. The Peter Parker of his universe died trying to save him, and the spider that bit Miles never should’ve been there in the first place. But it was. So now what? This story’s backbone is about pushing back against determinism and moving forward with what’s in front of you. Superhero culture has used multiverse stories to expand on the idea of potential, but this film (and I really hope these themes land harder in its sequel) suggests that it’s way more important to hold onto the reality in your hands than imagine all of the other ones that might have been. It’s about controlling your own fate more than giving into a scripted narrative of heroism. More than most superhero movies, it’s about empowerment instead of destiny. And that’s powerful stuff.
Now let’s talk about Miles. He’s in his Brooklyn, trying to be a good student and a friendly neighborhood Spider-Man. He’s thinking about telling his mom, Rio (Luna Lauren Vélez), and dad, Jefferson (Brian Tyree Henry), the truth but he doesn’t want to ruin their relationship. One day, what looks like a “villain of the week” shows up in the form of The Spot (Jason Schwartzman). Formerly known as Dr. Jonathan Ohnn, this Alchemax employee was forever changed by what happened in the first movie and now can control time and space through portals. It starts off cute when he tries to steal an ATM with one but The Spot becomes much more threatening as his powers increase, opening gateways that could destroy worlds.
Naturally, The Spot catches the attention of the Spider-Society, which sends Gwen and company back into Miles Morales’ life. Their first sequence together is breathtaking as they whip and swing through the city flirting through the sky that ends with them sitting upside down high above town with the skyline inverted behind them. It is a quiet moment in a movie that is often very loud and just as beautiful in its calm as its noise.
If the first film asked who gets to be a hero, this second film asks how heroism is defined. Why does every hero’s arc have to be the same? Why does so much superhero mythology lean into the idea that it is only through tragedy that heroism can be born? In an era when superhero movies have taken over our culture, writers Phil Lord, Christopher Miller & David Callahan use animation’s freedom to unpack the world they know and love’s structure without ever stopping for breath over these 140 minutes almost overwhelming with ideas I mean my youngest turned to me at one point and said “I have no idea what’s going on.” He said it with a smile, though.
But of course, the imagery will be more memorable than any one idea. Directors Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers and Justin K. Thompson build on the first movie’s aesthetics with some of the most strikingly conceived and executed animation ever put to screen. From frame one, this crew is using their form to do things that could never happen in live action MCU; the art of Across the Spider-Verse feels even more self-assured than the first film. It’s not just that every action sequence would cost half a billion dollars in live action it’s that this freedom has been employed artistically and cohesively instead of just extravagantly. Even in a film where characters defy time and space with every leap or dive, the choreography is easier to follow than some of the Hollywood blockbusters released already this season as there is true craftsmanship here; especially in a late sequence when Miles breaks free from what the canon says he has to be.
What I like most about this movie is that all the actors involved did an amazing job with their voices. There are so many celebrity voices in here including a few cameos only villains would spoil but I want to single out Shameik Moore, who finds the right pitch for the weird combination of youth, manhood and heroism Miles embodies. It’s a vocal performance perfectly poised between curiosity, vulnerability and burgeoning self-assurance. Steinfeld, Henry, Rae, Jake Johnson, Schwartzman, Velez, Daniel Kaluuya, Isaac there isn’t a weak link. Everyone understood what this script could be.
Bad sequels repeat, good sequels deepen. They expand and enhance what’s already there while setting up new possibilities for future installments. We seem to be living through a time of non-endings in blockbusters and I don’t love it but feel like “Across the Spider-Verse” earns its open conclusion. It’s not just making sure you come back for another ticket. It’s not threatening you into staying until it finishes telling its story. It’s promising you more of one that has already been so satisfyingly told.
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