Let’s do things differently this time. So differently. His name is Miles Morales. He was bitten by a radioactive spider, and he’s not the only one. He hasn’t always had it easy, and he’s not the only one. And now he’s on his own, and he’s not the only one. You think you know the rest. You don’t. I thought I knew the rest, but I didn’t. I didn’t want to hurt him, but I did.
I flipped about as hard for Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse as I flipped for any movie in recent times. I went in really not knowing what to expect, hoping that it would be good and live up to the buzz I was hearing. I found myself blown away by it in basically every way and, above all, I was just constantly and consistently surprised by how great the movie was. Across the Spider-Verse had a harder task; I’d seen and loved the first movie, so I was going in with sky-high expectations (that I was trying to moderate in order to be fair) and there was no surprising me this time. Except . . . turns out there was. Because sky-high expectations and the feeling that I knew the tricks that were up the filmmakers’ sleeves this time notwithstanding, I was blown away again.
I’m trying to get out of this mindset of whether this movie is “better” than that movie, you know. There’s no reason to go there; this movie and that movie can both be great and I can love them both, you know? I’m speaking of hypothetical “this” and “that,” you understand. But, look, I think Across the Spider-Verse is the better movie of the two Spider-Verse movies and, just as I was blown away by the quality of the first one, I think it’s basically in every way. I would say that Into the Spider-Verse is funnier and it is, of necessity, telling a smaller scale story and so it’s still basically a perfect film; I’m not downing Into at all. It’s just that Across has widened and deepened everything about the first movie. The returning characters are more richly drawn, the vocal and visual performances better and more nuanced. Shameikh Moore & Hailee Steinfeld once again give just brilliant performances that express every needed emotion in exactly the right way. Jake Johnson, Mahershala Ali, Lauren Velez and Brian Tyree Henry once again do fantastic work as well. The world-building visuals are unbelievably gorgeous in every single world we visit and as we hop from world to world, we get a since of the broad expanse of this universe, but not in a way that feels overly busy or in a way that lowers the emotional stakes for our characters. The new characters are astoundingly great as well. The designs and the vocal performances work in concert to bring these characters stunningly to life. Oscar Isaac, Daniel Kaluuya, Jason Schwartzman & Karan Soni all deserve special praise for their fully committed performances. The action sequences are breathtaking. A new villain called The Spot opens the door to the multiverse and the way he uses, sometimes accidentally, the power of his holes (sorry!) is both hilarious and jaw-dropping. An action sequence in Mumbatten, featuring Spider-Man India, is just magnificent. The use of music is perfect at every moment and the movie manages to go crazier and crazier every time you think you might get a chance to catch your breath. Moore’s Miles Morales muses “Can this day get any damn weirder?” at one point. And then a T. Rex starts chasing him.
But the film maintains the heart of the story which is Miles and his emotional journey. All of the relationships here feel deeper, more lived in, more resonant. The scenes with Gwen are great and the scenes with Miles’ mother are also really wonderful. All of the character stuff works; all of it. The script just shines in the way it explores the difficulties of these people and their lives. Scenes of Gwen and her father, George Stacy, in their universe are just brilliant and carry weight as if we’ve spent more time with these characters than we really have. The film is just so rich in emotional weight and depth. The script balances characters and story and at two-hours-and-fifteen minutes, this movie just flies by. It is as fleet of foot as any movie I’ve seen in years. I went into the film not knowing that there was going to be a literal Empire Strikes Back style cliffhanger and so, as we moved into those final scenes, I figured there must be half an hour left yet in order for everything to get wrapped up. No, turns out the movie was over, but that’s just reflective of the way time passed for me while watching this movie. We were at the climax when I thought we were probably about ninety minutes in.
And what about that cliffhanger? Well, it’s perfect. One sees these kind of cliffhangers bumbled so much in the movies that I’d forgotten just how well they could be done. But this one just builds and builds and builds to this climax where everything is coming together and all coming down to a moment and then it just goes to “To Be Continued” and I felt no disappointment, I felt no anger, I didn’t feel cheated, I didn’t feel like it was a lazy ending. I felt, honestly, exhilaration. Another whole movie of this? I mean, I knew there was going to be a third movie, but knowing that it was just going to pick up at this moment from this movie felt so good, so satisfying. It’s been hard to remember in recent years that an unresolved moment can be dramatically satisfying now that franchises are built on perpetually unresolved moments, but this one is. It’s just a perfect moment as an ending; it just hangs there, suspended and crackling with energy and vibrant with light and life. Across the Spider-Verse is another step up for Spider-Man in the movies, displacing Into the Spider-Verse as my favorite Spider-Man movie. It's just a knock-out movie in every way and a reminder that big budget, super-hero, franchise filmmaking can be genuinely excellent, entertaining, smart, relevant and artistically magnificent. It honestly isn’t “superhero fatigue,” it’s “mediocrity fatigue” that has left a lot of big budget comic book movies suffering at the box-office or, at least, gotten them on my bad side. This series came out swinging and hasn’t lost a step. What a masterpiece. 4 stars.
tl;dr – brilliant sequel deepens & expands on the first movie; stunningly animated, perfectly acted, wonderfully written, a magnificent work of art that dazzles with its richness in every area. 4 stars.