I’ll be honest: My expectations for Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse were fairly low. The high pedigree of its predecessor, the near-masterpiece that was 2018’s Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, was a tough act to follow and I doubted that whatever story the creative team cooked up would match the original. Lightning doesn’t strike twice. Thankfully, I was wrong.
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is to Into the Spider-Verse what The Dark Knight was to Batman Begins– a vast improvement on an already great film that blows every element of what came before out of the water. It’s a massive leap forward for animation, storytelling, action set pieces, superhero cinema, striking visual stylings and is just a damn great movie on top of that. We’re only halfway through 2023, but all other films that have released this year are on notice- This is quite possibly as good as films in 2023 will ever get.
If you’ve somehow dodged spoilers up to this point, I won’t dive into plot details since the best way to go into this film is completely blind. Much like every Spider-Man sequel ever made, there’s a lot going on to the point of overstimulation, but it somehow coalesces nicely. Sure, on first viewing, some of the more frenetic action set pieces will dizzy you, but they’ll also dazzle you, seeing as the animators earned their collective paychecks by making the already hallmark animation style from the first film look like crayon drawings from a toddler.
It’s hard to explain just how good the animation in this film is because you literally must see it to believe it. Some characters will operate at completely different animation rules than the other and no two styles are alike. Even simple facial expressions are masterfully done, right down to the widening of the Spider-Characters’ lenses on their masks, which tells a lot of story without saying anything at all.
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Speaking of story, the script by Phil Lord, Christopher Miller and Dave Callaham gives numerous opportunities for character, heart and most surprisingly, huge drama. Gwen Stacy, voiced by Hailee Steinfeld, deserves special mention, going from a kick ass heroine to a nuanced, conflicted and at times, heart rending portrayal of a character. This is just as much her movie as Miles Morales’s, but he, voiced by Shameik Moore, also has a huge turmoil to face, which ups the stakes to ridiculously massive proportions. And Oscar Isaac as Miguel O’Hara leads to some darker subject matter, one of the greatest character entrances I’ve seen in a long time, and proves that Isaac can voice act with the best of them.
Even the villain of the film, the low rent Spot, voiced by Jason Schwartzman, is an upgrade. Point a gun to any comic book fans’ head and ask them who Spot is and they’d draw a blank, but now everyone will know his name. He’s a unique, threatening and Uber powerful menace to the point that it’s hard to think of a way for Miles, Gwen and company to defeat him. It’s a rare feat to make the battle between good and evil seemingly impossible to win, but this film does it to exciting results.
The literal only complaint- And I searched hard- is the film’s soundtrack. Not the score by Daniel Pemberton, which is fantastic, but the songs featured in the film. “Into the Spider-Verse’s” hip-hop soundtrack featured catchy hits that even non hip-hop fans have in their playlist, but this film’s music doesn’t match that energy or iconography. There’s no moment that comes close to Miles’s leap of faith set perfectly to What’s Up Danger, but that’s the only knock against this film.
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse isn’t just an improvement of a sequel; it’s a quantum leap forward for filmmaking that hopefully will inspire a generation. If next year’s conclusion, Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse, can match this level, or even outdo it, we’ll be talking about this trilogy for decades to come.
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is now playing in theaters.