The thrilling escapades of the latest web-slinging hero, along with his friends from the 2018 Academy Award-winning animated movie Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, continue in the sequel, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.
15-year-old Miles Morales (voiced by Shameik Moore) is doing his best to balance going to high school, dealing with his overprotective parents, and protecting Brooklyn from crime as Spider-Man. Still, he feels cut off and alone since he can’t talk to anyone about his superpowers since all his other Spidey friends are living in their own dimensions.
Over on Earth-65 in her own dimension, Gwen Stacy aka Spider-Woman (voiced by Hailee Steinfeld) is struggling with the reality that her own father, a Captain on the police force, is leading a special task force to capture Spider-Woman. Of course, he has no idea that his daughter is under the mask of the vigilante he’s hunting. Additionally, Gwen misses her friend and crush, Miles, and yearns to be reunited with him.
When Spider-Woman goes after the notorious villain The Vulture, she encounters an elite squad of Spidey fighting heroes who help her stop The Vulture, save innocent bystanders, and even save herself from being caught by her father. Recognizing her exceptional abilities and potential, the crime-fighting group recruits Gwen to join their team.
Back in Miles’s dimension, he’s busy fighting a new enemy – a clumsy, dimension-hopping white humanoid figure with black spots that resembles a human Dalmatian. This new enemy calls himself, appropriately enough, The Spot (voiced by Jason Schwartzman). He blames the wall-crawler for ruining his life and causing him to lose everything and everyone he cared about. He’s determined to do the same to Miles.
After a long, clumsy, and hilarious fight spanning different parts of Brooklyn, Miles captures The Spot. However, when Miles races off to a school meeting with his parents, the villain escapes.
Miles’s parents have had enough of his “whatever” attitude after he arrives late at the meeting and at the party celebrating his father’s promotion to Captain. He’s grounded for a few months and while sulking in his room, Miles hears a familiar voice calling his name and sees Gwen outside his window.
Surprised and happy to see his friend (who he also has a crush on), Miles forgets about being grounded and puts on his Spider-Man outfit to go soaring across Brooklyn and other parts of New York with Spider-Woman. The reunited webbed superheroes have fun together, laughing and catching up on their lives.
It’s not long before Miles learns about the Spider team Gwen joined and finds himself launched once again across the Multiverse to help Gwen and her new team protect the Multiverse. However, when the superheroes disagree on how to handle a new villain that threatens the Multiverse, Miles finds himself at odds with the Spider team and fights to get back to his Earth and save the lives of the people he loves.
Visually dazzling with frenzied action scenes, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is a fun and energetic animated sequel with plenty of humor and excitement. It’s a bigger and broader film than its predecessor and more ambitious by deepening the characters’ emotions and adding the elements of sacrifice, loss, and tragedy as being vital to becoming a true hero.
This time, it’s Gwen Stacy’s story and her character’s growth and emotional turmoil that gives the film its heart. Gwen, wonderfully voiced once again by Hailee Steinfeld, is struggling with the distance between her and her father and the fact that she can’t tell him who she is. She also pushes back from making friends, blaming herself for the death of her best friend. The one true connection she feels is with Miles, who she desperately wants back in her life. Even when she joins the Spider crime-fighting team, she still looks for a reason to go see Miles.
The animation is breathtaking and groundbreaking, with the use of fading colors and different styles sure to have audiences mesmerized while taking it all in. The only drawback to the film is its length, clocking in at an overly long two hours and 19 minutes. There are way too many monologues from different characters that are meant to provide deeper insight into the characters but only succeed in bringing the film to a grinding halt.
Still, with fantastic animation, plenty of chaotic energy, and fun and entertaining characters, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is a thrilling sequel and the best animated film so far this year.
GRADE: B
MPAA Rating: PG for some language, animated action violence, and thematic elements
Release Date: June 2, 2023
Directed By: Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers, and Justin K. Thompson
Studio: Sony Pictures
