Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is a miraculous film. It stares down superhero, multiverse, and even Spider-Man fatigue itself, delivering a shock to the system not seen since the first film leapt off the screen. Much like its predecessor, 2018’s Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, the sequel pushes the bounds of animation and superhero storytelling even further to deliver a film that’s as mesmerizing and exhilarating as it is emotional and thought-provoking.
We pick back up sixteen months after the events of Into the Spider-Verse, with Miles Morales (Shameik Moore) still riding high as his universe’s one and only Spider-Man. However, he’s struggling to keep his double life in balance as he faces the constant scrutiny of his parents and the overwhelming but equally limiting expectations placed upon him by the world at large. He also misses his fellow Spider friends, flung out across unreachable dimensions.
A surprising visit from Gwen Stacy/Spider-Woman (Hailee Steinfeld) reveals that she and hundreds of elite Spider-People from across the “spider-verse” have been recruited by Miguel O’Hara/Spider-Man 2099 (Oscar Isaac) to keep the balance of the multiverse safe. Despite his eagerness and prior experience saving the spider-verse, for reasons that remain unclear to Miles, he’s been shut out of the Spider Society. All the while, The Spot (Jason Schwartzman), a disfigured scientist who blames Miles for his descent into villainy, is nipping at his heels. The Spot is traversing dimensions and augmenting his power to unleash hell in an effort to destroy Miles’ life and whole world.
From its opening moments, it’s clear that Across the Spider-Verse isn’t going to settle for retreading elements and story beats from the prior film. While this is very much Miles’ journey, it is intertwined with his closest friend, Gwen. She bookends the film, giving us insight into the trials and tribulations of the Spider-Person mantle. She sets the stage for a narrative that’s much more mature in tone. Being a Spider-Person isn’t the romp the bright colors and over-the-top stylization suggest. People get hurt, people die, and both she and Miles are suffocating under the weight of what others expect from them and whether or not they measure up. It’s an anguish that everyone has had to face while growing up, and it’s no less gut-wrenching when framed around a superhero’s struggle. Gwen is the audience’s guide to the tumult and chaos of the Spider Society and the bridge to instantly memorable new characters and heartstopping action. Her opening fight scene alongside Spider-Man 2099 and Jessica Drew/Spider-Woman (Issa Rae) immediately propels viewers into the much larger scope of the film, as the complicated intricacies of the multiverse are laid out at breakneck speed alongside a riveting action set piece.
Miles and Gwen’s universe-hopping introduces us to new sounds, sights, and amazing Spider-People. Gwen’s world is alight with bright blues, pinks, and whites, smearing across dynamic lines to create a watercolor graphic novel. The colors ebb and flow like a mood ring within a scene. Pavitr Prabhakar/Spider-Man India’s (Karan Soni) Mumbattan looks like a paper-and-stick model city coming to life, all splintery edges and impossibly layered streets and buildings swathed in lime greens and sunset oranges.
The Spider Society’s headquarters is full of Spider-People from countless worlds, and no two are animated quite the same: a 90’s comic hero with thick black shadowy lines and bulging muscles, a CGI PlayStation model with uncannily smooth edges, and even a two-inch tall Lego Peter Parker. If there’s one Spider who is unlike anything seen before, though, it’s Daniel Kaluuya’s Hobie Brown/Spider-Punk. He’s a jagged page ripped out of a punk zine with colors that change every time he breathes. Each part of his body seems cut and pasted together from posters that must plaster his bedroom walls. There are rips, tears, and glued-over pieces that never seamlessly fit together as he swings and saunters, his electric guitar firing off paper lightning bolts in his hands. True to his punk roots, every part of him is animated differently; body parts and outlines move on every third or seventh frame, instead of the traditional second frame. Even this skewing of animation rules isn’t entirely consistent, and every glimpse of Hobie is just a little different each time. It’s as if you could reach out and feel the wrinkled imperfections that crinkle across the screen. Just watching Hobie’s papery form interact with Miles’ blending of 3D and 2D dots is enough of a visual feast to place the film far beyond any other animated film released in the last few years.
Daniel Pemberton’s score wholly encompasses the wide variety of different worlds and characters contained within the film. From Spider-Man 2099’s motif with its eerie sirens announcing a much scarier kind of Spider-Person to Spider-Man India’s boisterous drums, every moment of the score is capable of immersing you in every character’s inner world. So much of The Spot’s unraveling into a terrifying threat is owed to his musical motif, full of striking violin screeches and glitchy, digital wails that are more akin to human screams. What’s most impressive is how Pemberton retools iconic musical moments from the previous film’s score to create new meaning within this film. Miles’ heroic fanfare has grown louder and prouder just as the character has become a bolder Spider-Man.
Across the Spider-Verse is not just breathtaking to look at. Its vocal performances bolster the film, adding deft touches of comedy and genuine malice as secrets unravel and Miles’ foes become more threatening. Schwartzman is no stranger to bumbling comedic energy. He shines in perfectly conveying The Spot’s downward spiral into a world-devouring nightmare. His ability to convey emotions is all the more amazing when considering that there is very little the animation can do to help him along as The Spot has no face. His posture and voice are all that’s needed to make him a startlingly intense antagonist.
Isaac delivers another standout performance. He expertly walks the line between O’Hara’s looming stoicism and his vampiric, animalistic rage. This isn’t a Spider-Man that quips and jokes, though the character’s emblematic sly sense of humor bleeds out ever so slightly now and again. This Spider-Man is an angry, hulking beast, towering over all the swift and lithe Spider-People as the unquestionable leader. His swears and growls perfectly match O’Hara’s broad build and snarling fangs, making him all the more menacing and completely at odds with whatever conception of Spider-Man audiences have.
O’Hara’s an entirely new kind of Spidey that perfectly encapsulates the film’s boldness. He’s not a secret twist villain or a conflicted anti-hero. He’s tortured and sympathetic, yes, but there’s a ferocity to his devotion to his mission that makes his clash with Miles especially fascinating. It’s one thing for Miles to need to prove himself to outsiders that will never understand the burden of his powers. They want to box him in, as an immigrant rags-to-riches story, as a devoted son who follows in his parents’ footsteps, as a successful statistic with no room for individuality.
Additionally, Miles faces opposition from O’Hara and other Spider-People, countless versions of “his story” that have existed for decades before him and disagree with his unique outlook as Spider-Man. Like his arc in the first film, Miles, a bright Afro-Latin boy from New York, has to prove himself. His arc doesn’t stop at proving himself as Spider-Man. Miles has to prove his worth and value as Miles Morales this time. Despite the world-shattering mayhem surrounding him, the film’s overall message is as personal and emotionally transcendent as the “leap of faith” from the first film, accompanied by an equally simple yet iconic phrase that is sure to impact audiences far and wide.
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is a delight and only part one of Miles’ journey across worlds and back, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Directors Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers, Justin K. Thompson, and screenwriters Phil Lord, Chris Miller, and David Callaham know precisely what they’re doing. The sprawling film covers a lot of ground, but its greatest strength, the magnetism and charm of the Spider-People at its center, isn’t forgotten. Miles and Gwen are earnest and devoted, not just to their jobs as saviors but to each other. They make mistakes and are sometimes profoundly unsure of their place in the world, but they have good hearts, which perfectly grounds the vast adventure they’re wrapped up in. The film is risky and ambitious, breaking the rules left and right, and triumphs in doing so.
