Courtesy of Sony Pictures Entertainment
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is the sequel to the animated film Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse from 2018, once again written by Phil Lord and Chris Miller. Shameik Moore, Hailee Steinfeld, Jake Johnson, Brian Tyree Henry, and Luna Lauren Velez return to the voice cast. Jason Schwartzman, Issa Rae, Karan Soni, Daniel Kaluuya, and Oscar Isaac are the new additions to the voice cast. Once again, the movie centers around Miles Morales, who has been Spider-Man in his universe for over a year, reuniting with Gwen Stacy and discovering the Spider-Society, led by Spider-Man 2099, Miguel O’Hara. Miles takes on O’Hara and a new villain named the Spot, who can travel to other universes.
In 2018, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse was one of the biggest surprises in theaters. The movie was loved by critics and audiences, telling a great story with great characters and animation. There were a lot of questions about how to handle a sequel. What other versions of Spider-Man can appear? Where do you take this version of Miles Morales next? Can the film live up to its potential? I can easily say Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse lives up to the hype and is one of the best Spider-Man films.
A film with many characters and references to other Spider-Man movies, shows, games, and comics can get messy, but Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse prevents that. Despite the cameos and references to other Spider-Man media, the movie stays focused on telling the next chapter in Miles Morales’s story. We see how Miles is doing as Spider-Man and how it has impacted his relationship with his family. The film also explores Gwen Stacy’s backstory and her relationship with her father. Peter B. Parker returns, this time with a daughter named Mayday Parker. It’s the first time a Spider-Man movie showed a version of Peter Parker having a kid. Don’t expect a lot of Peter B. Parker in this film, as the primary characters are Miles and Gwen. Shameik Moore, Hailee Steinfeld, and Jake Johnson do a great job voicing Miles, Gwen, and Peter again.
New additions to the film include Spider-Man 2099, Spider-Punk, and Spider-Man India. Spider-Man 2099, also known as Miguel O’Hara, is voiced by Oscar Isaac and leads the Spider-Society. He does not consider Miles a true Spider-Man and tries to prevent Miles from preventing a specific canon event from happening in Miles’s universe. Isaac delivers a great voice performance as O’Hara. Spider-Punk and Spider-Man India were entertaining and great additions to the movie. Daniel Kaluuya as Spider-Punk and Karan Soni as Spider-Man India were also great voice performances.
The biggest surprise of the movie was the antagonist, The Spot. In the comics, The Spot is a minor league Spider-Man villain that at one point, was on a team with other minor Spider-Man villains called the Legion of Losers and rarely appeared in the Spider-Man cartoons. This movie changes the villain for the better. He starts as a joke, but as the film progresses, he becomes more powerful, and we realize why he hates Spider-Man and how far he’ll go to take down Spider-Man. The character and animation designs gave the villain a horror-themed feel to him.
Like Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse has a unique animation style. Sony Animation had a reputation as the weakest animation studio, but these animated Spider-Man films provide some of the best animation styles out of any animated movie. The animation style would change when the characters went to another universe. Some characters, like Spider-Punk, had their own animation style that stood out no matter what universe they were in. The movie’s soundtrack is once again fantastic, although I feel like Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse's soundtrack was better and stood out more. The film does end on a cliffhanger. The next part, Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse, comes out in less than a year.
Overall, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is another spectacular Spider-Man film. Phil Lord and Chris Miller continue to write great stories. The voice cast did an incredible job. The Spot went from a minor league Spider-Man comic book villain to a comic book movie villain that’s better than most MCU villains. The animation is once again unique. The film has a great soundtrack. The only downside of the movie is we must wait until March 2024 to see how it continues.
The final grade for Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is an A+. Not only is the movie one of the best comic book films to come out, but it’s also one of the best-animated films. Not only will Spider-Man fans love it, but general audiences will love it. I highly recommend you see Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.
What did you think of Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse? What is your favorite Spider-Man film? Let us know in the comments below.