Time: 140 Minutes
Age Rating: PG – Violence & coarse language
Cast:
Shameik Moore as Miles Morales/Spider-Man
Hailee Steinfeld as Gwen Stacy/Spider-Woman
Brian Tyree Henry as Jefferson “Jeff” Morales
Luna Lauren Vélez as Rio Morales
Jake Johnson as Peter B. Parker/Spider-Man
Jason Schwartzman as Dr. Jonathan Ohnn/The Spot
Issa Rae as Jess Drew/Spider-Woman
Karan Soni as Pavitr Prabhakar/Spider-Man India
Daniel Kaluuya as Hobie Brown/Spider-Punk
Oscar Isaac as Miguel O’Hara/Spider-Man 2099
Director: Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers, Justin K. Thompson

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse was one of my most anticipated movies of 2023. Into the Spider-Verse was amazing, definitely one of the best Spider-Man movies. It made such an impact back in 2018 that many of the animated movies made afterwards even attempted to capture its visual style. On a rewatch, it’s still very impressive even though I don’t quite love it as much as others do. Still, I was looking forward to seeing how the follow up film would do; it ended up being far more impressive than I was expecting.

From the trailers, I thought I could figure out the general overview of the story, but it was more layered than I was expecting. Once again, the stylistic animation might be in the forefront of the film, but the story is just as important and strong. The first movie for all its multiverse elements was a run of the mill superhero origin story at its core, which happened to be done very well. Across the Spider-Verse builds on this and is something more, a much more ambitious and experimental film. As such, I highly recommend rewatching Into the Spider-Verse before checking out its sequel. This is a considerably more dark, mature and emotional story. It’s very heartfelt and there’s plenty of emotional stakes even amongst the larger multiversal stakes presented, especially when it grapples with character choices. The pacing is a little slower as a consequence of the scope and setting being considerably larger, but it is consistently enjoyable and entertaining throughout. It is yet another comic book movie which makes use of the multiverse, not surprising since the last movie did it, but Across the Spider-Verse goes into that aspect more. Between the CW’s DC shows to Spider-Man: No Way Home, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and the upcoming The Flash, there is a bit of a fatigue when it comes to superhero multiverse stories, and I myself have gotten a little tired of it too. Thankfully, I thought that Across the Spider-Verse makes great use of it, using the multiverse to serve the story. It expanded the multiverse and world here, yet never loses sight of the story. It is true that there are so many Spider people and the film whizzes by so fast that it was hard to appreciate them. That being said, the movie doesn’t treat those appearances as the substance of the movie. There are plenty of cameos, and as someone who is very critical of the usage of cameos and nostalgia in recent franchise media (especially the MCU and Star Wars), I liked them here. They don’t feel forced and are surprising. One of the most intriguing comments I heard going into the movie were comparisons to the Matrix sequels, and without getting into it too much as its best experiencing for yourself, I kind of see what they mean. The meta-narrative especially how it focusses on Spider-Man as a figure was very surprising, and utilises aspects like canon in ways that I wasn’t expecting. Finally, a thing you really should know about ATSV is the fact that it is Part 1 of a 2-part story, in fact it was originally titled Across the Spider-Verse Part 1. I can tell that many audiences will be taken aback at the abruptness of its cliffhanger ending. Knowing this fact beforehand did help the experience. All things considering, the ending still works and is pretty substantial and self contained. Instead of making it feel like you were cheated, it gets you excited for the next movie in a great way.

There’s plenty of returning actors and characters including Shameik Moore’s Miles Morales, and particularly Hailee Steinfeld’s Gwen Stacey/Spider-Woman, the latter of whom has a lot more story and screentime in this movie. There’s also lots of great new additions to the characters, including Daniel Kaluuya’s Spider-Punk, Oscar Isaac’s Miguel O’Hara/Spider-Man 2099, and Jason Schwartzmann’s The Spot.

The direction from Joaquim Dos Santos, Justin K. Thompson and Kemp Powers is once again excellent. Into the Spider-Verse was already an incredibly animated movie, but its sequel takes things to levels I didn’t think possible. It looks gorgeous, the use of colour is amazing, and there’s so much love and care put into every shot. Much like the last movie, it makes great use of differing art styles for the characters and worlds. For example, the animation look of the segments in Gwen’s dimension look is completely different from Miles’s dimension. Also, some of the characters retain their own unique look, Spider-Punk being an example of this. There are so many different art styles, and the changes aren’t just there to make them special, but it also helps with the great storytelling, whether it be the world or the characters. There is so much detail in the animation that it makes you want to rewatch it just so you can capture everything. The action set pieces are spectacular and creative, really using the animation medium to its fullest. The movements are fast paced and kinetic, it is even more of a sensory overload. Finally, the soundtrack is fantastic, with great needle drops and another incredible score from Daniel Pemberton.

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is a spectacular, creative, consistently entertaining and an excellent, more ambitious, and better sequel, with gorgeous animation and a strong emotional core. It is absolutely worth checking out, one of the best movies of 2023. I can’t wait for Beyond the Spider-Verse, especially if it’s anywhere near the level of Into or Across.