Formula: Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse + More Multi-Verse
Hello there. It's been a while. I've missed you. I've been on a hiatus for a few months now. I've been in a rut for a while, trying to reassess some long-term projects I've been working on: figuring out what is burning me out and what is giving me life, so to speak. I needed to poke my head out for just a moment though to talk about a movie that really excited me.
I love what Sony has stumbled onto with their Spider-Man rights. The MCU has a lot of things I love about it, but it can fall into ruts where it feels like they are making more installments simply because they are supposed to. Sony did get in on this by loaning Spider-Man to the MCU. That has freed them up to let other ideas come to them more naturally. I don't love the Venom movies. I do like they they are happy to be this odd detour when it comes to a Marvel universe. It certainly doesn't feel like any circumstances are forcing them to make the movies. It just seems like a fun idea the pursued. As bad as Morbius was, I don't wholly reject the idea of it, existing in its own world.
That same freedom led to the Spider-Verse movies. Into the Spider-Verse wasn't positioned as a blockbuster. It really seems to exist because someone had a clever enough idea that Sony decided to go ahead with it. I loved Into the Spider-Verse in a way I didn't see coming. Despite that, I still went into Across the Spider-Verse wondering if the first movie was a fluke.
It was not.
Like most sequels, Across the Spider-Verse expands the world of the first movie. While Into the Spider-Verse was about a single fractured reality inviting others into it, Across the Spider-Verse is a full-on dimension-hopping adventure. About a year has passed since the first movie, and Miles (Shameik Moore) has improved at being Spider-Man. He feels alone though, as all Spider-Men do. He has this secret identity but no one close that knows. It turns out, all the adventure in the first movie did - where he met Gwen (Hailee Steinfeld), Peter B. Parker (Jake Johnson), and the gang - was make him feel even more alone with them gone. Shortly after a run in with a seemingly hapless villain who uses holes to move around (voiced by Jason Schwartzman), Gwen finally shows up to hang out with Miles. There's a distance though that he doesn't understand. He ends up following her to another dimension when she leaves and discovers an entire collective of Spider-Men: one that he's not welcome in. This group is led by a brooding Spider-Man named Miguel (Oscar Isaac) who teaches Miles some hard truths he refuses to accept. As you would expect, MIles' lack of acceptence has inter-Verse consequences and leads to a showdown with huge stakes.
It's a wonky plot, but much like Into the Spider-Verse, Across manages to keep it straightforward while making it as much about personal stakes as world-ending consequences. It still has that great animation design that feels comic book-y and mixes in a lot of different styles comfortably.
What remains my favorite thing about this movie, as with the previous, is how perfectly it uses the Spider-Man mythology. Superhero ubiquity can be a gift and a curse. We all know the story of Spider-Man. Often, movies will realize this and try to find a new way to dress it up. It's a different angle of the same shot (i.e. we see Bruce Wayne's parents die a dozen times but never look at why that exact event is so essential). Into the Spider-Verse leans into everyone already knowing the mythology. It's not that it winks at the audience though. Rather, it offers the audience an alternative to what they already know. And Across the Spider-Verse hits this even harder. It's not just "what if the same beats happen in every story." It's "what if those beats are the foundation?" and "what happens if you change those beats?"
Simply put, I'm buzzing after waiching this. The movie is still full of Spider-Man jokes and Spider-Man wit. It's a massively rewarding watch for anyone who goes in thinking they know the Spider-Man story. It also has a frenetic energy and sense of scale that most animated movies lack. While this is a stylized cartoon world, the fights and chases are exciting. If I'm being honest, I don't need to find the biggest screen and best sound system to enjoy most great animated movies. Up worked just fine on a normal screen. Across the Spider-Verse is an event animated film that I wish I saw on XD or IMAX.
The only bad thing I can say about the movie is that it ends on a To Be Continued and now I have to wait to see the next one.
Verdict: Strongly Recommend
