Review: Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse

The following review may contain minor spoilers. Reader’s discretion is advised.

Well would you look at that, turns out the hype was actually real.

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is the sequel to 2018’s Oscar-winning Into the Spider-Verse. The first Spider-Verse film from Sony Animations was a unique fun comic book film filled with fantastic visuals, great action sequences, and a lot of depth to its characters. This much anticipated sequel delivers the same polished product but with some notable upgrades.

Across the Spider-Verse is bigger, flashier, and more character-driven than its predecessor, which in itself is an insane feat to accomplish.

The first film’s animation was already unique in its own way, evoking that feeling of reading a comic book at the local comic store. This film takes it further beyond and implements different art styles with each different universe our characters reside in, giving it that feeling of reading different comics from different artists. You got Spider-Gwen’s New York filled with soft watercolors, a “Mumbattan” featuring a lot of bold and defined outlines, and a London-esque New York designed with a loud, punk-rock collage style.

Within each frame in this animated spectacle there are also a ton of neat easter eggs littered throughout the background to award the super fans of Spider-Man, some subtle and some not-so-subtle. But what sets this apart from something like The Super Mario Bros. Movie that came out earlier this year is that while the fan service is abundant they’re not the primary focus in this animated film.

All the characters returning and introduced in this film were really interesting and memorable, with a few of them being incredibly layered. Gwen Stacy gets arguably the biggest focus in this film concerning her backstory and character arc; Miles Morales still moves the plot forward but his arc is not as full in this film as Gwen’s (understandable seeing as this is Part One of the story being told here.) Miles is still the fun and likable protagonist from the first film and also gets his own personal growth in the film. I also love how the main villain progresses throughout the film from being a joke villain-of-the-week into a legitimate and terrifying Avengers-level threat.

The action is just as kinetic and visually interesting as the first film, the soundtrack (in my opinion) is a significant improvement while still maintaining its iconic personality, and the writing is sharp and funny while also being heartfelt and meaningful. This is a great movie, but that being said there are a couple things that hold it back from being the masterpiece everyone else is claiming it to be.

When I said this film is bigger than the last, I wasn’t kidding; this animated film clocks in at a massive two and a half hours, almost a full hour longer than the last film, and unfortunately not all of it felt necessary. There were a lot of redundant scenes that I felt like could’ve been cut out for time, particularly a lot of scenes involving Miles and his parents which in my opinion all had the same message behind them every time. As I was sitting in that crowded theaters filled with kids and grown adults soying out at every reference, that massive runtime felt more like an endurance test than a cinematic experience as the film progressed.

It also doesn’t help that, being Part One of a massive story, the film ends with quite the cliff-hanger. I’ve seen more abrupt endings than this one, and granted it does try to lessen the blow by cleverly bookending Gwen’s overall arc in the film, but you’ll still feel a little incomplete when you walk out of the theater, left without even a post-credit scene to sate your hunger for a proper resolution. There were also a few odd editing choices and inconsistencies with the plot, but those weren’t honestly enough to hamper my feelings for the film in the end.

Overall this is still a solid comic book movie that goes above and beyond what is expected of it when compared to other superhero movies of late. Maybe in time this movie might get even better depending on how the next film sticks that superhero landing and delivers a satisfying conclusion to Miles’s story. But until then I’m happy with what I got and I’m eagerly awaiting the next film.

Believe the hype guys, this movie rocks.

Final Verdict: 9/10