‘Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse’ is a breathtaking blend of art and storytelling

It’s always nerve-wracking watching the sequel of a popular movie, especially the sequel to one as well-received and critically acclaimed as 2018’s “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse,” which has an impressive list of awards under its belt.  With the first film already sporting an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature and a Golden Globe Award for Best Animated Feature Film, could the second film within the Spider-Verse series even compete?

The answer is a resounding yes. “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse,” takes the multiverse of the first movie and pushes it even further. 

It begins with Gwen Stacy, voiced by Hailee Steinfeld, joining a society of multiverse-jumping spider-people who are working to stop “anomalies” from breaking different universes. Meanwhile Miles Morales, voiced by Shameik Moore, is battling both a new nemesis and the conflicting expectations of his parents. When Gwen jumps into Miles’ version of Earth, their paths collide again, sending them both on an adventure with far more friends, enemies and spider-people than they could have imagined. 

If the current 96% on Rotten Tomatoes doesn’t convince you that the movie’s a hit, Variety reported that “Across the Spider-Verse” has already made more money in twelve days than the entire box-office run of “Into the Spider-Verse.” According to the same article, it’s also Sony’s highest grossing animated release ever.

“Across the Spider-Verse” is able to take animation and celebrate the medium by creating evocative storytelling. The film is able to play with emotion by creating backgrounds that bleed into each other and change with the character's emotions. 

Each world and spider-person has a completely different illustrative style, and the film somehow finds a way to put all of these characters into cohesive scenes on screen. 

Not only that, but 3D, 2D, third person POV, and first person POV are all mixed in throughout the film. It makes the movie a visual feast, and with so much detail packed into each scene, the rewatch value is incredibly high. 

The movie also hits every single beat – action scenes are well-choreographed and engaging, emotional highs and lows take up just the right amount of space, and the comedic scenes are perfectly timed and plentiful, without overwhelming the rest of the movie. 

Just like the first movie, there are even more variants of Spider-Man. Hundreds of spider-people grace the screen, of all different genders, races, religions, body types, and abilities. The Spider-Verse series takes the multiverse and uses it to show an incredibly diverse amount of spider-people on screen, allowing many people in the audience to see themselves be reflected in the movie. 

With a runtime of 2 hours 20 minutes, the movie is long, but it never feels like it's dragging on. 

“We don’t think there’s any fat in this film, to be honest,” said Kemp Powers, one of the directors of the film, in an interview with Collider Interviews. He said that this final runtime worked well with test audiences, leading to the time of the final cut. “You take the time you need to take to tell the story you need to tell,” said Kemp. 

“This movie is big, it’s like making five movies at once,” said Justin K. Thompson, another director on the project. The movie, indeed, was so massive that it had over 1,000 animators working on it, according to IMDB. 

Not only that, but a lot of time was spent to make sure the movie was done right. In an interview with Discussing Film, Thompson said it took 2 - 3 years to develop the distinct visual style of one single spider-person: Spider-Punk. That was only one character out of the 240 that were in the film. 

“Across the Spider-Verse” also has a distinctly comic-book feel. Word balloons and narration boxes are scattered throughout the film, and in action scenes words such as “POW” sometimes appear. 

There are even comic book covers that break up sections of the movie.

And just like a comic book, this film ends on a steep cliffhanger. 

For those who enjoyed the Spider-Verse and are left wanting more, IGN reports that the final film in the trilogy, “Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider Verse” will be released on March 29, 2024.

Don’t let the cliffhanger ending be a deterrent from watching the movie now, though. When a movie like this is filled with so much heart, character, skill, and humor, it’s something you’ll wish you watched sooner.