REVIEW:
Spider-Man: Across the Spiderverse, the long-awaited followup to the animated modern classic Into the Spiderverse, is pretty good. It isn’t nearly as good as it’s predesessor (at least not on a first viewing,) although it stands to reason that most likely this is the kind of movie that will get better and better with each additional viewing. There’s just so much to take in at one time. So many Easter Eggs and plot intricacies. For one, this time we don’t just have the story of Miles, but also the story of Gwen Stacey, which is given nearly equal footing. That means instead of focussing on the Uncle Ben-like character death like the first movie did, (Uncle Aaron, AKA the Prowler,) this movie focusses on the Captain Stacey death (Gwen’s father,) and what that event means. And that gets us into something called “Cannon Events,” which are events that happen in all versions of the story no matter which part of the multiverse the timeline is in. And what happens if you break one of these cannon events?
The movie features a whole bunch of different Spider Men, just like the first film did (a punk Spider-Man, the Scarlet Spider, a futuristic 2099 Spider-Man, voiced by Oscar Isaac.) And the animation is pretty cool. But the movie does feel a little slower than the first film, and a little less creative. Sure, the end, featuring a world of Spider-Men is cool, but the path to get us there isn’t quite as smooth. That being said, the music is fantastic, the action is fantastic, and the story is certainly compelling. There are so many hidden gems in this one that one can even watch it different times for dietician things (for example, how many classic villains can you spot?)