Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse

A sequel to 2018’s Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse once again follows Miles Morales (Shameik Moore) over a year after the previous movie, struggling to balance his life as Spider-Man with his home life. A visit from his friend Gwen Stacy (Hailee Steinfeld) offers a reprieve from Miles’ domestic problems and introduces him to a Spider Society of heroes across the titular Spider-Verse, led by Miguel O’Hara (Oscar Isaac). However, Miles soon finds himself at odds with the Society, and must fight for the kind of Spider-Man he wants to be to save his family – and the entire multiverse.

Into the Spider-Verse’s unique, dynamic aesthetic rocked the animation world, and the sequel builds upon that characteristic style and elevates it. The action seamlessly blends cinematic storytelling with comic-book artistry, with kinetic, engaging fight scenes along with powerful moments of pathos, punched up to 11 by vibrant colour palettes and amazing levels of attention to detail.

Across the Spider-Verse had a lot to contend with in its writing, building on plot beats established in the previous film, while introducing a multiverse of new characters with their own complicated dynamics, but works everything in without losing an ounce of narrative momentum through its intelligent theming and strong character work. Pretty much every significant character, old and new, gets some compelling exploration that feeds into the piece’s overarching themes without cluttering proceedings.

The script strikes a perfect balance between being a fascinating metatextual deconstruction of Spider-Man as a story, with more fandom deep cuts than you could shake a Leopardon at, and being accessible to newcomers. The creative team understands that while nods to the Spider-mythos are fun, they should serve the story rather than overshadow it, weaving the mayhem of the Spider Society into a tight and complex web of universal ideas and clear narrative motifs, grounding the multiversal madness and using it to facilitate character development.

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is amazing, spectacular, sensational – really, any word that could be used as a prefix for a Spider-Man series could be used to describe this film. Into the Spider-Verse was a film that changed the landscape of animation, and its sequel reflects the passion of a creative team who were not content with resting on their laurels and pushed the envelope further, telling a story that will almost certainly send even bigger reverberations across the medium.

Umar Ali

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is released nationwide on 2^nd June 2023.

Watch the trailer for Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse here: