Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
Director: Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers, Justin K. Thompson
Writer: Phil Lord, Christopher Miller, Dave Callaham
Based on: Stan Lee and Steve Ditko‘s comic
Sequel to: Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
Cast: Shameik Moore, Hailee Steinfeld, Brian Tyree Henry, Jake Johnson, Oscar Isaac, Lily Tomlin, Luna Lauren Velez, Jason Schwartzman, Issa Rae, Daniel Kaluuya, Karan Soni, Shea Whigham, Greta Lee, Mahershala Ali, Amandla Stenberg, Jharrel Jerome, Andy Samberg, Jack Quaid, Rachel Dratch, Ziggy Marley, Jorma Taccone, J.K. Simmons, Donald Glover, Elizabeth Perkins, Kathryn Hahn
Seen on: 8.6.2023

Plot:
After all the Spider-People from parallel universes had to go back home, Miles Morales (Shameik Moore) started feeling lost. It’s Gwen (Hailee Steinfeld) he misses in particular. And the feeling is mutual – Gwen is also struggling back in her universe. But Gwen gets recruited by a bunch of other Spider-People who cooperate across the multiverse. When she has to track a suspicious villain called Spot (Jason Schwartzman) in Miles’ universe, she can’t resist the temptation and visits him. But the other Spider-People, particularly Miguel O’Hara (Oscar Isaac), are a bit weird about Miles and Gwen’s visit with him.

I really loved Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, even on re-watch, so Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse had its work cut out for it. Into the Spider-Verse is a tough act to follow. But Across the Spider-Verse is just as good as the first one, bringing fresh ideas to the table and nicely expanding the world we have come to know in the first film.

It’s not often that we get sequels that manage to make us feel the exact way about them as we felt about the first film, but it is definitely true for Across the Spider-Verse. I was again stunned by the creativity of the film, by its animation and by the emotional impact it carries. It’s also great to see that it connects so beautifully to the first film and yet has more and different things to say.

The way it examines superhero narratives in particular struck me. They are often similar, though the results can vary wildly as we can see with the various iterations of Spider-People we see in the film. But some parts seem to be the same almost all over. Are those the parts that make a hero a hero? What happens if certain parts of the story are missing? And what happens when you try too hard to keep stories the same?

But probably the best part about the film is that you can ponder all these questions on a very abstract level. Or you can just lean back and enjoy a film that works just as well for children as for narratologists and philosophers. And that’s just beautiful. You can marvel at the many subversions of the superhero trope within the film and enjoy how it is still a great superhero story.

Under these circumstances, I love that we will get a third part next year and that this is not the end of this version of Spider-Man. I hope they can keep up the quality. But from what I have seen so far, I am filled with confidence that they will.

Summarizing: great.