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Across the Spider-Verse is pure epic awesomeness. There is no chance a live action version would even come close to what this animation has pulled off with such an intense storyline.
The last time we hung out with the world’s newest Spider-man was in 2018 when Miles was bitten by a radioactive spider. But when the other Spider-man attempts to stop Kingpin Wilson Fisk from creating his collider, he himself dies. Leaving Miles to take on the responsibility and save the world. Luckily it turns out some other spider-people from other dimensions helped show him the way.
The latest instalment sees a very lost Miles as he struggles to find his place between being a teenager and being Spider-man. This hasn’t been helped by the fact he hasn’t seen his new spider-friends in over a year.
Little did Miles know when he started to fight the criminal, The Spot, would he finally see Gwen again. But things are different. Gwen is holding a big secret and is somehow pushing Miles away.
Following Gwen across the multiple universes, Miles meets hundreds of other spider-people who can help put a stop to The Spot and Fisk. But the longer Miles is in the other universe, the more he comes to realise things aren’t quite what they seem. The only solution is to find himself, believe in himself and put right what was once wrong.
The biggest attraction for this film is in its beauty. It really does stand alone as its own form of animation. Traditional in a sense that it takes on some of the comic book style everyone has come to know. But it has added this wealth of detail and colour and vibrancy, not something you would expect from such a medium.
It’s not only the animation that makes it truly remarkable, it’s the way in which it brings to life some wonderful ideas. While it couldn’t be created in the real world, CGI would take a stab at it. But there is something real and believable in the detail and imagining in all the technology and ideas we see in the film.
The second attraction is the story line. And I can’t help but think if this would have at all been possible without the Marvel Universe and what it has done for the superhero genre. There is so much detail to follow. There are throwbacks and throwaways to other spider-men from all the years. It does what the imagination can dream without limitation. And it has a whole lot of fun while doing it.
However, with hundreds of other spider-people and a rather intense storyline to keep up with, the movie has been split into two. This becomes slightly problematic towards the end for two reasons. One, you can tell they are trying to fill the time. But two, it ends on such a cliffhanger you’ll be left to feel short-changed.
Overall, Spider-man – Across the Spider-Verse uses the strength of the first film and intensifies it both with story and visually. And sure it does feel at times like they might be filling in some time to make two movies out of it, but there’s not a moment that isn’t worth it.
