Anthony's Film Review - Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (2023)

Going across the Spider-Verse is definitely better than starting to go into it...

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse was a great movie that could easily stand on its own because of its self-contained story. At the time, I had thought that the movie would really be just a one-time experiment in an all-animated Spider-Man project. Did I ever imagine that a sequel would follow? Not really. But was I surprised later on when I learned that it would have a sequel? Not at all, give that's how a lot of movies work these days. When the trailer for Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse came out, I thought, "Cool. I'd love to see it since I enjoyed Into the Spider-Verse." So my mind shifted from looking at Into the Spider-Verse as a standalone movie to knowing that it's the start of a trilogy.

Interestingly, Across the Spider-Verse does not start with Miles Morales, the main protagonist. Rather, it focuses first on an important secondary protagonist: Gwen Stacy. She's got plenty of personal issues to deal with, with both her real identity and her Spider-Woman alter ego. One set of problems is especially troubling because they simultaneously involve her father, a New York cop. After a while, we move to another universe where Miles, like Gwen, handles multiple issues at once. For example, he is late for a meeting at school that could decide whether he lands a wonderful academic opportunity, but he also has to battle a scientist who fights and flees using dark holes in the space-time fabric, portals that he can place and use at will.

I'll stop right there with the story. The audience can discover what's in store. I will, however, address the question that many people may be wondering. How many different versions of Spider-Man are there this time? The previous movie had essentially six versions of Spider-Man from six different universes. For this movie, I don't have the exact number. Even if I try to count how many I see, I doubt I can provide an accurate answer. I just know that there are way more than six forms of Spider-Man across the Spider-Verse.

Now let me talk about one noteworthy thing about this movie that was also big with Into the Spider-Verse: the animation. If this movie series were filmed as live action with computer-generated imagery, it could work, I'm sure. Yet, the format of animation seems to give the storytellers a lot more creative visual freedom. When you watch this movie, you are practically looking at a living breathing comic book, one that looks halfway real and halfway imaginary. You can also expect to see stylistic methods of storytelling, like thought bubbles, sprinkled in here and there. Then there is the vast variety of colors that fill the screen. Really, there's so much to love about the animation.

Once you take in the breathtaking story and animation, you will not want to leave. In the second half of the movie, the plot takes a few unexpected turns before arriving at some startling revelations. That's when you really don't want the movie to end. You are dying to see what happens. Word of advice: whatever amount of anticipation and excitement you feel here, hold onto it. You don't want to lose it. You'll know what I mean once you get there.

Compared to Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is arguably better, if not the same in terms of quality. I rated Into the Spider-Verse a 9 out of 10, and I'm somewhat torn with my rating for Across the Spider-Verse. It's not exactly a 9 again. It's higher than that. But how much higher? I wouldn't say it exceeds 9.5 to be rounded up to 10. It's more like 9.3 or 9.4, so I'll keep at nine stars. But you know what? That's still a very good score on my scale. The only question left is how good the third film in the series, Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse, will be. Whatever my rating for that one will be, it'll definitely have a high bar to meet.

Anthony's Rating:

For more information about Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, visit the Internet Movie Database.

In addition, check out my review of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.