So, a friend of mine who loves both animation and superheroes may be the only person I know or even know of who has a negative opinion of 2018’s Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. His reasoning is the animation style, when he tried to watch it, gave him a headache and he gave up. Granted, some of the things he said as a result were, well, less than pleasant on the movie as a whole, but I know the guy well enough to know that his general feeling was if the animation was bad, and if it gives him a headache then it qualifies, then the movie itself can’t possibly be good. I can somewhat see that.
But like I said, he’s the only person I know of who didn’t seem to adore Into the Spider-Verse, and now there’s a sequel, the first of a two-part story to wrap up the Spider-Verse trilogy. I had a busy weekend ahead of me this weekend, but you can bet your sweet Aunt Petunia that I made time for this one.
Despite the fact that the movie is about Miles Morales (voice of Shameik Moore), it actually opens with Gwen Stacy’s Spider-Woman (Hailee Steingeld) and her own issues in her home dimension. She hasn’t seen Miles since the previous movie, and she misses the guy. But when a Vulture from a Renaissance sort of universe pops up in her New York City, Gwen is surprised when another Spider-Man, namely one Miguel O’Hara (Oscar Isaac), a much rougher Spider-Man, and then called for more help from Spider-Woman Jessica Drew (Issa Rae). It seems there’s a multiversal Spider-Force, and Miguel reluctantly asks Gwen to join, but Miles? No, Miles is not invited.
But it isn’t long (at least in the movie) when Miles’s life has two things happen at the same time. First, a supervillain with some odd portal powers, the Spot (Jason Schwartzman), pops up claiming he’s Miles’s archenemy despite seeming kinda pathetic, and then Gwen re-enters Miles’s life. Soon, Miles is finding more new Spider-Men, like one from an Indian version of New York (Karan Soni) or the anarchist Spider-Punk (Daniel Kaluuya). But Miguel still doesn’t want Miles involved. There are things about the many Spider-Men in the multiverse, and Miles may not like it when he finds out about them.
What made the first Spider-Verse film work as well as it did was the blend of both a great story, one that acted as a tribute to all things Spider-Man, and some groundbreaking animation. It was funny, touching, and amazing to look at (as long as you weren’t headache-prone like my friend mentioned above). Across the Spider-Verse manages to do all that again with even more groundbreaking animation. This is an animated franchise that actually animates different characters to reflect more of the setting they come from. That’s especially true when looking at the many, many Spider characters in the movie, where some of them are clearly animated in a style to fit their respective universes, most notably a character like Spider-Punk who looks like something of a genre appropriate album cover. The new characters are fun, and there are lots and lots of Easter eggs for longtime Spider-Man fans to pick up on.
But at its heart is a wonderful story as Miles struggles to be a good son to his worried parents as well as Gwen’s own struggle with her cop dad in her home dimension. The Spot is growing in power, and he’s tired of being dismissed by others because he’s rather ridiculous. And then there’s Miguel O’Hara, presumably a good guy, at least in his own mind, while trying to protect a multiverse despite the fact that there’s a good chance even he doesn’t know exactly how it works. In many ways, this one comes down to what all Spider-people have in common, and how Miles doesn’t think it should be that way. Will he prevail? I don’t know. I’ll find out next year. But as for this one, it’s oh-so-worth it. It may have actually improved on the original.
Grade: A
0 Comments