The first movie titled Into the Spider-Verse, was released in 2018 by Sony Pictures, and the animation was seen as groundbreaking at the time.
Spider-man Across the Spider-Verse is directed by Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers and Justin K. Thompsons.
This sequel is a phenomenal multiverse film! It’s about Miles Morales going up against an entire society of Spider characters, while focusing on how he controls his own future.
It’s great to see Mile’s and Gwen’s story continue and how their relationship plays out.
So many fun aspects to see with the expanding introduction of a whole Spider society of characters. As well as bringing in so many other surprises to the table, to really deliver on that ‘wow’ factor.
This film builds so strongly upon the charm, humour and heart of the first Spider-Verse film. It’s great that the writers have kept these values, with family and friendships still continuing to play an important focus in Mile’s life.
Sony has exceeded the animation quality of the first, it looks incredible! Colours are popping and refreshing to watch, the characters look a lot more detailed, polished, bold and character motions are also improved to be smoother, and more expressive.
I absolutely loved many of the different styles of artwork in each universe, and seeing all of the different characters mesh in scenes, especially Gwen’s universe, that has a watercolour environment; where paint runs, and the colours change with expressions.
It’s an epic event, with a fantastic voice cast: Shameik Moore gave a powerful performance alongside Hailee Steinfeld, and they both brought a lot of energy, and emotion to their roles.
Jake Johnson continues to bring a sense of warmth in his voice, as his character Peter B. Parker. It was really comforting to see him return with an adorable new addition to his family.
Oscar Isaac is impressive as Miguel O’Hara, his character looked so cool, he had a strong scene presence, and felt so unpredictable.
The Spot voiced by Jason Scwartzman, was displayed in many psychadelic scenes and seeing his powers in action was really fun. It’s creatively well done! He’s certainly a more interesting character than I expected him to be and Jason did an awesome job with voicing him.
Daniel Kaluuya as Spider-Punk/Hobi Brown and Karan Soni as Indian Spider-Man/Pavitr Prabhakar were great stand-out voice performances; the characters were really funny, and a breath of fresh air to see too.
The pacing can get sluggish in parts, however the majority of the film is fast-paced, with it often overwhelming the senses, than make it tricky to catch what is happening. It’s definitely a film that needs a few rewatches, to also see the dozens of references.
Metro Boomin and James Blake’s Hummingbird song is beautiful! It fits perfectly in the scene, I think it will certainly be a fan favourite much like Sunflower, in the previous one.
Daniel Pemberton’s music compositions were powerful, complimented each of the settings so well. Although, it was difficult to hear dialogue over the music quite often, in addition to crowds cheering, the volume mixing needs to be increased.
Final Thoughts
Across the Spider-Verse is easily one of the best Spider-Man movies, superb animations, fantastic cast and it’s very entertaining!
It’s also extremely ambitious, that it had to be made into two parts, which means this film does have a cliffhanger instead of a usual ending, although it’s brilliantly handled, the last 20 minutes of the movie was the strongest part.
The sequel sets up Beyond the Spider-Verse (slated to release March 29, 2024).
It was worth the wait. This is a highly recommended watch!
Are there credit scenes in Across the Spider-Verse?
There are no credit scenes for this movie.
