June 12, 2023 · Watch the trailer
Animation has often had the stigma of being cartoonish, for children, and not artistic enough for sophisticated audiences.
Even though many animated films have been wildly successful for me, both critical and commercial standpoint, there’s a distinctive stereotype of the genre that places it below other genres of filmmaking.
Over the years, Disney and Pixar have pushed the limitations for what animation can bring to the silver screen through impactful, emotional narratives, but it’s especially rare to find animated work that begs to be seen on the largest screen possible regardless of the content of the story behind it.
“Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse,” a direct sequel to 2018’s Academy Award winning “Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse,” replicates everything magical about the original film both thematically and visually, while opening a much deeper, intricate multiverse for audiences to swing through.
Set about a year after the events of the first film, Miles Morales has tried to balance his duties as Spider-Man with every day high school life until a battle with a world-bending villain unlocks a multiverse of “Spider-People” and a threat to their worlds far greater than any of them have faced alone.
For an animated superhero film, the narrative is exceptionally layered with poignant themes of family and how key moments in a person’s life shape who they become. The screenplay from terrifically blends the character work from the original film with overarching narratives of the Spider-Man character both from the comic books as well as other film iterations to create a narrative on par with the drama from last year’s Best Picture winning “Everything Everywhere All At Once.”
The vocal talent bringing “Across The Spider-Verse” to life largely carries over from the first film with Shameik Moore leading the way in a terrific turn as Miles that continues his evolution from average team to conflicted hero with an emphasis on Miles finding his own path while being true to his family.
Returning voices like Hailee Steinfeld as Spider-Gwen, Brian Tyree Henry as Miles’ father and Jake Johnson as Peter B. Parker all overdeliver in their continuations, but it’s Oscar Isaac’s more brooding, nuanced turn as Miguel aka Spider-Man 2099 that helps vault “Across The Spider-Verse” to the next level by maintaining a quality of drama amid the increasingly complex, largely surreal nature of the plot.
It’s taken nearly four-and-a-half years from the first film for audiences to finally see the magic of “Into The Spider-Verse” continued, but the wait is more than worth it as Sony Pictures Animation delivers an astounding visual cavalcade of arresting moments that just happen to be wrapped up in the frame of a superhero movie.
While it’s true that many of the visuals in “Across The Spider-Verse” have a distinctive comic-book tint to them, the level of nuance and detail that create the fabric of each frame – often on a pixel by pixel level – is truly astonishing to witness and the intricacy of the animation team to showcase unique, sometimes outlandish characters with precision.
The entire film is sheer visual perfection from start to finish, though a spectacular chase sequence in the latter half of “Across The Spider-Verse” has a chaotic, frantic nature meant to overwhelm the audience with subtle comic book nods and Easter eggs while also transforming the animated comic book genre with the best action sequence ever drawn.
“Across The Spider-Verse” can feel stretched beyond its means at times. As the longest animated film produced by an American studio, its 140-minute run time occasionally drags while the movie explains all the universe hopping that Miles and Gwen do, yet the visual artistry at work here far overshadows any lag in the narrative.
Beyond its status as a premier animated movie, “Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse” is perhaps one of, if not the, best film to arrive theatrically in 2023 and is undoubtedly the frontrunner for Best Animated Film at next year’s Oscars.
Whether audiences have comic book exhaustion or not, this dazzling, visually magnificent film proves itself to be a must-see and the official start of summer blockbuster season in theaters.
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