From the colorful animation to the impressive voice performances to the diverse and heartfelt characters, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse manages to recapture all of the magic that made the first film such a hit while also setting up a cliff-hanger that will have audiences clamoring for the third film in the trilogy.

This review contains spoilers for Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.

When a film breaks boundaries and expectations in the way that Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018) did, there is a lot of pressure placed on its sequel. There’s also a lot of pressure placed on any Spider-Man movie because of the wave of films we’ve had over the past few years, with more iterations of the arachnid superhero than any other Marvel character. But directors Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers, and Justin K. Thompson were more than up for the challenge, creating a film that only continued to push what is possible in Spider-Man’s story.

The film opens with a melancholic Gwen Stacy (Hailee Steinfeld), back in her own universe, missing Miles Morales (Shameik Moore) and still dealing with her police officer father’s determination to catch Spider-Woman, who he believes murdered Gwen’s best friend, Peter Parker. But after a visually stunning action scene in the Guggenheim Museum, in which a villain from another universe makes it into Gwen’s, she’s introduced to the Spider-Society. The organization of Spider-People is run by Miguel O’Hara (Oscar Isaac), a hardened Spider-Man still struggling with the events of his own universe.

Meanwhile, Miles is struggling to live up to everyone’s expectations of him both as Spider-Man and as a high school student. His well-meaning parents (Brian Tyree Henry and Luna Lauren Vélez) can tell that he’s keeping secrets from them, but Miles can’t bring himself to admit the truth of his double identity. His latest ‘villain of the week’ is The Spot (Jason Schwartzman), a scientist whose body was ruined by the events of the previous Spider-Verse film and who can now dimension-hop through his spots. While Miles underestimates him at first, he ends up being a formidable opponent for the Spider-People.

Much of the success of the film is due to the tight screenplay by Phil Lord, Christopher Miller, and David Callaham. They weave together Gwen and Miles’s stories in a way that never feels disjointed and present fascinating moral quandaries around the idea of the multiverse. Schwartzman’s The Spot proves himself to be a worthy villain, but it’s Isaac’s Miguel who is the main antagonist for Miles as they disagree over how cannon events should be treated. Lord and Miller’s exploration of the multiverse continues to be the best it’s been explored in any film thus far, with better consequences and rules than seen in the MCU or even in Everything Everywhere All At Once.

The animation work on the film began in June 2020, and it shows in the level of detail present in each of the six universes seen in the film. From the work on the villain in the opening fight sequence, done in the style of Leonardo da Vinci’s drawings, to the design for Hobie Brown (Daniel Kaluuya), the artistry present is both varied and exquisite. It can be a lot to take in on a first watch, but it means that subsequent viewings of the film will allow the audience to pick up more details and get more comfortable within each different universe and animation style. With many of the films coming from major animation studios like Pixar and Disney looking mostly the same, it’s fantastic to see a film that plays around so much with its design.

At 140 minutes long, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is the longest animated film ever made by an American studio. Yet, it easily keeps the audience’s attention for the entire time. From the colorful animation to the impressive voice performances to the diverse and heartfelt characters, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse manages to recapture all of the magic that made the first film such a hit while also setting up a cliff-hanger that will have audiences clamoring for the third film in the trilogy. We’ll have to wait until 2024 for the conclusion of Miles and Gwen’s story, but if it’s anything like the first two films, it’ll be well worth waiting for.

Grade: A-

Oscar Prospects:
Likely: Best Animated Feature
Should Be Considered: Best Picture

Where to Watch: In Theaters