Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse Spoiler-free Review

Our fate is in our own hands...at least that's what they say, right? But how much can we really control, especially if we are beholden to a path assigned to us before we can even live? How many times have you felt you met someone who just lived the same life as you, and experienced the following eery feeling that we just live in a simulation and are doomed to a certain life? To have lost before you've even begun. To "have an original experience" feels like an impossible task. Yet, we strive to feel special in our own worlds - in our own stories. Because... we are. We might go through similar things, but we also experience them entirely different. And, sometimes we use the wisdom and stories of others to help us guide actions in our own. Our actions are the only thing we have control over, and that is a principle Miles Morales lives by: To take things into your own hands, and don't just let life pass you by. This is a trait we can find in all of our spider-men, and it has never been more exemplified than in Sony's Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (2023). 

Sony Pictures is well known for its strong grasp on Marvel's most influential hero: Spider-Man. We have gotten many Spider-Man films throughout the years, not going more than 5 years between projects, which was the gap between the third Tobey Maguire adaptation, and the first Andrew Garfield one. Some might say there is an over saturation of Spider-Man media, but there is actually a reason for this. For Sony to continue holding the copyright for Spider-Man films, they must release a Spider-Man movie, or the rights revert to Marvel Entertainment. So when one Spider-Man franchise no longer looks like it has a viable sequel or spin-off, they reboot the entire series. Luckily, there's plenty of source material to pull from, and the Miles Morales' (voiced by Shameik Moore) Spider-Verse films showcase this brilliantly. 

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018) took the world by storm by not only adapting the second most loved Spider-Man aside from Peter Parker, but also debuting a new animation style developed by Sony Pictures Imageworks. To achieve a comic book style and feel, the film used motion smearing instead of motion blur, drawing inspiration from older 2D animation techniques. The frame rate varied between 24 and 12 images per second, creating a "crunchy" animation effect, that was used in conjunction with the story-telling. Additionally, deliberate misaligned colors, halftones, Ben-Day dots, and various line techniques were employed to mimic comic book aesthetics, and onomatopoeia and motion lines were used to represent sounds and movement as we heard and saw it. This gave audiences a unique viewing experience that could never be achieved in live-action, which was the original goal of the producers. 

Across the Spider-Verse, directed by Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers, and Justin K. Thompson, doubles down on this, now adding multiple different art styles into the character design and animation rigs. From the painterly world of Spider-Gwen (voiced by Hailee Steinfeld), to the scrappy-ness of Spider-Punk's (voiced by Daniel Kaluuya) world, and even the Lego Heroes universe, we get multiple different art techniques to differentiate the multitude of spider-men we are introduced to. Again, they give us an experience that can only be achieved through animation. This is something modern American animation (especially Disney...) severely lacks. Animation should not only be a medium of film, but a tool towards the viewing experience as a whole. When the artistic choices of the animators reflect what is happening in the story, that is when you get effective storytelling. This is why things like lighting, color-grading, and cinematography matter. With only a handful of "creative" story types to choose from, what is going to make films stand out is going to be in the details. Production can make or break a film, and the Spider-Verse franchise is a prime example of how a rehashed story can still be made enjoyable and memorable. This movie is undeniably beautiful, even if you normally struggle to appreciate animation.  

Now the story itself is, well, rehashed. And the film pokes a little fun at itself for this. If you know the "Spider-Man Formula," the course of events of Across the Spider-Verse may come at no surprise to you. Even as I was going in blind, it was easy to tell where the story was going to go next. However, I am surprised in the direction the 3 writers, Phil Lord (who co-wrote for the prequel), Christopher Miller, and David Callaham decided to go, as the over-arching premise of Across the Spider-Verse is a seemingly huge undertaking. We are now given dual protagonists with Miles and Gwen, and we see how their stories affect each other. Spider-men are meant to be the martyr, with no one who understands them. The fact Gwen and Miles ever connected in Into the Spider-Verse was an anomaly, and it breaks the canon of what we know about the Spider-Man Formula. This is an interesting angle, and we get to know more about the individual journeys that all the spider-men take. We learn more about Miles' role in the Spider-Verse, and how the other spider-men grapple with their own understanding of the formula too. However, the pacing was interesting; it is not until the end of the film you understand why things were paced as such. Across the Spider-Verse clocks in at 140 minutes of runtime, making it the longest ever American produced animated film. It felt slow, and there was a lot to be handled, which can be especially grueling when you kind of expect what will happen next. Luckily there is enough going on visually and there is a great use of levity that it is fun to follow regardless. So even though I might have known where the story was going to go and the pacing was odd, it's how the characters interact and connect with each other in this film that really stands out.

The cast did an amazing job to bring the characters to life; each individual personality is portrayed well, and distinctly enough that the performances are remarkable. Speaking of the characters, my favorite part of Across the Spider-Verse was the plethora of new faces we are introduced to, namely Hobart "Hobie" Brown, otherwise known as Spider-Punk and Pavitr Prabhakar, Spider-Man India (voiced by Karan Soni). The scene we are introduced to these two characters might be one of my favorite sequences from the film (but maybe I am biased as it was set in a fictional Indian city: Mumbattan [ha, get it?]). This was an effective way to showcase how another Spider-Man can be so unique, yet also so similar to the many others we know and love. Some other characters that stood out was Miles' so-called "nemesis" The Spot (voiced by Jason Schwartzman) and the non-spider-man Spider-Man, Miguel O'Hara (voiced by Oscar Isaac), known to comic fans as Spider-Man 2099. Both of these characters serve as a type of challenge for Miles, and the both represent something about his hero's journey. I want to especially note The Spot's character design and performance by Schwartzman for being a great combination of silly and unsettling.

Along with character design is the character themes that play when a character is near, which have always been well done in the Spider-Verse films. Namely, I think back to the Prowler's iconic elephant horn sound from Into the Spider-Verse, and music producer Daniel Pemberton returns for Across the Spider-Verse to create more meaningful character themes and a fun, fitting score. While some of the music choices were more subtle, it was effective for what the film needed it to do.

I do not think Across the Spider-Verse could ever be considered a standalone film. The best viewing experience for this movie, would be to have seen all other Sony Spider-Man adaptations first and the plan to see all others in the future to really get the full effect of the film. This movie was made for Spider-Man fans, and if you aren't one you might feel like you're in the middle of a joke everyone understands besides you. This is the biggest issue with inter-connected comic book films, and can make wanting to see one of the films a whole process if you haven't been "in the know" for the last 15 years. This is not necessarily a bad thing, but it puts a wall up between new fans and the products that are currently coming out - so if anything, it is just sad, because I want everyone to experience just how awe-inspiring the use of animation this film is. I just hope animators continue to implement this brilliant animation style, so we can get more standalone films for any and all art appreciators to enjoy. Until then, study up on New York's friendly neighborhood hero because Across the Spider-Verse would be a shame to miss.