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Is 'Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse' Better Than The First Film? Here's What The Reviews Say
Last week we wrote about the early impressions that critics had about "Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse," and they was extremely positive. Good vibes all around.
This week critics across the globe got a chance to publish their official reviews, and guess what – the love keeps overflowing for this new animated movie. People (rightfully) adore these films and we cannot wait to see this one, get to the cliffhanger ending, and wait for the next one in 2024.
"Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse" is the sequel to "Into the Spider-Verse," which was equally a beloved film. It releases in theaters on June 2, 2023. There's also a third entry — "Beyond the Spider-Verse" — which is scheduled to come out on and continue the story on March 29, 2024.
"Across" is written by Phil Lord, Christopher Miller and David Callaham, and directed by Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers and Justin K. Thompson. It stars Shameik Moore, Hailee Steinfeld, Brian Tyree Henry, Luna Lauren Velez, Jake Johnson, Jason Schwartzman, Issa Rae, Karan Soni, Daniel Kaluuya, Oscar Isaac and Andy Samberg. Here's what critics have to say.
The premise
About a year and a half after the events of the first "Spider-Verse," Miles Morales (Shameik Moore) remains his Earth's friendly neighborhood Spider-Man. He's older and a little less scrawny, but he's still got a lot of the same problems. Web-slinging takes up a ton of time, so Miles is perpetually late to classes, guidance counselor meetings, and parties with his loving but frustrated parents, Jefferson (Brian Tyree Henry) and Rio (Luna Lauren Velez). And even though Miles bonded with a bunch of Spider-Men from alternate dimensions in the previous film (including Hailee Steinfeld's Spider-Gwen and Jake Johnson's middle-aged dad-bodded Spidey, Peter B. Parker), he still feels isolated and alone. None of the other "Spider-Verse" heroes have shown up on Miles's Earth since "Into the Spider-Verse."
Due in theaters June 2 with mostly the same creative team from 2018 — directed by Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers, and Justin K. Thompson; with a script by David Callaham, Phil Lord, and Christopher Miller — the sequel lives up to the titles of Spider-Man's numerous comics: Amazing, spectacular, sensational. It’s a piece of mainstream art maximalism that maintains the previous film's infectious humor and psychedelia dynamism, now with a more ambitious if also unwieldy story. It is less a replay of the first movie and more a remix in its continuation of Brooklyn superhero Miles Morales (voiced by Shameik Moore). The beats and rhythms are familiar, but "Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse" is unquestionably a different track that tries to vibe to something new.
Set a year after "Into the Spider-Verse," "Across the Spider-Verse" makes a pit stop with Gwen Stacy (voiced by Hailee Steinfeld) before checking in with our hero Miles Morales (voiced by Shameik Moore) and further pulling tight the duo’s special bond as Spider-Woman and Spider-Man, respectively. Since we last left her, Gwen's universe has grown still more complicated — girl, aren't they all? — but other issues beyond her own web-based problems have kept her from skipping through the multiverse to see Miles in his. Per that packed prologue, Gwen soon finds herself fighting alongside Miguel O'Hara (a dark and haunter vampire ninja Spider-Man, voiced by Oscar Isaac) and Jessica Drew (an ebullient, heavily pregnant, and motorcycle-riding Spider-Woman, voiced by Issa Rae), who arrive in her universe to essentially clean up some multiverse-threatening collateral damage from all the wild stuff that happened in the first film. Eventually, the bad-ass duo take her into their crime-fighting fold when they realize how dangerous this particular world has become to ol' Spider-Gwen.
Get ready for wild visuals and unique animation
If the dazzling first "Spider-Verse" tale was the closest anyone had come to putting its viewer in an actual comic book, the follow-up pretty much says, "Hold my web fluid": Each of the debuting Spider-people pops with a fresh design — for example, Spider-Punk (Daniel Kaluuya) looks peeled from the cover of a 1970s London music zine – and different Earths bring a dizzying number of art styles, often in the same scene. "Across the Spider-Verse" even weaves in some live-action elements as it ties intriguingly to other popular Marvel films and franchises.
The mechanisms under the surface are seamless, then — but the overwhelming power of "Across The Spider-Verse" remains the sheer eye-sizzling excellence of its animation, and the electrifying energy it creates. The spectacle here is unparalleled — delivering Gaspar Noé-style glitching credits, evocations of '70s Indian comics, mixed-media scrapbook collages, and Stanley Donwood-esque monochromatic scrawls. It is endlessly inventive in its use of color, composition and texture to convey mood and tone. Nowhere does that come through stronger than in Gwen's Earth-65, all washed-out watercolors that shift seamlessly with the storytelling, her emotions blossoming into a symphony of swirling hues — pure cinematic synaesthesia. And as the film opens with an extended sequence in her world (this is Gwen's film as much as it is Miles's), your mind will be blown ten times over before the opening credits even roll. It's utterly breathtaking.
The voice acting is impeccable across the board
It helps greatly that the entire cast here brings their vocal A-game. There are so many celebrity voices here — including a number of cameos only villains would spoil — but I want to give some praise to Shameik Moore, who finds the perfect register for the odd intersection of youth, manhood, and heroism in which Miles finds himself. It's a vocal performance with just the right blend of curiosity, vulnerability, and growing confidence. Steinfeld, Henry, Rae, Jake Johnson, Schwartzman, Velez, Daniel Kaluuya, Isaac — there's no weak link. Everyone was clearly inspired by the creative potential of this script.
Remember, this is part two of three
The writers and the new trio of directors — Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers and Justin K. Thompson — lay a considerable amount of narrative track here, setting up the next "Spider-Verse" chapter. In other words "Across the Spider-Verse" is an "Empire Strikes Back"-style middle chapter of a finite trilogy, with a cliffhanger ending — and, judging from the preview screening I saw, a sensationally effective one.
"Across the Spider-Verse" vibrates with the same energy as its predecessor even when it feels more leaden with backstory. This chapter is the first of a planned two-part sequel to "Into the Spider-Verse." Dividing the follow-up in half gives the screenplay, written by Phil Lord, Christopher Miller and David Callaham, more room to settle into the ridges and grooves of Miles's story. The additional space proves to be both a gift and a curse as "Across the Spider-Verse" pulls us deeper into Miles's world.
TL;DR
Miles Morales is back for a head-spinning adventure that ups the trippy imagery, and the stakes too.
The audacious sequel is gigantically intimate, grappling with challenging themes while pushing the animation medium forward yet again.
The brilliance of the kaleidoscopic, animated Spider-Verse erupts again in this multidimensional film about a teen superhero with exasperated parents.
The sequel to the phenomenal "Into the Spider-Verse" movie is ambitious, moving, and a helluva lot of fun. Why can’t all superhero movies be this wonderful?
