Film Review: Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse

Directors: Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers, Justin K. Thompson   
Starring: Shameik Moore, Hailee Steinfeld, Oscar Isaac
Running time: 140 minutes

Superhero movies get a lot of stick these days, and sometimes for good reason - when they’re churned out at a rate of knots, it’s hard to feel that they’re little more than a cash grab, a crude attempt from studio executives to jump on a trend that somehow still has legs. 

Yet, when they’re done right, comic flicks can be everything that cinema should be about: They can combine entertainment with emotion, wrap very real stories into very unreal scenarios. Few achieve this combination more effectively than Spider-Man movies, and fewer still than Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.

You see, as the title suggests, this is an other-worldly experience, a truly mind-blowing adventure that spans multiple dimensions and countless frames of madness, jumping across realities built from Lego, parchment, and our own Mother Earth. But it’s also a tale of family, of responsibility, of all the trials and tribulations that have provided the touching foundations for Spidey stories since the very first comic hit the shelves of New York City. Yes, it’s not as refined as its predecessor, and it very much feels like half a film (Beyond the Spider-Verse will have to do a lot of heavy lifting next year), but for all its flaws, it’s still one hell of an achievement from everyone involved. 

Picking up a year after Into the Spider-Verse, our heroes Miles Morales (Shameik Moore) and Gwen Stacy (Hailee Steinfeld) are in very different places to where we left them - Miles is feeling more comfortable in his spider-suit; Gwen is part of an interdimensional task force led by Spider-Man 2099 (Oscar Isaac), which brings together a super-team of every conceivable variation of Spider-Man imaginable… naturally - but the revenge-seeking antics of the Spot (Jason Schwartzman), whose life was torn apart by Morales’ quest to take down Kingpin a year earlier, force them to come together to tackle a threat to save existence as we know it. 

This almost instantly kicks off a rollercoaster of craziness, with pulse-racing, dimension-jumping action grabbing the viewer by the collar and largely refusing to let go. The visuals take things up another level from the already astonishing Into the Spider-Verse, with each scene drenched in texture and vibrancy. The introduction of a whole host of new characters, new worlds, and new crises give the artists completely fresh palettes to work with - and they certainly make the most of each one. 

For all the spectacle and shenanigans, though, the moments that really hit home are the quieter, more introspective ones. A frank conversation between Miles and his parents, a beat of silence that shows Gwen sees Miles, and vice-versa; when directors Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers and Justin K. Thompson lean into the human side of this superhuman story, you realise the real reason that the Spider-Verse is a place you want to revisit time and again - you get to spend time with interesting, layered and relatable characters, who are brought to life by utterly phenomenal voice acting performances. 

With this in mind, it’s a shame the audience doesn’t get enough time with either Gwen or Miles to really connect with the characters’ stories this time out. Across the Spider-Verse is so excited to do exactly that - take us across the Spider-Verse - that it sometimes prioritises inventiveness over polished storytelling. 

At 140 minutes, it’s a properly lengthy film, but it doesn’t feel like it - both positively and negatively. You’re having such a blast exploring these universes, and getting to know a whole host of incredible new characters (Karan Soni’s Spider-Man India and Daniel Kaluuya’s Spider-Punk are particular highlights), but whenever you’re whisked away, you miss hanging out with our core group of Spider-People. Jake Johnson’s Peter B. Parker feels especially sidelined in the quest for bigger and better. 

That said, the emotional beats do leave their mark, and many of the bold swings hit home with real force. There are Easter eggs aplenty, insane scenarios in abundance, and barely a second passed without a beaming smile taking residence on your face. We can’t wait to see what lurks Beyond the Spider-Verse. 

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is now showing at Broadway Cinema