Saturday, June 10, 2023

My Review of Spider-Man: Across The Spiderverse (2023)

 


Written by Phil Lord And Christopher Miller And Dave Callaham
Directed by Joaquim Dos Santos And Kemp Powers And Justin K. Thompson 

Miles: "Everyone keeps telling me how my story is supposed to go. Nah. I'm-a do my own thing."

Ah, the Multiverse lol. In terms of the big screen, it seems like the web slinger reigns supreme over it and with this sequel, the goodwill from both Spider-Man: Into The Spiderverse and Spider-Man: No Way Home has well and truly paid off. I mean, this middle part of a trilogy really was something to behold.

The movie opened with Gwen's (Hailee Steinfeld) perspective as her Peter Parker had died and her police captain father, George Stacy (Shea Whingham) was determined to bring Spider-Woman in, forcing a very difficult confession scene between father and daughter.  This movie definitely felt as much as Gwen's movie as it did Miles Morales (Shameik Moore) and that's understating it.

Yes, Gwen had tough times with her identity but she also got a rather cool opening fight scene with a Renaissance version of Vulture (Jorma Taccone) while meeting up with both the grouchy Spider-Man 2099 (Oscar Isaac) and the rather cool, Jessica Drew/Spider-Woman (Issa Rae). The latter served as something of a mentor to Gwen, though not without the two of them have a difference on how to handle the main topic of the movie.

The topic being Miles of course. Since we last saw him, Mile got himself a new look, was at odds with his parents over his big secret and also got himself an arch enemy named The Spot (Jason Schwartzman). At first Miles didn't take The Spot seriously but as the movie progressed, he realised he had underestimated his newfound foe.

Then there was the Multiverse shenanigans themselves. Miles and Gwen's reunion was sweet and there's still that underpinning of a potential romance between the two. However their scenes with both Hobie Brown/Spider-Punk (Daniel Kaluuya) and Pavitr Prabhakar/Spider-Man India started off fun, only for Miles's random act of heroism to have its own far reaching consequences as the movie went into it third act and shock cliffhanger.

While Spider-Man 2099 could've worded it better about the real reasons of Miles's origins, the ending where Miles came face to face with an alternative version of himself who became the Prowler (Jharrel Jerome) was a fantastic way to end this movie. Let's just say, Spider-Man: Beyond The Spiderverse really will have to stick that landing.

- There was a nice supporting role for Peter B. Parker (Jake Johnson) and his daughter, Mayday as Gwen recruited various favourites to help Miles.
- The live action clips of Donald Glover, Peggy Lu, Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield worked surprisingly well. I also liked the use of Ben Reilly (Andy Samberg) aswel as some of the animated TV series versions of the character.
- Standout music: James Blake's Hummingbird and Dominic Fike's Mona Lisa.
- Chronology: 16 months since the events of the first movie.

Now I'm not going to declare Spider-Man: Across The Spiderverse to be the best Spidey movie ever but it's easily a Top 5 and it easily builds on what the first movie, upped the ante and surpassed it. I cannot wait to see how this trilogy will conclude in 2024.

Rating: 9 out of 10

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