Back in Miles’ universe, he’s living the typical Spider-Man life. Juggling school and crime-fighting while managing a secret double life are all in a day’s work. What makes him extraordinary doesn’t keep him from having typical teen problems, namely heated fights with his parents as he chafes against their expectations for him. Cop dad Jeff (Brian Tyree Henry) and mom Rio (Lauren Velez) know something’s going on with their elusive son, and though Miles desperately wants to let them in on it, he can’t do it. On a more metaphysical scale, Miles is confronted with disembodied villain The Spot (Jason Schwartzman) who demands to be his nemesis, and Gwen suddenly reappears. Miles dispatches the former and follows the latter back to her headquarters, a sprawling central hive of web-slingers. Their mission to uphold the proper timeline across infinite universes, particularly around each universe’s Spider-person and the things that are supposed to happen to them. As The Spot grows in power and gains the ability to jump between universes, the Spider-Society takes action against him with Miles’ help.
The stunning visuals that predominate in Across the Spider-Verse extend far beyond the dense background gags that they were largely limited to in Into the Spider-Verse. The three original directors have each been replaced by Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers, and Justin K. Thompson, while Phil Lord and Chris Miller are two of the few holdovers in the writing/producing departments. What Dos Santos, Powers, and Thompson bring is a wholesale commitment to differentiating every environment the film encounters. Miles’ looks the most typical, having been introduced in the original, but the several other universes visited have their own look. Gwen’s lighter, pastel world is contrasted with the angry pencil drawings of Hobie Brown aka Spider-Punk (Daniel Kaluuya), a barely intelligible Londoner from a fascist dystopia armed with a guitar. The sleek design of the Spider-Society is a respite from the chaotic megalopolis of Mumbatten, where Parvitr Prabhakar (Karan Soni) is Spider-Man. Each new place is considered, with an animation style to match. Into the Spider-Verse was about visual density while Across the Spider-Verse is more artful. The MCU’s attempt at putting Doctor Strange in a multiverse landed him on a gray bureaucratic version of earth, while gray isn’t a word in Across the Spider-Verse’s vocabulary.
All the pretty screengrabs in the world wouldn’t matter if the characters inhabiting them weren’t worth following, and Across the Spider-Verse complements its visuals with some of the genre’s best characters. Miles and Gwen are both highly credible as teenagers, far moreso than Tom Holland’s fun-but-empty portrayal. They have the moodiness and temper and flakiness that makes real teens so frustrating, while also embodying the beating hearts and enthusiasm that makes that irritation worth it. Romance is something this genre has mostly lost the ability to convey, but here, the major rooting interest is not so much saving the multiverse as it is for these two teens to make it work. Across the Spider-Verse takes a deep breath when Gwen and Miles reconnect, letting them sit together and catch up in a sequence that feels like the most important part of the film. Outside of the leads are a welcome reemergence of Miles’ mentor Peter B. Parker (Jake Johnson), now with an adorable toddler, and Isaac’s smoldering intensity as Miguel. Stuck in a Star Wars purgatory for years, it’s extremely gratifying to have Isaac get to operate in a blockbuster world that recognizes his talents. The other new Spider-people are compelling in different ways, while Velez gets a larger role and does excellent work with it.
The animation and the writing converge for a film that’s bursting with ideas but not to the point that the film becomes overstuffed. There’s commentary about comic book arcs and tropes, plus parenting and growing up and how precarious our futures can be, but it’s the film’s dedication to a teen sensibility that becomes the most compelling. Gwen’s particular idea that she has to leave her universe is in line with adolescent catastrophizing, and a painful lack of trust in her father that Whigham does beautiful work in eliciting. The way that Spider-people are drawn to each other is affecting, again from the teenage perspective of trying to find one’s people. Even the way that Spider-Man gets around the city, reckless and care-free, finds an invincible flow state that cannot help but bring a smile to any viewer’s face. So many superhero movies become pseudo-fascist power fantasies, but this is a freedom fantasy, a joy simulator. Across the Spider-Verse is an evocation of the best parts of being alive. A