By Gilberto Campa
Back in December 2018, the world of Spiderman was forever changed with the release of Spiderman: Into the Spiderverse. Fans of the most popular and relatable Marvel character in the world were pleasantly surprised with how incredible the movie was as the film set new standards for animation, voice work, and integrated storytelling and ended up becoming one of the biggest surprises of 2018. Ultimately the movie won the Academy Award for Best Animated Film and the plans for a sequel were started soon after. Much of the same animation team that worked on the movie was brought back and got to do even more with the beautiful worlds and character designs they established, the only change for the sequel was the addition of new Directors brought on board with Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers, and Justin K. Thompson. Joaquim has worked entirely in animation as a Director, producer, storyboard artist, amongst other things (Justice League: Unlimited) so he was a perfect fit for this project, Thompson on the other hand initially made a big impression with his play One Night in Miami which was eventually adapted into a feature film, also fit well in the Spiderman sandbox.
What really serves as the glue for this wonderful franchise is the writing and the character work by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller who serve as the main writers and producers on the Spiderverse films. Coming into the sequel which would be titled Spiderman: Across the Spiderverse there was a lot to be done from a story perspective as Miles Morales would begin to face even more challenges as he has been the one and only (at least in his universe) Spiderman since the events of the first movie, where he stepped up into the role and we got to see his unique, yet similar origin story. Going into the movie I wasn’t sure if it could continue to maintain the theme, lessons and importance of what it means to be Spiderman, but i was gladly proven wrong in more ways than one.
Across the Spiderverse not only continues those themes but builds on top of them along with telling a much more mature story that tests a lot of the characters in the movie. Gwen Stacy aka Spiderwoman of Earth 65 gets more fleshed out as we get to see more of her backstory and struggles of being Spiderwoman and the relationship with her dad, Police Captain Stacy (voiced wonderfully by Shea Whigham). Hailee Steinfeld delivers a much more jaded, complex and mature performance that was well done, along with Shameik Moore who expresses himself so much as Miles as he is facing a crisis of purpose. Without going into specifics much of the story is about destiny and events happening for a particular reason (in the grand multiverse of Spiderman), but Miles wants to “do his own thing” in the strongest way possible and make his own destiny.
Some of my favorite scenes in the movie feature Miles and his parents, in particular, his mom Rio (Luna Velez) without going into spoilers she really gives Miles the strength to carry on in his life as he faces his biggest challenge yet, every scene they have together hit home and felt like real conversations that every young boy has had with his very caring mother (who doesn’t want him to grow up). Even though The Spot (a relatively minor Spiderman rouge) was visually interesting and characterized well by Jason Schwartzman, I wouldn’t necessarily call him the villain of the film, the real villain is Mile’s future. There are many more Spidermen introduced in this movie which was one of the biggest highlights as there were many surprises and cameos that I wasn’t expecting. The beauty of that is since Miles is looking for a group to belong with it’s a perfect case of (be careful what you wish for) because it puts a target on his back and that hunt is being led by Miguel O’Hara aka Spiderman 2099 (voiced masterfully by Oscar Isaac).
Without going into spoilers, you find out why Miles is being chased and it just makes this story even more powerful, unique, and emotional. Even though many people are tired of Superhero movies, when they are done right and have this much care and love put into them, they become something else. Every shot in this movie is a painting and each character feels so alive and unique that you are never confused as to who is who. The music once again is a big standout as Metro Boomin, one of the biggest producers in Hip Hop and Daniel Pemberton, one of the best film composers working today both bring their A-Game and help to emphasize what is going on in the film. After seeing this twice I can only imagine what will come next from this series as it reaches its final installment, Sony has something great going on here and I can’t wait for it to continue.
