Across the Spider-Verse Blown my Expectations!

 

By Yongma Lee

Century Theater Olympia, WA

    A few years ago, I have seen the animated movie, “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.” The movie truly opened my mind to the very thought of animation each with its own animation style signifying a unique dimension. The movie also inspired me to move forward with the whole pursuit of media production work through this key phrase, “A leap of faith.” After I finally get the chance to see what this sequel would unfurl I am excited to see how it all turn out in this film while going beyond the 2 hour run time breaking the record for longest animated film.

             Now it’s time to dive into the Spider-Verse and see why all the spider-verse dimensions are intertwining like a spider’s web.

Plot Spoilers

             When the movie opens, we see that the damage caused by Kingpin’s Super Collider hasn’t fixed any after its destruction with Spider-Gwen battling against a renaissance variation of the Vulture only for Spider-Man 2099 and Spider-Woman step in and detain the villainous bird. Meanwhile we also see Miles battling against the Spot in his home dimension. He also struggle between both his normal life and as Spider-Man.

 

             After being grounded, he followed Gwen to the portal leading to an alternate universe where the Spot is getting stronger with dark matter made by Alchemax would make his abilities stronger. On the other hand, Miles is also at the crossroads with the Spider Society led by Miguel O’Hara leading up to the choice and consequences he’s about to make.

Positive Notes and Easter Eggs

             The movie and its diversity in animation styles is still more astounding than ever to the point of I’m at a loss for words as well as writing down the notes on the said film. I would say the film going beyond 2 hours really did pay off as it shows a good deal of Easter eggs in the Spider-verse without degrading the quality of the film let alone its narrative. Extra Unique Animation styles from both Spider-Man India, as well as Spider-Punk presenting unique newspaper rock animated presence, along with the paper style from the Renaissance-style Vulture. There’s also a couple of memorable Spideys such as the PS4 Spider-Man voiced by Yuri Lowenthal and The Spectacular Spider-man voiced by Josh Keaton.

             The also still have wit and a good deal of humor that is really enjoyable even with all the Marvel Comics-related Easter eggs and cameos crammed in to the film, including a Lego dimension of it being a shout out to the Lego Movie. Even a live action instances from older films are a welcoming presentation as well as obscure villains, such as videoman. At the same time, Miles feel really relatable as he wants to do help everyone while saving his dad who’s about to become captain. In fact, we all want to do everything to help everybody especially with great power come great responsibility.

             I also like the addition to more comic effects in the film to make it a mix of both animated cinema and a motion comic book. In addition to that, I also like how the movie changes the mood of the scene by changing the single color of the overall scene, background and all. Such as how one scene got darker as the tone of the film gets very dark. Especially where Miles struggle with trying to be a hero for his world while trying to prevent the inevitable event set up by the Spot.

Sci-Fi Aspect of the film

             Ever since I was a kid, I was really fascinated by the very thoughts of other worlds’ right iand the stories they tell. Afterwards, I become more fascinated about parallel universes later on. But when it comes to the Omniverse, collection of multiverses, the rules of the parallel universes would be more complicated, especially revolving around the spider-verse. Since the Beginning of the Film, I have noticed the glitching and the harmful effect that the 2 different worlds would have such effect in Gwen’s World just like something similar to the predecessor. However, it never came across my mind on how big of a consequence that would present.

             The film also did show and tell about the whole canon event and the severe consequence for breaking the canon resulting in a world unraveling into nothingness. It also revealed that the canon break also happened to Miguel too. Try to replace his alternate self in an attempt to fill the void only to ignite the end result for canon breaking. All the more reason in the event that I go to another world, I need to be careful not to invoke an incursion to the point of a canon break.

             Great power does come with great responsibility, but abusing that power result in grand consequences. In general, this movie is really deep in both the story and the sci-fi side of things.

Final Thoughts

Overall, this film is overwhelming with amazing story, Wonderful music, along with a 2 hour and 20 minute length for the film that really paid off and ends it with a hook enticing me to know how the Spider-verse film trilogy will end. With suspense and excitement at the end of every corner, I am hoping that the sequel will be just as good as the first 2 films as I might come back for next year for the sequel wanting more than what the next spider-verse film would present.

As a result, I am giving Across the Spider-Verse 9.5 out of 10 stars due to an amazing story and solid acting job from a good deal of cast members that really got what it takes to wear the spider hero mask. You too Yuri Lowenthal as I am looking forward to play the sequel to the Spider-Man video game on the PS5. For now, I will be anticipating for both of the said titles until they arrive.