Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is 'disappointing' Share using Email Share on Twitter Share on Facebook

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is 'disappointing'

According to Nicholas Barber, the follow-up to the excellent Into the Spider-Verse "feels frantically busy and wheel-spinningly slow at the same time." The 'cleverness and craftsmanship' are still mind-blowing, nevertheless.

Although it seems like a new Spider-Man movie has been released every year for the past 20 years, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse soars above the rest of them in 2018. It was also the first to use the concept of alternate universes and the only one to replicate the variety of graphic styles and approaches that you can see when you flip through a stack of comics. It was one of the remarkably few big-screen superhero cartoons. Various components appeared to have been painted, hand-drawn, or printed on inexpensive paper.

Featuring the Ben-Day dots that Roy Lichtenstein used to decorate his artwork. A Pop-Art explosion that revolutionized the medium, the movie was a game-changer. But perhaps most impressively of all, the many advancements were intertwined with the touching narrative and endearing characters.

The premise was that a teenager from Brooklyn, Miles Morales (voiced by Shameik Moore), became the Spider-Man of his own universe, only to discover that countless other universes had countless web-slinging, wall-climbing equivalents, including our old friend Peter Parker (Jake Johnson), Gwen Stacy (Hailee Steinfeld), a Looney Tunes-style pig called Spider-Ham (John Mulaney), and a brooding 1930s vigilante, Spider-Man Noir (Nicolas Cage), who existed in black and white. Everything is developed further in the follow-up, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.

This time, Miles encounters a large number of Spider-People, including a guitar-wielding London punk (Daniel Kaluuya) who always appears to be on a shredded, photocopied billboard and a prim Indian Spider-Man (Karan Soni) from a world where Manhattan and Mumbai are the same location. As if that weren't enough, Miles finds out that these Spider-Men-and-Women have their own cutting-edge headquarters where they keep an eye on "anomalies" occurring around the multiverse. Miguel O'Hara, the stern Spider-Man from the year 2099, who is portrayed by Oscar Isaac, serves as their leader.

?Perhaps the minor letdown was unavoidable — how could any follow-up be as revolutionary as Into the Spider-Verse was

The ingenuity and artistry, as before, are so astounding that they give the directors of every other animation the impression that they aren't even trying. But it's possible that Across the Spider-Verse enjoys its own success too much. The Lego Movie's Phil Lord and Christopher Miller collaborated on the screenplay for this movie, which begins with a prologue about Gwen's arguments with her policeman father (Shea Whigham) and her struggle against a vulture (Jorma Taccone) who has swooped into her reality from an alternate 16th Century. Too much time is spent on this area.

Then, in Miles' world, there is a scene that centers on his arguments with his policeman father (Brian Tyree Henry) and his conflict with The Spot (Jason Schwartzman), a supervillain who at first seems foolish but eventually discovers how to open portals into other realities. Additionally, this segment drags on for far too long. After you've understood the point, the boisterous clashes and the stern remarks continue.  

That's not to suggest that Across the Spider-Verse dithers; on the contrary, every frame is jam-packed with jaw-droppingly inventive new vistas and humor. However, it both feels franticly active and glacially slow. Before Gwen and Miles are reunited, it takes 50 minutes, and it will take them at least another 30 minutes to get at the Spider-People headquarters that is heavily shown in the trailers. Despite being the main antagonist, The Spot is not present for the majority of it. However, the most egregious instance of the movie's excesses is that,

Even though it lasts for two and a half hours, the plot is only partially resolved. It ends on a cliffhanger, as a caption states that Miles will make a comeback in Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse, the next installment. It makes sense why it feels more draining than exciting.
 

Spider-geeks might not mind this self-indulgence because they will undoubtedly spend hours replaying and pausing it to list all of the references to more than 60 years' worth of comics, cartoons, live-action movies, and video games. But non-geeks could find it confusing. While introducing certain futuristic science-fiction concepts, Into the Spider-Verse remained firmly grounded in the lives of a struggling Brooklyn adolescent.
Whereas Across the Spider-Verse pushes towards the artificiality of its universe, its primary, postmodern concern is how the tangled web of numerous Spider-Man stories will alter the multiverse. It's hard to relate to any of it if you're not a multiverse-hopping comic book superhero.
 

Perhaps the minor letdown was to be expected. How could a sequel top Into the Spider-Verse in terms of innovation? The idea of super-powered action in alternate universes has also been explored in Spider-Man: No Way Home, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Teen Titans Go! vs. Teen Titans, and the Oscar-winning Everything Everywhere All At Once in the four and a half years since that movie was released in 2018. As a result, what once seemed mind-bendingly original now seems overly familiar. But the biggest reason Across the Spider-Verse falls short of its predecessor is a straightforward one: it is missing Spider-Ham.

★★★☆☆

Beginning on June 2, Spider-Man Across the Spider-Verse will be available to buy.

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