A sequel five years in the making, and it leaves on a cliffhanger.
Luckily, Beyond the Spider-Verse is slated for release in early 2024.
Everything that I liked about the original Into the Spider-Verse is amped up in the sequel Across the Spider-Verse. Spider-Man, we’re at it again, this time with several more Spider-People.
The jokes are funny. The visual gags and cameos spot on. Just the segment in Nueva York is full of so many different iterations of Spider-Man it puts the original Spider-Verse comic to shame.
What compels me in this film, however, is the different art styles in the different universes. We’re familiar with Miles universe from last film This one shows us Spider-Gwen’s universe, and the way water colors blend, especially in heightened emotional talks in that universe is just like looking at paintings on screen. There’s a segment in the third act where Miles is racing to save the day that is a blend of comic panels and film language that is just like the “What’s Up Danger” scene in the original so beautiful and impactful to watch the different styles working together here.
In Nueva York, we see so many different Spider-People, each with their own visual styles to represent.
And we see a few different villains from even more unusual universes that are fun to see, too.
The film grapples with the concept of predestination vs. free-will, one of my favorite tropes (team free-will all the way), and depending on your read on that, you may identify a secondary antagonist to the hero’s journeys.
It’s a little long at over two hours in length, and that To Be Continued title screen at the end is a hard one to stomach, even if the wait for the next installment is mere months compared to years away.
Still, it’s a fun, fun romp and ride I highly recommend swinging into.