Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse - Directed by Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers, and Justin K Thompson
I’m hard pressed to believe we’ll see anything else come out of Hollywood this year that offers the sheer visual splendor present in basically every scene of Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse. This movie feels like color suddenly bowled its way into a black and white world like the cowboys burst through the walls of a dance set at the end of Blazing Saddles. Simply by existing Spider-Verse makes the argument that all comic book adaptations should lean into the idea that they began as animation and go with that medium when adapting the story for the silver screen. Without the limits and laws of physical reality these stories can truly challenge our imaginations.
Hollywood produces plenty of animated films every year but the reason why Spider-Verse stands alone is that there’s truly nothing out there that looks anything like it. The animation is all done with computers but they purposefully meld this aesthetic with that of hand drawn animation to give it a singular look and feel. Not to mention this film’s use of color which takes viewers onto an end of the color and vibrancy spectrum rarely seen anywhere. Matt Groening, the creator of The Simpsons once coined the phrase “rubber-band reality”. Spider-Verse lives by this idea. One minute the action on screen resembles anime, characters striking hero poses almost outside of the film’s reality, the next we’re sitting with two Spider-people as they hang upside down at a skyscraper’s summit. The reality of it still impossible but the image is so clear and well rendered you believe it entirely.
The plot follows the same rubber-band theory as the visuals. No matter how Spider-Verse strays into gags and dimension hopping insanity, they always snap back to something, or someone relatable. The story focuses on Miles Morales, an Afro-Latino kid left to step into hero’s shoes when his dimension’s Spiderman is killed. Without the Spider suit on though Miles is a normal 15 year old with helicopter parents who has to navigate his teenage world all while trying to remain a good person despite his age appropriate insecurities. Voice actor Shameik Moore does a truly lovely job bringing Miles to life.
Add to Miles’s story that of Gwen Stacy voiced by the always amazing Hailee Steinfeld. Gwen a.k.a. Spider-Woman lives in her own dimension with its own animation style and the film spends its early scenes painting (almost literally through animation) her own personal issues as well as the added complexities that come with being an interdimensional crime fighter.
Both these Spider-people face The Spot, a science experiment gone wrong leading to his body being pockmarked by Dalmatian like wormholes. Punch him and your fist might end up hitting someone across the room instead. This ability to open portals across space (and eventually realities) allows for some of the film’s most exciting action and comedic sequences.
Spider-Verse does have more on its mine than visual excitement though. Partway through I realized I was watching a well put together critique of comic book storytelling, specifically shooting holes in the rulebook Spiderman comics have adhered to for decades. The first Spider-Verse film poked fun at the endlessly recycled conventions we all know from comic books. This sequel reaches for a larger point about the limitations of the medium and the dangers of letting your creativity be hemmed in by forcing yourself to work by any convention. What results is a story about Miles, his background, his ethnicity, and his rookie approach to being a hero, and how all those things are valuable precisely because they aren’t conventional.
Across the Spider-Verse is a delightful tightrope walk of a film. It’s irreverent but soulful, reality-bending but still committed to the emotional reality of its characters and appealing to super comic book geeks while remaining completely accessible to the more casual viewer. This film spins a lot of plates creatively and narratively and it does so with aplomb. It’s a tribute to the multitasking required of any friendly neighborhood Spider-Man.
