“Spider-Man Across The Spider-Verse” Movie Review by Rafy Mediavilla (@Rmediavilla) #SpiderMan #AcrossTheSpiderVerse
Miles Morales returns for the next chapter of the Oscar®-winning Spider-Verse saga, an epic adventure that will transport Brooklyn’s full-time, friendly neighborhood Spider-Man across the Multiverse to join forces with Gwen Stacy and a new team of Spider-People to face off with a villain more powerful than anything they have ever encountered.
As a Puerto Rican, fan of Spider-Man, and ultimately seeing a boricua character such as Miles Morales be the sole protagonist of a superhero movie, regardless if it was animated or live-action, made me extremely proud of my heritage, and upbringing. Naturally, Puerto Rican people are very proud of their country and when they see their flag or the characteristics that defined them faithfully represented, high praise is always being given above everything else. With that being said, Across the Spider-Verse both had big shoes to follow up on and already had a lot of hype behind it as we all expected a huge story should be delivered. Where once I am thankful to report that Sony Pictures Animation delivered big time with this follow-up sequel.
Story-wise Across The Spider-Verse leads off where the first one ended, with Miles going through life being the best Spider-Man he could be while still dealing with day to day stuff of being a kid, but unlike Into The Spider who walks a straight line being an origin story for Miles Morales as Spider-Man, this one truly feels more grounded as we shift gears constantly because Miles, Gwen, Miguel O’Hara, and the backstory behind every other Spider-Man much as the title suggested Across The Spider-Verse. Meaning that if I put this story side to side with Into The Spider-Verse, in Across The Spider-Verse the stakes feel high and the underlying tone of the narrative feels more serious, something that I absolutely loved about this one. I especially loved how the Gwen Stacy arc and the lead role she is played in for this story.
Now let us dive into the animation since in my opinion, this was also another tall task to overcome given Into The Spider-Verse already raised the bar pretty high for this sequel. Yet once again I am happy to report Sony Pictures Animation delivered big time. The animation played a huge role in telling the story mainly regarding the characters from Across The Spider-Verse mostly because each character had their own unique psychedelic color palette that defined each other. From the already defined styles that we knew from Into The Spider-Verse for Miles, Gwen, and Parker, to the paper-like styles of Hobie Brown to the 2d styles of Pavitr Prabhakar, and futuristic dark tones that defined Miguel O’Hara. The animation told a story on its own, aside from what was going on with Miles Morales and the Gwen Stacy saga.
If anything the only thing I wasn’t absolutely sold on was the main villain of this story, meaning Spot because mainly he just played a role within the self-contained side story of the Mile Morales saga, and seemed more gimmicky than anything else. Yes I understand this is a two-part movie, and the second part promises to be huge with that cliffhanger ending, yet this movie “Villan” felt odd and out of place at moments. The second thing that didn’t hit well with me was the soundtrack which ultimately felt generic at best, and nothing really stood out as memorable.
In the end, even with its flaws, and the bloated runtime, Across the Spider-Verse delivers where it matters with stunning animation and a heart wrecking storytelling that has you gasping for air from start to finish. A must-see, movie that deserves to be seen on the biggest screen possible in a theater full of Spider-Man and Gwen Stacy fans.
