Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse

This weekend, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, released in theaters. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is a sequel to Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and follows Miles Morales as he continues to live as Spider-Man after the multiversal incident that occurred in the first film. When he becomes reunited with Gwen, he journeys across the multiverse and encounters a team of Spider-People charged with protecting the multiverse. I really liked the first film and was very excited about how they were going to up things in this film.

In short, this film is nothing short of a masterpiece. It is not overstating things to call this film a work of art. The visual storytelling is so unique and vibrant that it just stands out from every other animated film. Just like the first film, the movie is animated in a style that feels like it is being pulled right from a comic book. The design of the characters, the way their thoughts are portrayed, the action, and the moving from frame to frame make the movie feel like a comic book come to life. The movie goes above and beyond everything the original film did. The style is louder and bigger and the action is even more unique. What makes this movie stand out above the previous film is that when we move through each universe and see all these different Spider-people, the animation is different. The animation style is different for Miles's universe than it is for Gwen's and etc. Even each individual character has a unique animation style and is designed completely differently from any others. You can tell how much time and care went into the visuals of this film. The plot is also so much bigger and better than the original film. This is a multiverse film done right. We get to explore multiple universes and get to see how crazy the different versions actually are. While it tries to effectively show the craziness of the multiverse, it doesn't do it at the expense of having a compelling and easy-to-follow story or developed characters. All of the characters get a lot of time and growth. Miles goes on quite the journey and everything in his story is just handled so well. We even get to see Gwen get an arc and see what her life is like and what her struggles are. The movie also does a great job of having a theme that builds on the first film. The first film was all about how anyone can be Spider-Man. This movie builds on that as it is all about what it means to be Spider-Man and whether certain sacrifices need to be made. It really adds to the complexity of Mile's character and makes for a much more compelling story. Finally, I thought the Easter eggs and cameos were all a lot of fun. They weren't overblown nor did they disappoint expectations. They were all handled very well and were included in natural ways.

In the end, this is a perfect film that not only handles a crazy multiverse story but also manages to keep the focus on Miles with a concise story. This is not only the best Spider-Man movie, but it is also currently the best movie of the year and one of only 14 films out of all the movies that I've ever seen that I felt deserved a 10/10.

Score: 10/10 Grade: A+ Recommendation: This is a must-see film.