Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse

2018 was the year that gave us Avengers: Infinity War when Marvel was at its strongest but then came another surprise hit with Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, an animated take on Miles Morales which delved even further into the world of multiverses. That word has quickly become more and divisive in the years since as Marvel's fortunes took a turn to the point of mockery in some of their more recent work but that wasn't going to deter Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse which sought to embrace all the craziness of this well-worn concept and go even further. 

Set some time after the first film, Miles finds himself missing the old team of new friends he had made and life just isn't the same. However, when a freak incident happens with a new villain on the scene, he is reunited with Gwen Stacy to his joy but finds there are strings attached with the team she has now joined called Spider-People.

Directed by Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers and Justin K. Thompson (replacing the directors of the last film), Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse runs at a beefy 140 minutes and is truly a wild ride of an experience. The visuals are top-notch once more and there is a real attention to character development to ensure, like the last film, there is plenty of heart here so that you care and feel invested in the story.

The first third or so in particular is where I feel the film is at its strongest as the story unfolds at a steady pace. This could be slow for some but the directing and writing all works really well, plus the cast of voice actors are top-notch. My only gripe is just with how the film starts to fall away in the third act when the stakes are raised with a villain that isn't the strongest. The first film benefitted from tighter pacing and here it seems the pacing goes a little too wild before the closing act which puts everything back on track nicely as it baits us in for part three. 

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is a very entertaining sequel but it lost a little focus in the last minute reshoots/edits that caused some friction in the background for the talented visual effects teams. I still found a lot to enjoy here and will be keeping a lookout for the next film even if the multiverse trope has probably worn out its welcome.