Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse

 

Gwen Stacy (Hailee Steinfeld) is struggling to keep her identity as Spider-Woman hidden from her police captain father George (Shea Whigham) when they encounter a villain displaced from another universe. Gwen is recruited by Miguel O’Hara/Spiderman 2099 (Oscar Isaac) and Jessica Drew/Spider-Woman, themselves from alternate universes, to help them track down such anomalies. Meanwhile, in yet another universe, Miles Morales (Shameik Moore) finds that his activities as Spider-Man have made him appear secretive and distant to his concerned parents. His problems are compounded when Dr. Jonathan Ohm/The Spot (Jason Schwartzman), a scientist whose body became infused with spot-like portals following a lab accident, blames Spider-Man for his disfigurement and vows to make him suffer.

 

The follow-up to 2018’s successful Into the Spiderverse, Across the Spiderverse is nothing if not ambitious. It’s the longest American animated feature, and it’s packed to the gills with alternate versions of Spider-Man from the British anarchist Spider-Punk (Daniel Kaluuya) to Spider-Man India (Karan Soni) to the classic Peter Parker (Jake Johnson, playing him as a middle-aged dad). Each universe explored has its own distinctive art style, and the film is a treasure trove of easter eggs and references to comic book lore. As such, Across the Spiderverse walks a thin line between being a labor of love for Spider-fans and a study in excess.

 

The central idea here is one of fatedness: would the Spider-heroes be the heroes they are if they were not shaped by tragedy? Miles seems determined to find out, but for Miguel, privy to deeper losses than the average Uncle Ben, it’s too dangerous a possibility to ponder. This is both mature turf for an animated comic book adaptation and a conceit on the verge of becoming hackneyed (The upcoming Flash movie is the latest of several properties to play around with the consequences of disrupting fate to prevent tragedy).

 

This weightiness and Isaac’s intense voice performance aside, Across the Spiderverse still manages to be solidly entertaining. The animation is varied and kinetic, taking us everywhere from a Lego dimension to a teeming Mumbattan of Spider-Man India’s realm. The early Spot sequences are pure slapstick as Ohm is a bungler who has no idea how his powers work, but a later escape sequence is full of tension-pumping adrenaline.

 

Across the Spiderverse is the middle film in a planned trilogy, and it ends on a shamelessly blatant cliffhanger, a frustrating lack off payoff for the 140-minute run-time. And yet, it offers hope that the next installment can be entertaining and visually daring just the same. 

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse

Academically gifted Brooklyn teenager and Spider-Man fan Miles Morales (voiced by Shameik Moore) struggles to fit in at an elite boarding school. The son of overbearing police officer Jefferson Davis (voiced by Brian Tyree Henry), Miles instead gravitates toward Jefferson’s estranged brother Aaron (voiced by Mahershala Ali), a petty criminal who encourages Miles’s graffiti art. While tagging a subway, Miles is bitten by a radioactive spider, but just as Spider-Man’s abilities begin to manifest, he finds himself embroiled in a criminal plot. Business magnate Wilson Fisk, secretly the Kingpin of crime (voiced by Liev Schreiber), has commissioned a particle accelerator to open gateways to parallel universes so that he can track down alternate versions of his dead wife and son. A test run goes disastrously wrong, but it is only a matter of time before the machine is repaired and Fisk tries again, with potentially catastrophic consequences. Inspired by Spider-Man’s heroism, Miles attempts to stop him, but the inexperienced newcomer will need some help. Fortunately, the accelerator has opened the door for other spider-powered beings to lend a hand, including an older, reluctant Peter Parker (voiced by Jake Johnson).

Phil Lord and Chris Miller have turned self-aware nostalgia into a cottage industry. The filmmakers behind 21 Jump Street and The Lego Movie produced this animated Spider-Man outing with a trio of directors working from Lord’s script. It is therefore no surprise that Into the Spider-Verse is loaded with winks/nods/allusions/self-deprecation (the poor quality of some Spider-Man merchandise, Peter’s notorious dancing from Spider-Man 3, and the “Spider-Man pointing at Spider-Man” meme are all referenced here), nor is it surprising that the film capably balances action and comedy. What is surprising is that the film has as much emotional depth as it does: the computer animation and PG rating belie well-developed characterization and sound storytelling.

Aesthetically, Into the Spider-Verse is unique. The bright palette and exaggerated character designs (The Kingpin, most recently portrayed in live action by a bulked-up Vincent D’Onofrio, fills nearly the entire screen here) signal a move away from both mock-realism as well as prior Spider-Man cartoons (with the exception of a deliberate nod to the low-fi 1960s series). Moreover, each dimension’s spider-being has their own distinct style: Spider-Man Noir is perpetually surrounded by shadows while Penni Parker and her SP//dr robot would look right at home in an anime. Not to be outdone, Kingpin’s enforcer The Prowler is given both a nightmarish costume and a chilling, unnerving theme. The movie’s soundtrack offers tracks from Nicki Minaj, Jaden Smith, Lil Wayne, and Post Malone, but, sadly, not Childish Gambino (Donald Glover was the impetus for the creation of Miles and plays Uncle Aaron in live action).

Against this backdrop, Lord’s script uses audience awareness of the source material as a touchstone while taking characters in new directions. Spider-Man’s familiar origin story is repeated to the point of mockery, but this movie toys with Uncle Ben’s maxim. Yes, great power and great responsibility come with being Spider-Man, but simply having both does not a hero make. Witness, for instance, Miles trying to be responsible and failing due to inexperience. Or, as a better example, take alternate-dimension Peter: an experienced hero who is also cynical, divorced, parentless (his Aunt May having died), somewhat out of shape, and pushing 40. Rather, what this movie tries to instill is more along the lines of “anyone can be Spider-Man, so rather than trying to live up to the original, be your own best self.”

The voice cast delivers this message with conviction. Moore, a largely unknown 23-year-old, is completely convincing as an overwhelmed kid who is a decade younger: he brings out Miles’s resourcefulness and courage as well as a heaping dose of awkwardness and self-doubt. Johnson’s exasperated and quasi-pathetic take on Peter is a nice contrast to the youthful exuberance (Tobey Maguire and Tom Holland) or angst (Andrew Garfield) that usually define the character. Lily Tomlin makes for a resourceful and supportive Aunt May, Hailee Steinfeld is a spunky yet guarded Gwen Stacy, Nicolas Cage is hilariously deadpan as Spider-Man Noir (a 1930s pulp version of the hero), and Jon Mullaney’s Spider-Ham (a spider bitten by a radioactive pig) comes across as a madcap Looney Toons castoff. Only Schreiber’s performance seems out of place. He nails the Kingpin’s force of will, but he also uses an exaggerated New York accent, geographically appropriate but completely at odds with the character’s affectations of formality.

Into the Spider-Verse contains one of the last cameos of Spider-Man creator Stan Lee (who appears as himself hawking Spider-Man merch), and it fittingly affirms his belief that one person can make a difference. That it does so sincerely and inspiringly is one of this film’s biggest triumphs.