image from Spider-man: Across the Spiderverse; taken from IMDB
This is a spoiler warning for Spider-man: Across the Spiderverse. If you haven’t seen it already, go see it.
1.
People (read: nerds) spend a lot of time arguing about whose Spider-man is the best. Up until this year, I’d have said any of the answers seemed alright to me. Into the Spiderverse was obviously masterful, but it was a one-off. The Tom Holland films, at least, are consistent. I’m too young to say I liked Andrew Garfield or Toby Mcguire best, but I used to get it when other people did.
No more. As of a few days ago, there is only one right answer to this.
(It’s the animated films. The animated films are the best.)
2.
In 2018, Into the Spiderverse’s comic-inspired, over-the-top, anti-realist animation was a trendsetter. Disney was – and still is – on a hyper-realism kick. Every comparable modern superhero movie remained chained to the shackles of live-action. And the Spiderverse animators had clearly decided to take a risk; to dip their toes in the ponds of their own style.
Where Into the Spiderverse dipped it’s toes, Across the Spiderverse dives in headfirst. Comic panels shoot from a cute gimmick to a central part of the story’s medium. Each spiderman still has their own art style, but now each spiderverse has a style to mimic it; the entire intro sequence takes place in Gwen’s neon pink and green universe (while she deals with her problems, the colours change to reflect her mood), then a vulture from another dimension shows up and he’s this monochrome aberration staining her world of colour.
3.
I want to say I have no notes. But that’s not true. I’m me; of course I have notes. The inside jokes and fan service were both a bit much, some of the cameos were sloppy, the world’s internal logic falls apart under a strong breeze (that’s not a criticism, it’s true of all multiverse movies), and sort-of pseudo love triangle was so poorly executed.
I get what they were going for. I really do. Miles has been trapped in his own dimension this whole time. It isn’t a stretch to say they would have drifted apart. It’s not surprising that Gwen, a drummer, would hit it off with spiderpunk. This also works for the characters of both Miles and Gwen. Miles is dealing with a multiverse that has moved on without him, and how better to demonstrate that then to have Gwen move on? Gwen has been looking for belonging this whole time, and though she thought she might have found that in Miles, she can’t go see Miles. So instead she turns to spiderpunk. (There’s textual evidence for this – she stopped carrying that picture of her and Miles at the same time she joined the multiverse.)
My real issue with the love triangle is how quickly it was dropped. A series of quips are made of it in the early stages of the film, but once spiderpunk (Hobie Brown) is actually introduced, we see none of the tension implied earlier. Miles goes from inferiority complex to mentee in two scenes, and the aforementioned drama is never brought up again.
4.
If you’ve seen the film, you might rebut my last point with the following: “It’s only the second movie; the third might resolve this tension”. Indeed, there’s no way around it: the film doesn’t have an ending. I’ve heard the working titles mostly included “Part 1”, which would have made it better, but the final title does not have those two magic words. Instead, it is merely an unfinished sequel and the second part of a three-part series.
Only liars will tell you this does not diminish the film. And, while I would most certainly rather have half of an excellent film than all of a mediocre one, releasing a film like Spider-man: Across the Spiderverse would be a lot like ending a review on a…
