6/3/23 - Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (2023) - 8-/10

When I came out of the theater, my first thought wasn’t “my mind is blown with how face meltingingly fantastic that was” but something more along the lines of “*sigh* I don’t think I loved it as much as I hoped”. I’m sure some of that was it being a flawed masterpiece but I think watching Into the Spider-Verse literally the night before may have tinted my Spider spectacles. Sometimes a film can be so amazing and near perfect that anything trying to compete or compare has a difficult time matching up. This isn’t an indictment on the fabulousness of the follow up, as Across is still an amazing achievement but I found it just a thwip below its progenitor. But, I don’t want to be negative, because it was a spectacular experience and a wonderful film, but I have to be honest and refute the calls of it being the superior flick or being a singular cinematic marvel on par with nothing and no-one..

It truly is a tremendous web of wonderful. The art styles are brilliant, finely tuned to each character, world, and emotional beat. That is paired with the massive variety on display and it shines as nothing short of an astounding and a breathtaking technical feat. Beyond just the stylistic wonders and animation awesomeness, there is a depth of adventure and character drama that prickles on the cinematic tongue. It is such a strong effort, felt and flooring. The representation, both subtle and overt, was as encouraging as it was enjoyable - simply done right.

But, it isn’t without its drawbacks, something the original didn’t wrestle with as much. This film is too frenetic. It boggles the brain trying to keep track of all of the action, characters, and whirling wildness. Closest animated thing that pops in my mind would be Redline, if it was injected with NOS and crank. It is A LOT. Marry that with its intent to be too sprawling and over-stuffed, especially over its 2:20 runtime and one can get lost in the enormity of it all. There is kind of just too much constantly, not enough to kneecap the film or its fun, but enough to feel too much. Aesthetics, characters, unfulfilled plot, character machinations - they are tasty but like a gimmicked burger that is much too big to reasonably try and put your mouth around, it struggles to satisfy to the utmost degree. More isn’t always merrier.

There is plenty that anyone can pick out of this film to discuss and dissect, but one thing that jumped out to me was a shift in core driving rhetoric. It is intriguing the variance in the ethos of the 2 films. In Into, ANYONE can be spider-man - that is the purposeful principle literally explained to you. But in Across, literally NOT anyone can be Spider-Man, only those ‘destined’ to walk that path and if you are some normie who encroaches on predestination, you could unravel all of reality. I understand its story purposes but that is quite an extraordinary shift. I think through this story lynchpin you get the rebellion and acceptance of making your own way; I just found the grand juxtaposition amusing.

I am being harsher than I mean to because I still think it is a stellar film, superhero or otherwise. The heart and soul is outstanding, full of messages and meaning. The new Spiders are an exceptional addition and the variety of penetration within such a limited amount of time is impressive. There may be a tad too much, but every single cell is full of love and electricity. An astonishing amount of spiders and specialness.

I don’t end up saying much here. I don’t want to get into too many specifics and there is so much at play here, but it is a wonderfully raucous spectacle that can’t help but delight. It may not be the sensational modern masterpiece that Into is, and if judging by my theater’s response, might genuinely frustrate with its cliffhanger non-ending/sequel setup, but “not just good; great, but not perfection” isn’t the worst stick to be beaten with.