Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse review: An astounding visual triumph

The Most Gorgeous Superhero Film of All Time?

2018’s Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse may have been responsible for kickstarting this seemingly endless stream of superhero multi-verse storytelling, but it did it with such heart and visual style that we can let that slide. Five years after that visually arresting animated film introduced viewers to Miles Morales as the friendly neighbourhood web-slinger comes Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, the long-anticipated sequel that might just be the most gorgeous superhero film of all time.

Directed by Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers, and Justin K. Thompson from a screenplay by The Lego Movie‘s Phil Lord and Christopher Miller (who also served as Executive Producers on the film), Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is a jaw-dropping display of comic art and animation styles that immerses viewers in a head-spinning web of multi-spider mayhem.

The Return of Miles and Gwen

The heart of the complex narrative is the relationship between Miles Morales (Shameik Moore) and Gwen Stacy (Hailee Steinfeld), the alternate dimension Spider-Woman. After returning to their respective universes following the events of Into the Spider-Verse, their teenage lives have grown increasingly complicated. Miles is dealing with typical teenage issues of loneliness and parental issues in addition to his secret life as Spider-Man, while Gwen has to keep her alter-ego a secret from her protective father, who believes Spider-Woman killed their universe’s version of Peter Parker.

After Miles encounters a mysterious villain named Spot (Jason Schwartzman), a portal-creating scientist who looks like a black and white cookie come to life, he is soon reunited with Gwen who makes a surprising return to his universe. With Spot’s ability to open portals to other universes, Miles and Gwen find themselves chasing Spot through the — wait for it — multiverse, encountering various Spider-beings including Spider-Man India, the anarchy-loving Spider-Punk, and the return of Peter Parker (Jake Johnson).

Introducing Spider-Man 2099 and The Spider-Society

In order to keep the countless Spider-folks around the multiverse in check, the technocratic Spider-Man 2099 (Oscar Isaac) leads a group of timeline enforcers known as The Spider-Society, who Miles quickly runs afoul of when he refuses to stick to the “canon” of his story, choosing to let his life play out the way he sees best, regardless of the consequences.

If all of that sounds like a head-scratching mess, rest assured that while the character work is solid, you don’t necessarily need to follow every plot machination of this film. Every second of Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is suffused with such striking animation that the complex multi-verse elements fly by like so much disregarded web fluid. By encompassing so many eras of Spider-Man storytelling, the film gets to incorporate styles and characters from decades of comic book and multi-media Spider-Man appearances, resulting in a patchwork of animation styles unlike anything you’ve ever seen from a major studio.

A Journey Through Comic Art History

The filmmakers use the large canvas of the screen to zoom in on different animation styles inspired by some of the greatest Spider-Man artists of the past 60-odd years, creating a thrilling experience akin to browsing through decades of conic back issues at once. Without hyperbole, almost every frame of this two-hour-plus movie is a marvel (sorry) to look at, which makes some of the overtly-confounding narrative points that much easier to swallow.

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is a triumph of animation storytelling that is thankfully wrapped around a film filled with heartfelt (and often hilarious) performances. Amid all of the talk of superhero fatigue, this is a movie that truly makes you feel like anything is possible.

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is in theatres now.