I felt like they tried so hard to make everything a step up from the original that it ended up just being too much. the art got even more artsy, and while some places it looked really cool, other places it was just very distracting and genuinely looked like mistakes. (I literally went and asked the staff if they were showing us a 3D version by mistake because of just how blurry things were at times.)

Story-wise, I felt like it lost a lot of the charm and succinctness. It again felt like I had to one up everything, but in doing so it lost a lot of what made the first movie special. I really didn't like or get to know any of the new characters. There were quite a few funny moments, but too little banter for a movie with this many Spider-Mans.

Probably the biggest complaint is the complete lack of an ending or even a warning ahead of time that this was just a part one. that probably explains why it felt like the latter two-thirds of the movie dragged so much. there were a lot of action scenes mixed in, but it just felt like standard web slinging chases, nothing really interesting happening most of the time.

I rarely assign the highest possible rating here, but "Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse" simply blew me away. The first movie was almost perfect, with an incredibly varied animation style, good characters, and an exciting and humorous story. The sequel is now a flawless expansion of these elements. This time, for example, even more different animation styles are blended, and the result is simply stunning.

The voice actors are also strong again. I was especially pleased to see Spider-Gwen's (Hailee Steinfeld) role expanded significantly, as her story perfectly complements Miles' (Shameik Moore). And the return of Peter B. Parker (Jake Johnson) provides a good laugh or two. Oscar Isaac as Spider-Man 2099, the Indian Spider-Man (Karan Soni), and the villain The Spot (Jason Schwartzman) are also clear highlights. There are also numerous Easter eggs that can't all be discovered during a single viewing. For fans of the comics, "Across the Spider-Verse" is one hell of a treat.

This is not least due to the fact that the story is once again very strong. While the first part was perhaps held back a bit by the fact that it was also an origin story, there's no holding back this time. The focus is on the multiverse, and it has never been done so well and creatively in any Marvel movie. Amidst all the spectacle, there is also time for smaller moments and character development. Scenes with Miles and his family, as well as Gwen and her father, stand out in particular.

Overall, "Across the Spider-Verse" is a perfect Spider-Man film. Looking ahead to the sequel, which will fortunately already be released in March 2024, my expectations couldn't be higher.

Another incredible achievement for animation. Everything about this is more ambitious than _Into the Spider-verse_. To start off, I love that the script is in no way interested in repeating the same beats as the first film. It's a true multiverse story that doesn't use the concept as a cheap, corporate gimmick. The comedy is once again razor sharp, but there's a deeper emotional underpinning to this film as well. In fact, the film is confident enough to take an entire hour to ensure everything is set-up properly, before it throws the viewer into the new adventure. Every new character is well developed and adds a different (stylistic) flavor to the film. The casting is great, they continuously pick interesting actors with distinct, expressive voices. Visually it blows every other animated film out of the water, there are so many different animation styles and it still feels cohesive. Even the action sequences are very well put together, there's not a moment where it becomes messy or turns into sensory overload. Yet despite all of that, I still prefer the first movie. A small issue I had with the first film was the use of licensed music, and that continues to be a problem. I like Pemberton's score a lot, but the songs are once again just a bunch of bland pop rap and trap. It's not like there's a shortage of great (popular) hiphop from the east coast, so I don't understand why a movie that's so ahead of the curve in almost every way would settle for something that commercial. And that's not the only area where you can see some signs of minor artistic cheapening. For example, while you can tell that the creators tried to integrate some of the cameos and references as naturally as possible, they still end up feeling tasteless and unnecessary. It's Sony making sure the normies receive their shot of dopamine, which is understandable, but it doesn't fit the very high artistic bar these movies set for themselves. Also, some of the exposition recaps could've easily been removed. Overall, I thought this was great and it confidently sets the stage for these films being among the best trilogies of all time.

8/10

Life as a teenager is never easy and when you are gifted with the superhuman abilities of a spider and lead a double life as a student and crime fighter; life gets even harder.

Miles Morales (Shameik Moore) is finding it even harder to hide his secret from his family who has grown concerned that his erratic behavior is more than the usual teenage angst.

In another earth, Gwen Stacy (Hailee Steinfeld) deals with her Police officer father desperately hunting down her alter-ego believing that she is a killer which drives a wedge between them as Gwen desperately tries to find her way forward.

In “Spider-Man Across the Spider-Verse audiences learn that what one perceives as reality is often just the corner of a much larger picture and when Miles confronts what he dismisses as a “Villain of the Week” in a quirky enemy known as The Spot (Jason Schwartzman), starts a campaign against Spider-Man, he soon finds that the threat is much larger than he expected and secretly follows a visiting Gwen into an another Earth where his actions soon draw the attention of a larger temporal Spider squad.

Motivated by his feelings for Gwen and a desire to do good, Miles looks to undo the damage that the Spot is causing across various Earths and learns that each one has its own version of Spider-man or Woman to protect it.

At this point the film goes into overdrive as Miles learns more about his past and how he became Spider-Man but also learns more about the cost that his powers enact on his life and those around him. There are plenty of special moments and guest appearances that follow from the more obscure to the mainstream and the range of emotions from the audience at the press screening as they reacted to the film showed they were deeply engaged and loving it.

The film does take a darker turn and does end in a cliffhanger which sets up the next film very well but also may be a bit darker than younger viewers might want. That being said; I enjoyed this film far more than I did the prior film. I found the animation style a bit off-putting as the jerky way the characters moved was a bit much over the length of a feature film. This time around there is a mix of animation styles throughout and at times in the same frame which may be a bit hard for some as the film does come at the viewer with waves of flashing lights, sounds, and animations that very cleverly mimic reading a comic complete with small boxes to define various characters from time to time.

The film runs nearly two and a half hours and did seem to go on a bit long at times but thanks to the great voice-acting and strong cast as well as engaging storyline I found myself eagerly looking forward to the next film.

I first saw a rough cut of a scene at Cinemacon in 2022 and it was amazing seeing the final scene near the opening of the film as it was a rare instance of a film surpassing expectations and delivers the storyline and action with a good dose of solid characters that fans will love.

4.5 stars out of 5

Rating: 9.5

Overall, another groundbreaking film in the franchise that only builds on everything they created in the previous film as the brilliant animation and incredible writing is used to show the audience a well-rounded story about a Spider-Man who is trying to find his place in the world, with the only major drawback of the movie being that it suffers from the flaws of it being one of two parts.