The movie title “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” is displayed in a colorful font with a black background. “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” features Miles Morales, a teen who struggles to fully embrace his secret identity as Spider-Man, as he seeks to restore balance in the multiverse. Photo Source: Image from Sony Pictures Animation.

I’ve never been a fan of “Avengers: Endgame,” “Guardians of the Galaxy“ or any other superhero movie, but I am proud to say I have joined Spider-Man’s legion of fans after watching “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-verse.” While I enjoyed “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-verse,” the sequel surpasses its predecessor in pacing, story and animation.

Sony Pictures and Sony Pictures Animation teamed up to produce “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-verse” and planned to release the film Oct. 7, 2022. Due to the pandemic, the film was released June 2 this year. Similarly to the first movie, the sequel received critical acclaim and set box office records by becoming Sony’s highest-grossing animated film.

“Spider-Man: Across the Spider-verse” explores the Earths in the multiverse in the Spider-verse world. The main character, Miles Morales, is a teenager struggling to balance being a normal student and Spider-Man. Each Earth is numbered to more easily identify it in the multiverse. Miles lives on Earth-1610 while his close friend Gwen Stacy, a teenager who has fully embraced the ups and downs of being Spider-Woman, lives on Earth-65. Miles, voiced by Shameik Moore, and Gwen, voiced by Hailee Steinfeld, decide to live in different universes due to their unstable friendship, until Gwen seeks Miles’ help in defeating a villain named The Spot.   

Amidst many other smaller plots, the main conflict of the story is that The Spot acquires an ability to teleport into different universes. This is to the detriment of Miles and Gwen who, as Spider-People, seek to retain the balance of their own universes by making sure no outer forces interfere with them. The movie follows Miles and Gwen in their journey to stop The Spot, who is from Earth-1610, leading them to explore more universes and enlist the help of Spider-People across the Spider-verse. 

Throughout the film, I was drawn to how realistically Miles’ struggle to keep his identity as Spider-Man hidden from his parents was portrayed. His only solution for his constant absences was to give poorly constructed excuses, which his parents were suspicious of right away. In one scene, Miles leaves in the middle of a meeting with his school counselor and parents to fight The Spot. Moments like these are peppered throughout the film, which introduced a new perspective that having superpowers isn’t all sunshine and rainbows. These moments also helped slow the pacing of the movie, allowing me to fully take in the content.  

During Miles’ journey to stop The Spot, he enlists the help of the Spider-Society, a group of Spider-People who each belong to different universes. The film did a surprisingly good job giving each Spider-Man a distinct appearance and personality. For example, Spider-Punk is animated in a more colorful and rough manner, while Spider-Noir is only animated with monochromatic colors.

When I saw the first Spider-verse movie, I was blown away by how vivid and dynamic the animation was. I fell in love with the brilliant usage of colors that indicated subtle shifts in a character’s emotion and changes in atmosphere. In the second movie, characters didn’t even need to speak in order for the audience to understand the essence of their character — they simply let their design do the talking. “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-verse” went above and beyond in ensuring the animation was at its absolute best in each and every frame. 

If you are a fan of Spider-Man, “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-verse” is the movie for you. If you are not, watch this movie, and you will soon be turned into one.