Across the Spider-Verse (2023) Film Review

Sony Pictures

ACROSS THE SPIDER-VERSE

The following Review contains SPOILERS for pretty much all things Spider-Man

Starring Shameik Moore (Miles Morales / Spider-Man), Hailee Steinfeld (Gwen Stacy / Spider-Woman), Brian Tyree Henry / Officer Jefferson Morales, Luna Lauren Velez (Rio Morales), Jason Schwartzman (Johnathon Ohnn / The Spot), Issa Rae (Jess Drew / Spider-Woman), Karan Soni (Pavitr Prabhakar / Spider-Man India), Shea Whigham (George Stacy), Daniel Kaluuya (Hobie Brown – Spider-Punk), Jake Johnson (Peter B. Parker / Spider-Man), Mahershala Ali (Earth-42 Aaron Davis), and Oscar Isaac as Miguel Ohara / Spider-Man 2099)

Directed by Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers, and Justin K. Thompson

Produced by Avi Arad, Amy Pascal, Phil Lord, Christopher Miller, and Christina Steinberg

Written by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller with Dave Callaham

Music by Danniel Pemberton

Distributed by Sony Pictures Releasing

Run Time: 2 hours and 20 minutes

World Premier: May 30, 2023, in Los Angeles, California

Opening Weekend Box Office: $120 million (North America)

Worldwide Box Office: $689 million

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 96%

Sony Pictures / The Walt Disney Company

Fun Spider-Verse Facts

A sequel to 2018’s Into the Spider-Verse was green-lit by Sony before Into the Spider-Verse was even released due to the positive buzz surrounding the project. That sequel ultimately became Across the Spider-Verse.

For those keeping score at home, the release of Spider-Man: No Way Home and its canonization of Sony’s Spider-Man Universe also canonized Into the Spider-Verse, as the voice of actor Cliff Robinson (who portrayed Peter Parker’s Uncle Ben in 2002’s Spider-Man) could be heard during a flashback sequence in the film, and since 2002’s Spider-Man is MCU canon via the Multiverse, so too is Into the Spider-Verse due to its utilization of archived audio from that film. Across the Spider-Verse put an exclamation point on all of that with several references to Spider-Man’s Cinematic history. Among them are appearances by both Tobey Maguire’s Peter Parker / Spider-Man and Andrew Garfield’s Peter Parker / Spider-Man via archived footage, JK Simmons reprises his role as J. Jonah Jameson whom he has portrayed in Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man Trilogy as well as within the MCU-616 Universe in Spider-Man: Far From Home and Spider-Man: No Way Home, The Spot visits the Universe that is inhabited by Tom Hardy’s Eddie Brock / Venom (designated as Earth-688 and shown in live action when he encounters Ms. Chen, with Peggy Lu reprising her role from both Venom films), a live action Prowler is seen portrayed by Donald Glover, who portrayed Aaron Davis in Spider-Man: Homecoming, and a what seems to be a reference to the MCU 616-Universe and the events seen in Spider-Man: No Way Home by Miguel Ohara when he exclaims “Don’t get me started on Doctor Strange and that little nerd back on Earth-199999 (the comic book designation for the Marvel Cinematic Universe).   

Sony Pictures

The star of Into the Spider-Verse and Across the Spider-Verse is of course, Miles Morales / Spider-Man. Miles’ Universe is designated as Earth-1610 in both the comics and the Spider-Verse film. Sharing the starring role with Miles this time around is Gwen Stacy. Across the Spider-Verse takes viewers to Gwen’s world and explores her origin and her complicated relationship with her father more thoroughly than the first film did. Gwen’s Universe is designated as Earth-65.

Several other Spider-Man Variants appear in Across the Spider-Verse; far too many for me to list in fact, but some of the more notable Variants are Jess Drew (a new take on comic book character Jessica Drew / Spider-Woman that was created specifically for the film), Spider-Punk (created by Dan Slott and Olivier Coipel and debuting in 2015), and Spider-Man India (created by Jeevan J. Kang, Suresh Seetharaman, and Sharad Devarajan). Into the Spider-Verse and Across the Spider-Verse are both loosely based on the Marvel Comics Spider-Verse Event Series which ran from 2014-2015, written by Dan Slott.

Across the Spider-Verse features several cast members that have appeared within the Marvel Cinematic Universe and other Marvel Studios films including Hailee Steinfeld (Kate Bishop in Hawkeye), Mahershala Ali (Cottonmouth in Luke Cage: Season One and Blade in Eternals), Brian Tyree Henry (Phastos in Eternals), Daniel Kaluuya (W’Kabi in Black Panther), and Oscar Isaac (Moon Knight and all of his personalities in Moon Knight).

Across the Spider-Verse features six different animation styles, as strong effort was made to make the worlds that various characters portrayed to look and feel as different from one another as possible.

At the time that I am writing this review, Across the Spider-Verse reigns as the third best-reviewed production based on a Marvel property on Rotten Tomatoes boasting a 96% Approval Rating which is behind only Into the Spider-Verse (97%) and Marvel Studios’ 2022 Disney+ series Ms. Marvel (98%).

Across the Spider-Verse was the sixth highest-grossing movie of 2018 and one of two Marvel films that cracked the Top-10 highest-grossing movies list along with Guardians of the Galaxy Volume Three, which was the fourth highest-grossing film of the year.

Sony Pictures

My Across the Spider-Verse Review

Across the Spider-Verse is a sort of perfect sequel to the animated masterpiece that was Into the Spider-Verse. As I wrote in my review for that film, this sequel also serves as a love story to Spider-Man, to comic books, and to comic book readers themselves. When I saw Into the Spider-Verse, I felt that it was the most uniquely beautiful motion picture that I had ever seen, yet this sequel is somehow even more beautiful, unabashedly existing as a sort of living comic book with massive care and attention dedicated to each and every scene and to each and every character. The colors, the movements, the backgrounds, the animation, the thought balloons and word bubbles and action descriptors, all come together in the same ways that the first film did, only this time around, the stakes are significantly higher!

Across the Spider-Verse catches up with Gwen Stacy on Earth-65. We explore her life and her drama as she wrestles with having played a part in the death of her best friend (Peter Parker after he became The Lizard), loneliness, and her father’s obsession with catching her superhero alter ego. Going to Gwen’s world was visually breathtaking and emotionally draining! A fight with a Vulture from another Universe culminates in Gwen meeting some other Spider-Beings and coming out as Spider-Woman to her police dad. He reacts cruelly, addressing her with a mixture of sadness and disgust and threatening to arrest her, but before he can, she gets whisked away into the Multiverse and joins the Spider Society, a Multiversal group of Spider-Beings led by Miguel O’Hara that work to ensure the stability of the Multiverse. It’s made clear very quickly that the events of the Into the Spider-Verse film left the Multiverse quite unstable, with various entities glitching out of their home Universes into foreign ones. Such was the case with The Vulture.

Meanwhile, on Earth-616, Miles Morales is enjoying life as Spider-Man, despite having to juggle his responsibilities as a hero with his duties as a student and a son. Miles soon encounters a new supervillain known as The Spot. We eventually learn that he is a former scientist that worked at Alchemax (and had a bagel thrown at him by Miles) that found himself transformed into a monstrosity when his body fused with portals upon the explosion of Kingpin’s Particle Accelerator. The Spot can open portals in space and move his body through them. It’s kind of funny at first visually, and the initial dynamic between The Spot and Miles is fun, but eventually it will all get much more serious. Part of this comes with the revelation that the spider that bit Miles had been transported from another Dimension into Earth-1610. This makes Miles a Multiversal anomaly.

Soon, Gwen Stacy reconnects with Miles on Earth-1610. She has missed him and he’s pretty much obsessed with her, and the chemistry between the characters is really special. Gwen’s visit with Miles was not approved by the Spider Society, as her lone mission was looking into the activities of The Spot. She is ordered to leave quite abruptly, and Miles finds himself unable to resist the notion of following her through the portal that had yet to close behind her. They end up on Earth-50101 where they team up with Spider-Punk and Spider-Man India against The Spot. During the brawl, Miles shares a vision with The Spot in which he sees the death of Police Inspector Singh of Earth-50101. This provokes Miles to save Singh, but after he does, Earth-50101 begins to disintegrate. The Spider Society arrive to take charge of the situation and Miles is whisked away to Earth-928 and the Headquarters of the Spider Society.

There are a few things to get to here in terms of plot and narrative. Earth-50101 began to disintegrate because the death of Singh was a “canon” event, meaning it was not only supposed to happen, but it has to happen. These same kinds of rules were laid out in Marvel Studios’ What If …? Season One where they were referred to as “Absolute Points.” Regardless of what they’re called the simple truth is, these are events that cannot be changed or else the Universe they take place in will unravel and the stability of the Multiverse itself will be threatened.

Sony Pictures

The Spider Society sequence is loaded with cameos and easter eggs pertaining to other Variants of Spider-Man from cartoons, to comics, to video games. It’s wonderful and it’s fun, but the nature of the scene changes drastically as it goes on when Miles discovers that every Spider-Being across the Multiverse has to suffer certain losses and that his next loss is destined to come in the form of his father’s death at the hands of The Spot. Miles is unable to bring himself to cope with this, and in his panic, he furthermore learns that him becoming a Spider-Being itself was a Multiversal Annamolly. It was never supposed to happen. Miguel O’Hara tries to imprison Miles in order to prevent him from saving his father, but Miles breaks free, and a chase ensues. Miles fights off Miguel and successfully flees Earth-928, but in a huge swerve, we discover along with Miles that he has not gone home. He has gone to Earth-42, the Universe from which the spider that bit him came, and here, a Variant of himself is The Prowler!

It’s quite the moment, and its one that cleverly follows Miles coming out to what turned out to be a Variant of his mother as Spider-Man. Meanwhile, Gwen Stacy reunites with her dad and makes amends with him (wonderful sequence) and she returns to Earth-1610 in search of Miles, only to discover that he isn’t there. After conversing with Miles’ parents. Gwen assembles a new team of Spider-Beings to oppose Miguel Ohara and his troops. Her allies include Spider-Man Noir, Peni Parker, Spider-Ham, and Peter B. Parker (with his child May Day).

In the meantime, The Spot is raiding other Universes to grow stronger and to emerge as a serious threat to not just Miles’ family, but to the Multiverse itself.

There’s so much to unpack and praise here! I loved every scene with Miles and his parents and every scene with Miles and Gwen. The complications of dealing with predetermined events that are “supposed to happen” are themes we’ve seen brilliantly explored in the Doctor Strange episode of What If …? Season One and in both Seasons of Marvel Studios’ Loki series, yet it never feels tired or overused.

This is a situation unique to Miles Morales and his story, and his will to fight against all odds and against all destiny’s drives the third act of this film and leaves us hanging on a major cliff hanger.

Sony Pictures

Highlights of Across the Spider-Verse:

Gwen Stacy

Miles Morales

The Exploration of Complicated Family Relationships

The look and style of Gwen’s World

Heart

Humor

Gwen’s Drumming

Music

Catching up with Peter B. Parker

Spider-Punk

Spider-Man India

Animation and Illustration Throughout