SPIDER-MAN: ACROSS THE SPIDER-VERSE (2023) – My rating: 9.2/10

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is an animated superhero film featuring the Marvel Comics character Miles Morales/Spider-Man. The film is directed by Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers, and Justin K. Thompson and written by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller. It is produced by Columbia Pictures and Sony Pictures Animation in association with Marvel Entertainment, and distributed by Sony Pictures Releasing. It is the sequel to Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018), which is set in a shared multiverse of alternate universes called the Spider-Verse. This time, Miles goes on an adventure with Spider-Woman across the Multiverse, where he meets a team of Spider-People. This is a second-time Oscar nomination for the animated Spider-Man, Spider-Verse series, which it won in 2019. I thought this version was also excellent.

 On Earth-65, Police Captain George Stacy (voice: Shea Whigham) is unaware that his daughter Gwen Stacy (voice: Hailee Steinfeld) is Spider-Woman, the person who the police believe to be a murderer. One night, Gwen encounters a version of the Vulture (voice: Jorma Taccone) from an Italian Renaissance–themed alternate universe. Miguel O’Hara (voice: Oscar Isaac) and Jess Drew (voice: Issa Rae) arrive using portal-generating watches and help Gwen neutralize the Vulture. George corners Gwen, who then reveals her identity to him; distraught, he attempts to arrest her. Miguel reluctantly grants Gwen membership into the Spider-Society, allowing her to escape with him and Jess.

In Brooklyn on Earth-1610, sixteen months after the Alchemax collider’s explosion, Miles Morales encounters Johnathon Ohnn / The Spot (voice: Jason Schwartzman), an Alchemax scientist whose body was infused with portals during the explosion. The Spot blames Miles Morales / Spider-Man (voice: Shameik Moore) for causing his condition. and reveals that, while testing the collider, he had transported a spider from another dimension, Earth-42, which then bit Miles and turned him into Spider-Man. The Spot then accidentally transports himself into a void, where he learns to travel to other universes containing Alchemax colliders to empower himself further.

As usual with multiverse films, there’s a lot of traveling from one verse to the other. There are nine Earth universes in existence during this sequel with out-of-sync events taking place in each.  You will meet several variations of the same characters with many different scenarios taking place. I found this journey quite interesting. You will find yourself on the edge of your seat, at times waiting for new problems with new resolutions. This version of Spider-Man gives new meaning to the words – “camera, action”. You have to wonder if Miles is a good person in all the universes or will his uncle always meet the same destiny or what makes teams like the Spider-Society unique to all the universes. The biggest surprise is the ending — mums the word! Spider-man: Across the Spider-verse is well done with plenty of action, profound messages, and is young-adult relatable with many right vs wrong decisions to be made. I think the entire family (even those up in age) can enjoy this film, which is currently streaming on Netflix — Check It Out!

**** SLIGHT SPOILERS BELOW ****

WHO’S WHO: (voice cast)

(Shameik Moore) – Miles Morales / Spider-Man:
A teenager of African-American and Puerto Rican descent who took over as the Spider-Man of Earth-1610 after the death of his reality’s Peter Parker.

(Hailee Steinfeld) – Gwen Stacy / Spider-Gwen:
A version of Gwen Stacy who is the Spider-Woman of Earth-65, where she is a wanted fugitive since accidentally killing her reality’s Peter Parker who had turned into the Lizard. She is Miles’ love interest.

(Brian Tyree Henry) – Jeff Morales:
Miles’ African-American father and a police officer, who was recently promoted to captain. The character’s last name was changed from Davis in the first film to Morales in this film.

(Lauren Vélez) – Rio Morales:
Miles’ Puerto Rican mother, a nurse. Vélez also plays an alternate version of Rio from Earth-42.

(Jake Johnson) – Peter B. Parker / Spider-Man:
An older Spider-Man from Earth-616B was a mentor to Miles. He is now married to Mary Jane “MJ” Parker and has a daughter named Mayday.

(Jason Schwartzman) – Johnathon Ohnn / The Spot:
A former scientist from Alchemax-turned-supervillain after an accident, whose body is now covered by interdimensional portals that allow him to travel through space and different universes. The Spot was not originally the film’s main antagonist, being dismissed at first by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller when producer Avi Arad suggested using him, but this changed after the potential of his powers was discussed.

(Issa Rae) – Jess Drew / Spider-Woman:
A pregnant African-American Spider-Woman from Earth-332 is O’Hara’s right hand and rides a motorcycle. Unlike most Spider-People, Drew does not maintain a secret identity.

(Karan Soni) – Pavitr Prabhakar / Spider-Man India:
An Indian version of Spider-Man from Earth-50101 who uses a yo-yo as his main weapon and lives in “Mumbattan” (a portmanteau of Mumbai and Manhattan).

(Daniel Kaluuya) – Hobie Brown / Spider-Punk:
A Black British punk rock version of Spider-Man from Earth-138 uses his guitar as his main weapon.

(Oscar Isaac) – Miguel O’Hara / Spider-Man 2099:
A “ninja-vampire” Spider-Man of Irish and Mexican descent from Earth-928 set in the year 2099, who is the leader of the Spider-Society, a group of Spider-People from alternate universes tasked with protecting the multiverse. Isaac described Miguel as “the one Spider-Man that doesn’t have a sense of humor”.

(Shea Whigham) – George Stacy:
Gwen’s father and a police captain.

(Jorma Taccone) – Adriano Tumino / Vulture:
An Italian vulture-themed supervillain from a Renaissance-inspired universe.

(Greta Lee) – Lyla, Miguel:
The Spider Society’s AI assistant

(Mahershala Ali) – Aaron Davis:
The Earth-42 version of Miles’ deceased African American uncle. Ali previously voiced the Earth-1610 version of Aaron in the first film.

(Jharrel Jerome) – Miles G. Morales:
Prowler of Earth-42.

(Donald Glover) appears as an alternate version of Aaron Davis / Prowler, reprising his role from the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) film Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017).

(Amandla Stenberg) – Margo Kess / Spider-Byte:
A Spider-Woman from a virtual reality.

FYI:
In December, Lord and Miller revealed that the film was being split into two parts: Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (Part One) and (Part Two), because they had written the story they wanted to tell for the sequel and realized it was too much for one film. Work on both parts was taking place simultaneously. The sequels were renamed in April 2022, becoming Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse and Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse. Their release dates were shifted then, with Across the Spider-Verse pushed back to June 2, 2023. Lord and Miller said that they had told Sony the sequel would be the same size as Into the Spider-Verse, but it ended up having the largest crew of any animated film ever, with around 1,000 people working on it. They added that the film had 240 characters and would take place across six universes.

BTW:
Spider-Ham later makes a non-speaking cameo, alongside Spider-Man Noir, at the end of the film.

[SPIDER-MAN: ACROSS THE SPIDER-VERSE has been Oscar-nominated at the 96th Academy Awards for BEST: Animated Feature Film — TOTALING  1  OSCAR NOMINATION]