‘Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse’ has shots so nice they could hang in living room

Is the return of Miles Morales as Spider-Man a worthy sequel?

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is directed by Joaquim dos Santos, Kemp Powers, and Justin K Thompson and is the much-anticipated sequel to the global success of the first one, where we return to the next chapter of Miles Morales as Spider-Man and all the quirkiness of the multiverse.

I enjoyed the first one, which was replayable with its art style and the way it tackled the themes of redemption and fate.

It had one of the best anime movie songs to date, so it was a very tough act to follow.

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And by this point already the formula has been set so I was hoping to see them change things enough to feel new without losing too much of what made the first one great.

What to expect

The story follows Miles reuniting with Gwen Stacy in the Multiverse, where he encounters a team of Spider-People, charged with protecting its very existence.

But when the heroes clash on how to handle a new threat, Miles finds himself pitted against the other Spiders and must redefine what it means to be a hero so he can save the people he loves most.

I could see where they were going with it, but indeed every time I see anything to do with the multiverse, I can’t help but feel that it begins to be a get-out-of-jail card for the writers.

They have their freedom, but any plot holes can be covered by the fact that it’s the multiverse.

While Miles’ and Gwen’s characters were pretty fleshed out already in the first one, it was nice to see their growth and evolution, especially Miles.

Although the character arcs I enjoyed most were Miles’ parents, who not only served as great comedic relief, but I also felt what it might be like to be the parent of a typical teenager who also happens to be Spiderman.

It was great to see more depth in their characters.

Cinematography

The cinematography and colour palette in Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse was also nice to the eye.

Some of the scenes and shots were gorgeous and could even serve as a painting hanging in my living room.

While I love the art style overall, I couldn’t help but feel jarred by some scenes where it was a lot to take in, from scene-to-scene things were moving at me fast and I found myself struggling to catch up.

This movie suffers from an overly long third act.

The pacing of the first two acts was great but the third was very lengthy, and I found myself looking at my watch towards the end and realised they still had a lot of plot points to tie up and characters to reach their growth potential.

And because of that I felt robbed when the credits rolled out.

Overall, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse was a great experience and while the heights of Sunflower will never truly be reached – at least to me, I still felt it was a worthy successor.

The viewing was shown at Hyde Park Corner. The seats were really comfortable and the overall experience was great.

I’d be downhearted if we lost the experience of going to the movies one day. So go and see this movie and support the filmmakers and all involved so we don’t lose it. 

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