At the heart of every 'Spider-Man' film we’ve seen – before Miles Morales jumped into frame in his Nike Air Jordans – lay several choices made by the writing crew that we could always count on.
Peter was always a science genius. His parents were never around. And most importantly, Uncle Ben had to die for Spider-Man to be born. These weren’t choices made by Peter himself, only ones that impacted him most. We grew used to them through their different iterations over the last two decades, and Spider-Man became a reliable and dependable superhero for us to put our trust in.
In 'Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse', the writers’ choices and our trust in Spider-Man are thrown into chaos.
The first film focused on Miles as the predominant hero, but in the sequel he shares the spotlight with Gwen Stacy. These two Spider-people again team up, with more Spider-people, to again save the multiverse. The catch this time? The villains of the movie might be Spider-Man himself—or themselves.
The story is set a year after the events of the first, with Miles more comfortable with his powers, stopping more bad guys, and saving more people. When Gwen drops in, it’s because she needs an escape. But as the story progresses, we realise it’s more than that: there’s trouble afoot in the multiverse and Miles is a part of it.
Enter Miguel O’Hara, Earth-928’s Spider-Man, and apparently the one keeping the multiverse together. He has a problem with Miles that only gets worse as the movie progresses.
While this 'Spider-Man' posits Miles and Gwen at the forefront of the story, underneath thrums the rhythm of everything we love about Spider-Man: courageousness, heart, and love. Miles’ love for his family is apparent in everything he does: when he learns they’re in trouble, he stops at nothing to traverse the multiverse to find them again, even at the cost of the multiverse itself. It throws the notion of 'the greater good' into question. Miles’s family is in trouble, but if he’s not allowed to save them, why even have his powers?
This film is, in a word, phenomenal. The script’s moral quandaries are only the beginning of what makes 'Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse' a cut above most other superhero films. Bringing Spider-men from various different animated films and series meant that there is, like the first film, a range of different animation styles. But that’s only where the fun begins.
Gwen Stacy’s universe is made up of pastel watercolours that run down, up and across the screen. She seems faded and washed out, as though her shine dulled when Peter died. Miles’ universe is full technicolour with structured lines and minute detail, from the texture of Rio’s hair to Miles’ undone shoelaces. And then we have the 2D animated style of the original 'Spider-Man' cartoons, the bright primary blue and red standing out among the sea of shades. With a surprise cameo from Donald Glover, we even get the 'real' world bleeding into the animated ones.
Seeing the film in the comfort of a movie theatre was an experience in itself, and one that I won’t take for granted. This film deserves to be experienced again and again, and even though 2018 seems like a lifetime ago, the wait for 'Across The Spider-Verse' was worth it. Every choice made for this film strings together a brilliant piece of cinema that should not be missed before it leaves theatres. So go on, take the leap of faith.
