I have to go against the grain and with my gut on this one. It's just not as good as the first film. Right when it starts gearing up to give some satisfying narrative conclusions it drops you off at arguably the hardest cliffhanger I've ever experienced at the movies, and without the blatant "part 1" label, I felt absolutely robbed leaving the theater, with the entire experience cheapened, and I even questioned if it was a good idea to see it in theaters in the first place! This unresolved mass of narrative webbing is largely the reason for my disappointment. But truthfully, and by my own logic, I don't even think I have the grounds to even give an opinion, that's how glaring the ending cliffhanger is. So take all of this, rating included with a grain of salt. They leave so many narrative beats for the next movie, it is mind boggling.
So, for the first half of this story that is the entirety of Across the Spider-Verse, I enjoyed it for the most part. It had some good quips, the characters were fun, and their development was interesting. I was entertained for the entirety of the film's run time for sure. I did enjoy the fan service of seeing some of my favorite spider-men iterations, and there's a particular scene in the first half with Miles swinging around New York that I thought embodied some of my favorite feelings of Spider Man as a character. It's all pretty well done.
I did think that some of the scenes were breathtakingly beautiful in their art direction, though often I found when the action was amped up and a lot of things got moving on screen, that same art direction made those scenes so hard to follow and keep up with. For example, Spider Punk is a really cool character and his art style is absolutely on brand for him, but the moment he's involved in scenes that require him to quickly move around, my eyes and brain could not process what was going on with that guy. Maybe that's intentional! But even scenes that had cohesive style sometimes still were difficult to follow, and that's not what I'm looking for in superhero movies with tons of action. But when it comes together just right, it is a really beautiful movie.
There's something weird with how they did the multi-verse stuff in this movie that I did not like as compared to the first one. I can't put my finger on it, but it just doesn't hit quite the same as the first. Maybe the vast abundance of Spider Men make the other inclusions feel watered down or something. I don't know.
My view I'm certain will change after I've seen the conclusion (or sequel) to all of the threads that started their weave here, but as of right now I'm left as satisfied as I can be until we get to that point with the next movie. Until then, Across the Spider-Verse and its lack of narrative conclusions will simply haunt me.
Review by Brando CalrissianBlockedParent2023-06-14T17:20:30Z
I have to go against the grain and with my gut on this one. It's just not as good as the first film. Right when it starts gearing up to give some satisfying narrative conclusions it drops you off at arguably the hardest cliffhanger I've ever experienced at the movies, and without the blatant "part 1" label, I felt absolutely robbed leaving the theater, with the entire experience cheapened, and I even questioned if it was a good idea to see it in theaters in the first place! This unresolved mass of narrative webbing is largely the reason for my disappointment. But truthfully, and by my own logic, I don't even think I have the grounds to even give an opinion, that's how glaring the ending cliffhanger is. So take all of this, rating included with a grain of salt. They leave so many narrative beats for the next movie, it is mind boggling.
So, for the first half of this story that is the entirety of Across the Spider-Verse, I enjoyed it for the most part. It had some good quips, the characters were fun, and their development was interesting. I was entertained for the entirety of the film's run time for sure. I did enjoy the fan service of seeing some of my favorite spider-men iterations, and there's a particular scene in the first half with Miles swinging around New York that I thought embodied some of my favorite feelings of Spider Man as a character. It's all pretty well done.
I did think that some of the scenes were breathtakingly beautiful in their art direction, though often I found when the action was amped up and a lot of things got moving on screen, that same art direction made those scenes so hard to follow and keep up with. For example, Spider Punk is a really cool character and his art style is absolutely on brand for him, but the moment he's involved in scenes that require him to quickly move around, my eyes and brain could not process what was going on with that guy. Maybe that's intentional! But even scenes that had cohesive style sometimes still were difficult to follow, and that's not what I'm looking for in superhero movies with tons of action. But when it comes together just right, it is a really beautiful movie.
There's something weird with how they did the multi-verse stuff in this movie that I did not like as compared to the first one. I can't put my finger on it, but it just doesn't hit quite the same as the first. Maybe the vast abundance of Spider Men make the other inclusions feel watered down or something. I don't know.
My view I'm certain will change after I've seen the conclusion (or sequel) to all of the threads that started their weave here, but as of right now I'm left as satisfied as I can be until we get to that point with the next movie. Until then, Across the Spider-Verse and its lack of narrative conclusions will simply haunt me.