Caught in a Web
The scourge of sequelitis strikes even the best of us.
spider-Man: across the Spider-verse
Directors: Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers, Justin K Thompson • Writers: Phil Lord, Christopher Miller, David Callaham, based on the Marvel comics
Starring [English]: Shameik Moore, Hailee Steinfeld, Jake Johnson, Issa Rae, Daniel Kaluuya, Jason Schwartzman, Brian Tyree Henry, Oscar Isaac, Shea Whigham, Luna Lauren Velez
USA • 2hrs 20mins
Opens Hong Kong June 1 • IIA
Grade: B
I’m just going to put this out there: Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse is the best Spider-Man movie. Full stop (fight me!). And that’s coming from a massive Sam Raimi fan. So going into the (bound to be huge) Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse expectations were high. The creative artwork (a happy marriage of CGI, 2D and linework among other techniques) alone made the first one worth a watch, but it was also intensely modern, almost perfectly paced, and above all had an emotional core that resonated across age, race, gender, class… You name it. It was ostensibly about a teenager (been there, hard pass) with teenager problems (don’t care anymore), but Phil Lord and Rodney Rothman’s script was so loaded with genuine wit, nuance and humanity it was hard to deny its impact. In many ways it fulfilled the promise of comic books that holds comics are not about superpowers and guys in pantyhose. They’re metaphors for the world as we know it.
Second “so” now. So it’s with great pissyness you might leave Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse feeling a little disappointed. Not only does it crib a page from the Marvel playbook and dump a “Miles Morales Will Be Back” on our asses – which are numb after over two hours – with a dash of Fast X by ending mid-stream, it goes full Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 by giving us more of everything that made the first instalment so excellent with none of the consideration that went into it. It’s louder, more frantic, quippier (yes, a hallmark of Spidey, doesn’t make it less irritating when overdone), and tries so hard to be cool it trips over itself along the way. This movie is thirsty. And it’s gutting that another lightning-in-a-bottle film has been turned into just another property.
Was ‘September’ at this cookout?
Yes, yes, yes Spider-Man is IP, but Into the Spider-Verse didn’t feel like it. Alert the media. Producer Amy Pascal has gone on record stating the sequel would serve as a “launching pad” for a previously announced spin-off film starring Steinfeld. Now, Across the Spider-Verse has a lot going for it. The film starts in another universe, Gwen Stacy’s (Hailee Steinfeld) to be exact, who is also Spider-Woman, unbeknownst to her cop dad George (Shea Whigam, who is always perfection). Her world has a brushed-edge visual quality to it that’s not just distinct, but reflective of Gwen’s feelings of unrefined, undefined existence – as opposed to life – in the wake of ending the collider and still mourning her Peter. During a fight with a hilariously Renaissance Vulture (complete with Italian accent) she meets Oscar Isaac’s Miguel O'Hara, Spider-Man 2099 (he was Into the Spider-Verse’s post-credit stinger), who says he’s fixing the damage done by Miles when he killed the machine. (Very) Long story short he’s unravelling the fabric of space and time. Gwen joins the Spider-Verse CIA or something.
But she takes a side trip to visit Miles, “our” Spider-Man (Shameik Moore), trying and usually failing to balance school, his role as a good son to Jefferson Davis and Rio Morales (Brian Tyree Henry and Luna Lauren Vélez), and his side hustle as Spider-Man. They swing around together for what seems an eternity (it’s “relationship development”) and he goes on a protracted chase of the first Big Bad, Dr Jonathan Ohnn, AKA The Spot (Jason Schwartzman, very close to insufferable). Then he pouts and runs away from home. Or maybe he’s all horned up about Gwen. Whatever, he follows her into the Spider-verse, where every world has its own webslinger.
All these bits and really, really fan-servicey bobs make for a lot of movie, which isn’t always a good thing. Co-directors Joaquim Dos Santos (TV’s The Legend of Korra), animator and production designer Justin K Thompson (Star Wars: Clone Wars, Into the Spider-Verse), and One Night in Miami writer and Soul co-director Kemp Powers, are certainly qualified to pick up the reins, but they’re simply overwhelmed by the need to cram in more stuff. Some of it’s fun, like the Spider-Man India sequence, in which Pavitr Prabhakar (Karan Soni, no doubt sending some butthurt fanboys into paroxysms) expounds on his glorious man and cracks how the British took all their good shit. Yet here’s Jessica Drew, another Spider-Woman (Issa Rae) whose most notable trait is that she’s pregnant. Go, sisterhood? What are we to make of this exactly?
Across the Spider-Verse more aggressively, and gleefully, leans into its origins and may well be the most comic booky comic book movie to ever comic book. It’s playful with titles, backgrounds, diagonals and a couple of great, essentially, splash panels. However, the damn “camera” never stops moving; it would be nice to get a good look at some of this tremendous artwork but no. No, that would be too easy. In the end there’s just so much yawn-inducing bloat, so much fat on the bones, it’s hard to care about Miles’ family discord or old, busted Spider-Man (Jake Johnson) Peter B Parker’s baby (seriously, what?) or Spider-Punk Hobie Brown’s, (Daniel Kaluuya, cue more paroxysms), righteous anti-capitalist fury – though his monochrome, collage-style art is some of the best. There’s a lot of rehashing of the first film’s themes and interpersonal beats, most of the best bits are in the trailer FFS, and as is the curse of all Spidey films there’re too many villains. Believe me. I’m well aware I’m going to be the voice in the wilderness on this. Despite a bad case of Sequelitis it’s infinitely better than Spider-Man: No Way Home and its calculated, illogical, puzzle piece filmmaking, and Across the Spider-Verse may wind up a better film after Beyond the Spider-Verse (2024) is done and dusted. To which I say: Fewer events. More complete movies, please. — DEK