Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is Also Perfect

I'm sure most of you have seen it by now Spider-Man across the spider-verse released last week and my God what an incredibly special piece of Storytelling obviously the hype and anticipation was high for this one and I don't think I'm alone in saying that it lived up to and maybe exceeded that hype especially in its performance at the box office 208 million dollars worldwide in its opening weekend absolutely Bonkers nearly four times as much as the first made in its opening weekend but I'm not exaggerating when I tell you that this thing is special on multiple levels the animation the story the characters returning and new are all just handled with such incredible expertise in some ways even more adeptly than the first film into the spider-verse which itself is an absolute Masterpiece and if you haven't caught it yet make sure to check out my latest retrospective on that film as well there is just so much to dig into so let's get into it and begin our trip across the spider-verse first up this film has innovated the possibilities of 3D feature animation on an even greater level than the first one did and I honestly did not think that was possible we're really just now seeing the influence of into the spider-verse in the animation industry with Gorgeous stylized Productions like Arcane Puss in Boots The Last Wish and the upcoming TMNT mutant Mayhem which looks absolutely gorgeous might I add and with the waves of the first film really just now being felt I cannot even imagine what across the spider verse is going to do for the industry moving forward the incredible variety of art styles honing in on something new for every Universe they visit the seamless blending of the characters in their different styles absolutely mind-bending creativity in showcasing those Styles often to help emphasize important plot points or thematic elements to say I'm obsessed with how this movie looks is an absolute understatement this is visually the most insane thing I've ever seen projected in a movie theater at this point in time this is the Pinnacle of Animation it melted my brain in the best way my Universe still Sports the style of the first film which is beautiful as ever and features some great sequences in the First Act but the variation in the other universes is the real treat we of course got some brief and fun examples like the classic 40s animation world complete with Ben day dots the Lego Universe of course is great to see especially Fun Since Lord Miller directed The Lego Movie and even a glimpse of the live-action Venom verse showing the breadth of multiversal possibilities here but we really get to see them Flex stylistically in some of the other more heavily featured universes mumbatin's color palette and use of textures and shading in the backgrounds are so damn cool just an absolute joy to look at I'm really glad we got to spend a solid chunk of the movie Here Nueva York draws inspiration from Sid Mead style illustrations of what he thought the future would look like and honestly the exteriors of this universe are so great I wish we'd spent more time in Nueva York outside I actually think the beauty of this universe is being overlooked a bit but the absolute standout style for most people is earth65 Gwen's Universe featuring the app absolutely stunning watercolor style backgrounds inspired by the covers from her original comic book miniseries run we got a little glimpse of her world and into the spider versus origin breakdown and it did feature beautiful watercolor backgrounds but what they did in the sequel are a substantial upgrade it is without question some of the most stunning work I've ever seen the way the colors change to match the actions and mood the way the watercolors literally drip and melt around characters to match the devastation of certain moments everything is breathtaking the opening and closing of the movie set on Earth 65 feature my favorite visual sequences in the film and I adore that they didn't opt for the colors to maintain continuity there are sequences where the colors and textures in the backgrounds change every time they cut to another shot and it just adds to the magic of that world's style this was apparently inspired by Disney's Cinderella specifically the scene where her stepsisters tear off her dress which causes the backgrounds to change alongside the emotions of her traumatic experience and I cannot say enough about how effective it was for for them to prioritize the evocation of emotions that match the story over the continuity or realism speaking of Gwen her role is substantially bolstered in this film basically being elevated to a co-lead alongside miles the entire film opens with a 20-minute sequence set in her universe but I actually want to talk about her last because I think her Arc is the best one in the film but my God this thing maybe even more so than the first film is such an incredible example of how to deftly balance a ton of characters as you might expect a couple end up with a bit less exploration than others but on the whole just about everyone gets their moment and serves their purpose the way this film continues miles journey is Spider-Man is so perfectly executed taking place about a year and a half after the events of the first film miles has settled pretty well into his routine as Spider-Man which is of course at the expense of his schoolwork and home life a classic Spider-Man conundrum obviously and brilliantly they tie this struggle into what worked so well about the first spider-verse movie the importance of Miles familial relationships in his life the first film leveraged miles relationship with his father to tell a story about how expectations can prevent us from becoming the person who we want to be when Jeff finally accepts that Miles spark is his to use for what he wants to use it for Miles finds the strength to take his leap of faith and become a hero one thing these movies do so well is Showcase how miles familial relationships are intrinsically tied to his sense of self not only is miles but as Spider-Man this film beautifully Builds on these ideas this time through miles relationship with his mother as miles struggles to balance other aspects of his life with being Spider-Man his parents struggle with the idea of him working towards going to college outside of New York and moving outside of their support Circle and they also struggle to trust in Miles because they can tell he's lying to them about something given his street-level superheroic obligations and as we've seen that support from his parents is a major source of strength in Miles life as Spider-Man in one of the best scenes in the movie Rio opens up to Miles about her fears about miles moving away from them while he's out in the world he won't have that support that the people he meets won't look out for him like they do and she makes him promise that he'll always hold on to that sense of self the sense of self that his family has helped instill in him and that he doesn't let anyone tell him that he doesn't belong you gotta promise miles I promise and this sense of self and support from his mother is exactly what miles needs to draw from to make it through the trials he faces through the rest of this movie and we'll get back to that but first let's start talking about the other characters the film is filled with newcomers and so many of them are standout editions AKA Spider-Man India makes his debut with a substantially upgraded costume from his comic book counterpart and I cannot say enough about how much I loved this costume upgrade talk about a glow up I've seen a bit of criticism towards the portrayal of mubaton and some of its more base level observations of Indian culture my teacher means D bro you're saying TT and honestly I do understand this highlighting traffic Street dogs and chai isn't exactly a thorough exploration of Indian culture but paviter himself to me was such a fun character almost overwhelmingly upbeat and so excited to be Spider-Man but granted this was also in part to Showcase a Spider-Man's life before the Canon tragedies hit them which ties to the larger plot and themes in crucial ways but I still think any Spider-Man delivering this line is so funny Spider-Man is so easy and with Miles disrupting one of pivoter's Canon events by saving the Police Inspector we might not actually ever see a version of this Spider-Man who goes through that life-defining tragedy which is sort of the entire idea this film is interrogating alright now let's talk about Hobie Brown AKA spider Punk my God what a standout character dude kind of stole the show a role model prosperously A runway model the hate the am I hate the PM hobie's one-liners are super funny but they also did such a great job utilizing this character's anarchistic nature to actually serve the plot in key ways initially he's framed as a potential foil to Miles and marketing interviews claimed he'd be the third in a mile slash Gwen love triangle and he was the subject of Miles jealousy with Gwen so that wasn't far off but mostly he was a representation of Miles own insecurities of inadequacy in regards to the spider task force Hobie has all of this history with Gwen and was invited to Miguel's team which obviously feeds into miles insecurity as both a love interest to Gwen and as a Spider-Man to be taken seriously but when miles orchestrates the incredible cannon-breaking rescue in mumbatin Hobie is absolutely stoked on Miles and feeds him a ton of validation and support but more importantly even before miles learns the truth about his own place in the multiversal spiderweb Hobie starts planting questions in Miles head he knows that Miles case is a unique one and that Miguel is going to treat him wildly differently Hobie effectively tries to build up Mile's own sense of self outside of this place in the larger spiderverse reinforcing that miles is better outside of the system which both Works in regards to hobie's own anarchistic ways and as genuine support of miles it's also not perfectly clear what hobie's relationship to Gwen is other than he's very supportive of her lets her crash in his universe and quote unquote supports his drummer the homie Veritas Joe actually posted a great theory on Twitter Hobie has blue laces on his boots which in some circles is code that the wearer has killed a police officer when talking about the Canon event in various spidey's lives where a police captain is killed Hobie simply confirms by saying yeah what of it it's definitely possible that this means Hobie killed the police captain in his world given that he's an anarchist Punk who has killed in the comics before though it's also possible that he simply feels he's responsible for this Captain's death even if it wasn't directly his fault but if the captain happened to be George Stacy it could explain Hobie feeling a sense of guilt in regards to Gwen pushing him to be a bit protective regardless he's shown to be anarchistic with a severe distaste for the sister him that Miguel has put in place and he looks out for the marginalized spideys that aren't given a fair Shake by Miguel in fact when they try to imprison miles Hobie is the one who encourages him to break out just before he quits the Force for good he even makes a bootleg Dimension hopper for Gwen he is an absolutely standout character even his art style is pure Anarchy constantly shifting never adhering to any single rule I'm definitely planning on diving into some spider Punk Comics ASAP Peter B Parker returns as well and though he doesn't have much of a substantial Arc himself in this film we do get to see the fruits of his Arc from the first film in the form of May Day honestly it was such a joy to just see Peter be happy after the last film taking such an immense amount of joy in his daughter and being so excited to share that Joy with his friends the scene where he tries to get miles to hold Mayday and expresses to him how important their journey in the first film was how miles helped him overcome that fear of fatherhood and failure I love that they just took a moment to really lay out how this played out for Peter B and I can't express enough how damn cute Mayday is the moment at the end where she pulls down her knit hat like a spider mask ready to head off on their Adventure is just perfect that is some adorable hype I've seen some people criticize this portrayal of Peter and say that he's putting mayday's life in danger and I just want to remind you that this is a fantasy film about people with radioactive spider powers you are boring one character who could have used a bit more Focus was this film's version of just drew Isa Rae gives a really great performance we don't know the sex yet my husband wanted to be a surprise he's really corny but so hot and she is an absolute badass she's involved in a couple incredible fight slash Chase sequences but beyond a more implicit Mentor relationship to Gwen we simply do not get to see enough just true she's very clearly Miguel's right hand Spidey and we also get to see a bit of conflict in her towards the end of the film so I expect we'll get a more thorough exploration of this character in the finale but sadly as far as new spideys go she left the least impact on me before we get into Miguel let's Branch out from the spideys and talk about spot because wow what they did with this guy is absolutely incredible I haven't read many of the spot's comic book appearances so I'm mostly familiar through his single appearance in Spider-Man the Animated Series but the general consensus on spot is that he is a c-tier Spider-Man villain people were genuinely shocked when they revealed he'd be the villain for across the spider verse though I always knew that they do some really cool stuff animation wise with those portals but the writing team ingeniously used spots severe lack of Menace and the complete lack of enthusiasm for the character and as a full-on inspiration in his opening sequence spot is an absolute bumbling fool fumbling his way through an attempted ATM Heist destroying a bodega in the process miles doesn't take him remotely seriously calling him a villain of the week though he does struggle a bit with the chaotic nature of his portal abilities but miles treats spot the exact way the audience did despite the fact that spot himself feels that he deserves to be miles arch nemesis and this is another beautifully written aspect of the character they build on the events of the first film in such a fun way as it turns out he was an alchemax scientist he was actually one of the people responsible for pulling the spider that bit miles into their Universe he was also the one who got hit in the head with a bagel as Peter and Miles fled alcamac and then the events of the film's first finale are what turned him into this horrific portal-skinned monster of a man spot is this character seen as a joke and they literally used a tiny visual joke from the first film as a fundamental part of his origin so smart but most importantly spot believes the fact that he was responsible for Miles origin and that miles is responsible for his origin makes them perfect arch nemesis commenting a little bit on the nature of comic tropes it's just so well crafted but because spot seems so inept and silly looking miles completely dismisses him something he shouldn't have done given the dangerous nature of his abilities and this casual dismissal of spot is actually what motivates him to become a true force of Nature and my God does he ever after discovering he can use his portals to Dimension hop he starts finding collider technology in other universes and using it to further enhance his abilities until he becomes this actual Unstoppable storm of a person truly one of the coolest visuals in the entire film I just love the way these filmmakers find meta textual commentary that they can still weave into a satisfying narrative that in my opinion doesn't feel meta on its face anyone unfamiliar with the spot watching the story would just see a well-written villainous Journey but with a little added knowledge it's also this well-crafted commentary on the nature of Nemesis and on audiences Tendencies to underestimate lower tier villains okay now let's talk about the other film's antagonist Miguel O'Hara antagonist not villain just teased in the post-credits scene of the first film this one manages to give Miguel an incredibly empathetic backstory while also making him very easy to root against a tough Balancing Act Miguel is a character who desperately wanted a normal life and even went so far as to replace an alternate version of himself that died in order to have a family but by breaking this quote unquote Canon event he seemingly destroyed that Universe Miguel's taking up the responsibility of holding together the entire Multiverse and though he's doing it in a pretty aggressive way what he's doing does in body with great power comes great responsibility it's effectively a cosmic trolley problem ensuring that the Canon events of countless Spidey lives occur so that existence isn't wiped out though I do think that the events we've witnessed are vague enough that we can expect there to be much more going on behind behind the scenes here I think ultimately Miguel is mistaken about what holds the fabric of reality together but spidey2099 is just another incredibly well characterized and implemented character and the way that he challenges miles sense of self his entire existence as Spider-Man is so beautifully handled with Miles own journey in this film because ultimately miles once again drew his strength from that sense of self imbued in him by his family even across entirely different dimensions though he struggled with insecurities about not being invited into the spider society and with fears about his feelings for Gwen and even though he was literally told to his face that he was a mistake that his identity as Spider-Man was fraudulent through everything miles maintained his confidence and his sense of self he knew that he was legitimate Spider-Man and though he struggled in moments as he was confronted by new information and naysayers when it counted he found that strength and he stuck to his guns in mumbatin Miles stopped a major Cannon event even though Gwen tried to stop him saving innocent lives with nobody else would when he was told that he would have to stand by and watch his father die in order to maintain the fabric of reality he knew there had to be another way when Miguel revealed to him that the spider that bit him was From Another Dimension and therefore was never meant to bite him that he was never meant to be Spider-Man in the first place miles rejected this everyone keeps telling me how my story is supposed to go nah I'm gonna do my own thing and after escaping Nueva York to save his father we see miles Arc in the film wrap up beautifully as he tells his mother exactly what we know about this character a story woven in both of these films that he is strong because of his relationships to his family and through that realization he decides it's time to stop lying to them and tell his mother the truth about his identity as Spider-Man knowing that if his family is the source of his strength they should know his full real actual self of course this is before the reveal that he was actually taken to the wrong Dimension one where his father is dead and where his alternate self operates as the prowler with his uncle Aaron leaving us with one hell of a cliffhanger an incredible way to build hype for the finale while still giving miles a fully realized Arc and journey but the movie doesn't actually begin and end with miles it begins and ends with Gwen and her journey is incredible the entire film starts with a stunning 20-minute Pro log recounting the tragic backstory of Gwen's Spider-Woman showing Peter's death and revealing her father's Vendetta to find and bring Spider Woman to justice for his death it further Builds on her Arc in the first film finally opening up and finding another friend after Peter finding her Confidant in miles but showcases her struggles to open up to anyone else since then which makes one of her dreams playing music that much more difficult to fulfill she quits her band because she's incapable of opening up to her bandmates she laments that she could never find a band of her own and when she's finally confronted by her dad and is forced to reveal her identity to him he rejects his daughter she literally tells him that he is all she has left and that is not enough for him to give his daughter the benefit of the doubt leading to Gwen leaving her Universe entirely with Miguel and Jess and through her own Journey over the course of this movie through her reconnection with Miles through the way his strength and sense of self was inspirational and through her fears that she might lose the only other friend she's made Gwen realizes that she can't close herself off from others at the end of the movie Gwen's Dad gives her an opportunity to talk to him one more time and she takes advantage Gwen Bears her soul to her father she relates to him she tells him how important her identity is to her and that she has to use it to help her friends and not only does her dad accept her it convinces him to quit his job to resign as police captain unknowingly saving his own life George Stacy accepting his daughter for who she was literally saved his own life a lot of people have connected with Gwen's journey in this movie as a trans allegory and I think it's very clear why a father struggling to accept his daughter's identity because of his own personal biases it's really cool to see how much this story has resonated with people and just like miles Gwen moves forward with the strength and support of her family allowing her the freedom to be open and to finally form her band and the film ends with Gwen fully realized leading that band of the spider friends she did didn't know she had ready to save her best friend of all what a perfect Cliffhanger across the spider verse is an absolute work of art a perfect sequel it builds on the incredible foundational themes that were established in the first film and expands on characters in profound and relatable ways it features literally countless nods and references to the history of Spider-Man without overwhelming the story it seamlessly weaves meta commentary into its narrative with a decisive rejection of the people who refuse to acknowledge miles as the real Spider-Man and it delivers full satisfying arcs while still building massive hype for beyond the spider verse with its Cliffhanger a genuine Triumph and I cannot wait for more [Music] YouTube [Music]

Channel: Johnny 2 Cellos

Views: 551,950

Keywords: Spider-Man, Spider-Man Across the Spider-Verse, Across the Spider-Verse, Spider-Man Across the Spider-Verse Review, Across the Spider-Verse Analysis, Miles Morales, Gwen Stacy, Spider-Gwen, Peter B Parker, Spider-Man India, Spider-Punk, Hobie Brown, Pavitr Prabhakar, Miguel Ohara, Spider-Man 2099, Spiderverse cliffhanger, Spiderverse gwen universe, Spiderverse ending, Across the Spider-Verse ending explained, Into the Spider-Verse, Beyond the Spider-Verse, Spider-Verse 2

Id: _-JC8c6QI3I

Length: 20min 48sec (1248 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 06 2023