In 2018, “Into the Spider-Verse” blew the doors off theatres everywhere and fundamentally changed the animation industry. For once, a statement like that isn’t hyperbole; just look at the past few years of Hollywood animation and it’s clear that “Spider-Verse” sent a clear message that hyper-realism and detail isn’t the end-all-be-all of an animation studio. Films like “Puss in Boots: The Last Wish,” “The Bad Guys,” and “The Mitchells vs. The Machines” had art styles clearly inspired by the first “Spider-Verse” and numerous other studios seemed to have loosened their animation styles shortly after Miles’s first animated adventure. Even without the shift in the zeitgeist thanks to its visuals, the first film still won acclaim and awards from critics and audiences alike, the likes of which arguably hasn’t been seen since the likes of “The LEGO Movie,” “Wall-E,” “Up,” or “Howl’s Moving Castle.”
Suffice it to say then, the sequel “Across the Spider-Verse” has quite the bar to clear, doubly so when it was announced that this would be part one of a two-part story, the “Empire Strikes Back” of this trilogy, if you will. Which is why its so incredible to say that “Across the Spider-Verse” is, without hyperbole, better that the first film in virtually every way.
This sequel follows Miles Morales, voiced again by Shameik Moore (“The Get Down,” “Wu-Tang: An American Saga”), as he takes on the newly minted villain The Spot, voiced by Jason Schwartzman (“Fantastic Mr. Fox,” “Scott Pilgrim vs. The World”), as well as finding himself reunited with Gwen Stacey, voiced again by Hailee Steinfeld (“Bumblebee,” “Arcane”), and introduced to a society of dimension hopping Spider-People, including Spider-Woman, voiced by Issa Rae (“The Lovebirds,” “Insecure”), Spider-Man India, voiced by Karan Soni (“Deadpool 2,” “Miracle Workers”), Spider-Punk, voiced by Daniel Kaluuya (“Nope,” “Get Out”), and Peter B. Parker, voiced again by Jake Johnson (“New Girl,” “Minx”), led by Spider-Man 2099, voiced by Oscar Isaac (“Inside Llewyn Davis,” “Moon Knight”).
Not going into further detail with the summary here isn’t just to avoid spoiling anything, it’s also because the film has a lot going on all at once. There are no simple questions or answers to everything going on, and instead of simply splitting one film into two, writers Phil Lord (“The LEGO Movie,” “21 Jump Street (2012)”), Chris Miller (“The LEGO Movie,” “21 Jump Street (2012)”), and David Callaham (“Zombieland: Double Tap,” “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings”) craft a tale that simply too big to tell in just one film. And yes, while its big in the literal sense, there are far more multiverses and the film is thirty minutes longer than the first, its big in its complexity as well.
There are numerous different emotional arcs and themes all swinging around, but each gets the chance to grow and shine. For how much incredibly frenetic action and swinging there is, its genuinely incredible how many slow, calm moments of simple emotional reflection there are. Directors Joaquim Dos Santos (“Justice League Unlimited,” “The Legend of Korra”), Kemp Powers (“Soul,” “One Night in Miami…”), and Justin K. Thompson (“Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs,” “Sackboy: A Big Adventure”) craft an incredibly mature film, one that has grown as Miles has. There are no easy answers in this new Spider-Man story and the filmmakers don’t pretend like there are either.
Yet, that emotional maturity is balanced brilliantly with the film’s incredible action and spectacle. The animation, like the first film, is simply breathtaking, and there are too many moments of pure beauty and wonder to ever hope to summarize here. It’s the kind of movie that, simply put, uses animation as a medium to its fullest potential. Whether to craft a unique world, character, or perspective, or to simply forgo realism to instead nail home an emotional beat, the artistic wizards at Sony Pictures Animation have frankly outdone themselves in a way no other studio could possibly hope to match.
“Across” doesn’t just excel visually either. Like the first film, the vocal performances and music are simply stellar. Given the increased emotion and gravitas of this larger story, the vocal performances from the entire cast are profoundly excellent. Moore and Steinfeld have incredible chemistry, and the new Spider-People are an absolute joy. It’s hard to give even one or two specific shout outs, as they’re all so supremely excellent. Schwartzman in particular does a fantastic job at paralleling The Spot’s absurdity and haunting villainy. Daniel Pemberton (“Steve Jobs,” “The Trial of the Chicago 7”) somehow exceeds his score from the first film to deliver a wave of music that manages to balance the different Spider-People’s themes while also blending it all together seamlessly.
There’s a lot to take in here, visually and emotionally, and it can all be a bit overwhelming. At two-hours-and-twenty-minutes, this is the longest American animated film ever, and it covers a lot of ground over that length. Given that the film was originally announced with the subtitle “Part 1”, which was later dropped, there will likely be plenty of audience members who are slightly miffed at the “To Be Continued” at the film’s end. However, like the best middle chapters of the best trilogies, there is still a full arc here. It doesn’t feel like someone has hit the pause button or things are arbitrarily cut off. It’s more cliffhanger-y of an ending than, say, “The Dark Knight”, but it feels just as earned as “The Two Towers” or “Back to the Future Part 2.”
Simply put, there
is no other animated film out there like “Across the Spider-Verse” a rare work
of cinematic art that manages to overwhelm and overdeliver, taking viewers on
an emotional ride that simply must be felt to be believed. Somehow even
surpassing the first film’s already high bar, this is a film that simply should
not be missed by anyone who simply like good cinema or good storytelling.
Forget about whether you know a Spider-Man from an actual spider, there hasn’t
been a work of pure maximalist filmmaking this worth your time yet this year. 5/5
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