Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (2023) directed by Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers and Justin K. Thompson

 

The sequel to the 2018 Spriderman: Into the Spiderverse was a long time coming and at 2 hours, a long time to watch as well. While it did better at the box-office than the first film I think this one has at least one major flaw I cannot overlook. 

To start with, I LOVED the first movie. It was breath fresh air in it pacing, style and animation. The story was gripping and managed to be exciting and heart wrenching at times. I thought it might be good, but it was great. The second film is lesser as one might expect but it still has eye popping animation and good character development, for the most part, of the main actors and uses the multiverse concept in interesting ways to move the story along and to add some unexpected twists. I can’t say the movie was boring in any way or cut corners animation wise or went in a direction that took away from the overall quality of the production. So what is the problem?

The problem starts with the villain who is barely there and milk toast. I am not sure if we are supposed to care about him at all, the personal life of Miles Morales was fantastic and keeps getting interrupted by a bad guy I have investment in. A bigger issue was the ending…or lack of an ending might be a better way to put it. There isn’t an ending! There is a sequel tease that makes no sense. If a they cut out some of the overlong senses at the multiverse HQ they could have wrapped this up in a few minutes and not made the movie any longer. The 3rd film was already has supposed to have been released by now but there is no sign of it as of this writing. In my opinion it ruins the movie, which I was liking the ride if was taking me on until it suddenly ended seemingly within minutes of a resolution. It felt like a cheat and a cheap ploy instead of a cliffhanger for the next instalment. 

Spiderman: No Way Home (2021) directed by Jon Watts

 

The third film instalment with Tom Holland as the titular Spiderman is, once again another fun, fast moving film. Well, fun is mostly right, this film has a fair amount of pathos and outright tragedy infused into it. To avoid spoilers on a fairly new film I won't got too deep into that but this movie does change the lightness that has been a trademark of the first two film into something that gives the character more depth and actually brings him closer to the the tone of other Spiderman incarnations that focused on his guilt and loneliness as a superhero. 

Peter parker was exposed as the superhero in the last movie which has caused all sorts of trouble and he asks Dr Strange to cast a spell to make the world forget who Spiderman is and it goes terribly wrong, opening a rift in the multiverse which brings in not only 2 other Spidermans but villain from movies from other studios.  It's brilliantly done! The previous actors playing the crusader reprise their roles and while it has great comic effect it also give them a chance to bring the Holland's version in line with theirs... the three are connected by tragedy and they each help the other to learn to live with it. 

Classic villain played by the original actors bring nostalgia but also add a certain heaviness to the film I didn't expect. They go beyond fan service and are essential to the story. 

Spiderman: Into the Spiderverse (1918) directed by Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey, and Rodney Rothman

Every once and long while a film comes up with something truly new and innovative and this movie is 100% in that category. The story of the Mile Morals version of Spiderman from the comic book series is integrated with several other versions of Spiderman in a truly engaging and exciting story filled with humour and a good share of drama. Spider dies at the start of the films, murdered by the Kingpin, which pretty shocking for an animated film but he is far from the only killing by the end of this story. 

Story really is front and centre in this production, but it also outshines pretty much any other modern animated project in the visuals. It is hard to describe the look of this movie except to say it's a comic book come to life. That doesn't nearly cover it though. The animation is far beyond just mimicking a comic book style... it's layered approach and combination of both CGI and 2D to achieve its unique presentation of the material is revolutionary and will change how you look at "cartoons" forever more. Every shot, the lighting the movement is stunning to look at and it's in total service to the top notch story telling and performances. 

Marvel knew the Miles Morals story needed to be told on the big screen and came up with a way to do that and not step on the toes of the I've action films. The movie literally references the comics it's drawing from as plot point, including the bizarre, Peter Porker - the amazing Spiderham. As wild and weird as it it is this film has real heart behind it and matches that with technical brilliance.