Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is an animated super-hero film which is a follow-up to 2018’s Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. For some reason, it took three directors to get this one on the screen. Joaquin Dos Santos, Kemp Powers, and Justin K. Thompson shared that duty, which probably made for a pretty crowded chair. Phil Lord, Christopher Miller, and David Callaham share the writing credit. Shameik Moore returns to voice Miles Morales, a very different Spidey than the usual Peter Parker. Fortunately, Peter Parker does show up in this one, voiced by Jake Johnson. The cast is quite extensive, but it includes Hailee Steinfeld, Brian Tyree Henry, Jason Schwartzman, Issa Rae, and Oscar Isaac.
All kinds of favors of Spider-Man show up in this film. Miles Morales encounters a villain known as the Spot, who is able to open portals to other dimensions. Anyway, young Miles encounters a society of Spider-Men, led by Miguel O’Hara. He finds that there are choices that could lead to dire consequences to all sorts of realities. He does get to reconnect with Gwen Stacy, and a nice little almost romantic connection plays out there. He also has some conflicts with parents, who I actually find pretty amusing. Luna Lauren Velez voices that role and does quite well, which is expected since she has been performing for quite a while now.
This movie is a frustrating mixture of some great moments and over-indulgence at times. The story gets rather muddled at times. There is just that sense the creators were just stuffing this thing with every element that would satiate every sort of Spider-Man fan. The performances were fine, and many of the quips were genuinely amusing. Moore does a great job in the lead, and I came to somewhat grudgingly like Miles Morales. I only say grudgingly because I am basically a Peter Parker purist fan, and I think multiple reality storylines can feel like cop-outs. There are important elements in the film that really work almost brilliantly, but there are other creative decisions that I found to be unnecessary and a bit frustrating. There is to be a follow-up to this one, and I am intrigued enough to make it to that one, so I guess the movie wasn’t a complete waste of time, which I guess one can call a victory for the producers.
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