“Exploring the Exciting Spectacle of ‘Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse Part One’ – A Movie Review”

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse – A Multiverse of Emotions

The Spider-Man franchise has come to occupy a special place in our hearts and minds. The beloved comic book character and his ensuing adaptations have invariably symbolized hope and resilience in the face of adversity. In 2018, “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” blew everyone away with its blend of wry humor, infectious energy, and stunning animation. Three years later, “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse – Part One” ups the ante once again and proves to be a worthy successor. With Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers, and Justin K. Thompson at the helm, this sequel is dizzying yet grounded and never loses sight of the teenage emotions at its core.

The Multiverse Blender is Turned Up a Notch

“Across the Spider-Verse” takes place after the events of the first movie, with Miles Morales (voiced by Shameik Moore), now a 15-year-old teenager with a better handle on his crime-fighting powers, grappling with teenage angst, first-love, and parental relationships. When worlds start colliding, prescribed storylines get upset; Miles tests the tenets and brings about a cataclysmic battle across the Spider-Verse. In its chaotic and jumbled way, “Across the Spider-Verse” keeps playing with these notions, and the possibilities of the comic book movie are seemingly limitless.

The second chapter finds itself populated with multiple Spider-Men and Spider-Women. Among them are a Mumbai-like New York, a Lego land and a nightmarish alternate reality. The portals start opening thanks to The Spot (Jason Schwartzman), a supervillain-in-training. But when Miles and Gwen (Hailee Steinfeld), stuck in worlds apart, meet again and swing in tandem through New York, they’re less a romantically linked Spidey pair than they are a couple of teenagers whose parents just don’t understand. The lingering image perfectly encapsulates an electrifyingly downside-up movie franchise.

A Battle Between Deconstruction and Formula

The movie series is hell-bent on deconstruction, but formula keeps creeping in. For Lord and Miller, the post-modern makers of “The Lego Movie” and “The Mitchells vs. The Machines,” it’s a battle they’ve been girding for their whole lives. The danger in all these crisscrossing dimensions is that no reality seems to mean all that much. By exponentially multiplying worlds and Spider-Men, “Across the Spider-Verse” risks making itself dizzy. But to its credit, it surprisingly, even movingly, stays true to the teenage emotions at its core and the parent-kid relationships driving all these multiverse convulsions.

The Marvel Movie We Didn’t Want to End

The movie’s masterful flair lies in how it detonates convention and assembles the leftover, splintered shards to build something deceptively sweet and simple. As Rachel Dratch’s principal says in the film: “Every person is a universe”. The sheer muchness of what’s in the frame can be almost overwhelming, but despite all that, “Across the Spider-Verse” is remarkably grounded as a coming-of-age tale. It’s the first Marvel movie that I felt in the theater a palpable disappointment that it was over. (“Across the Spider-Verse” is a sequel in two parts and ends here in full-on cliffhanger fashion.) That “Across the Spider-Verse” earned that response is surely partly due to its giddy design, just as it is to its conviction that we all contain multitudes.

Conclusion

“Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” is a triumph. With stunning visuals, a thrilling plot, and a superb cast of characters, it is a movie that will make you laugh, cry, and cheer. It is also an ode to the power of determination and the resilience of the human spirit. We can’t wait to see Miles Morales’s continued journey in “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse – Part Two.”