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by Jeffery Rahming, Contributing Writer

In 2018, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse hit the big screens. While not a huge box office success, it surprised everybody with its revolutionary animation style and shockingly great story, and introduced mainstream audiences to Miles Morales. Its surprise win of Best Animated Feature over the much more financially successful Incredibles 2 was the first time in seven years — when Rango won in 2011 — that a studio other than Disney won that award. Though it’s been a long five years since the last film (it feels more like 10 due to reasons we can all guess), the excitement for its sequel only seemed to grow. Now that it’s out, it’s clear that those five years were well spent. Not only is Across the Spider-Verse great, but just like its predecessor, it pushes animated movies to greater heights than we’ve seen before.

A year after the events of Into the Spider-Verse, Miles (Shameik Moore) is starting to come into his own as his universe’s own friendly, neighborhood wall-crawler. In classic Spider-Man fashion, he’s having trouble balancing his personal life with his superhero life, straining his relationship with his family. But when Gwen (Hailee Steinfeld) comes back into his life and reveals a whole team of Spider-People, Miles is excited to join, only to discover that being a hero may not be as great a life as he thought.

Similar to the first movie, the animation is the real draw here. To call it beautiful would be an understatement. This is nothing less than a landmark achievement for the entire medium. Quite literally, every frame is a painting. It improves on the already incredibly fluid and expressive animation from the first film, combining 2D, 3D, and comic book styles, along with the unique styles of the other Spider-Characters. It has seemingly hundreds of different character designs coexisting, all with different styles, ranging from anime to abstract paper collage, yet somehow it feels completely cohesive. The quality is no surprise, considering the team has gone from a record-breaking 140 animators from the first movie to 1,000 animators (the largest ever for an animated movie). Even if nothing else about it worked, Across the Spider-Verse would still be a visual feast.

Though already aided by the animators, the voice cast does an excellent job of bringing these characters to life. Moore and Steinfeld excel at providing some of the most natural voice acting performances I’ve ever heard, to the point where in their scenes together, you almost forget you’re watching animation. The relationship between Miles and Gwen is one of the focal points of the plot, and their performances help the audience invest in what, on the surface, is a rather typical teenage love story. Some more recognition has to go to Daniel Kaluuya as Hobie (a.k.a. Spider-Punk), a standout performance in which he’s finally allowed to use his natural accent, as well as Oscar Isaac as the mysterious and strangely serious Miguel O’Hara (a.k.a. Spider-Man 2099), the leader of the Spider-Society. As crazy as the inter-dimensional hullabaloo is, the real substance is the relationships between these characters, and their different approaches to what it means to be Spider-Man.

There is never a moment where Across the Spider-Verse isn’t incredibly entertaining, but the plot is very simple. This isn’t a negative, but it becomes noticeable the longer the film goes on that it has about an hour and a half worth of story wrapped around an insane amount of Easter eggs and lengthy action sequences. At two hours and 20 minutes, by the end, it feels unnecessarily bloated. I can only complain so much since it was all fun to watch, but I left the theater wishing we had brought the characters further by the end. That being said, the story that is there is very engaging and emotional, and its gives Miles a great character arc that sets him apart from every other Spider-Man incarnation. Not to mention writers Phil Lord and Christopher Miller’s comedic sensibilities, which are hilarious in a way that puts the MCU to shame.

Even with its clear commercial potential, it’s obvious Across the Spider-Verse is a labor of love. You can tell that everybody behind it has a passion for the character and his long history. They crafted an epic story that clearly has more places to go, leaving you excited to see where else Miles’ journey will take him. In a summer stacked with blockbusters, Across the Spider-Verse may already be the best of the year.

Score: 8/10

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is currently playing in theaters

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