It’s hard to believe the first animated Miles Morales Spider-Man movie came out in 2018 (you can read my review here). Now Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse arrives with more new characters and threats to the multiverse. Directed by Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers, and Justin K. Thompson, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse takes on larger challenges. The focus remains on 15-year-old Miles Morales (Shameik Moore), who is just learning how to use his Spider-Man powers, but Miles shares the stage with his love-interest: Ghost-Spider (Hailee Steinfeld). Both teenage super-heroes are struggling with their parents and the stress of a life fighting crime.
Scriptwriters Phil Lord, Christopher Miller, and Dave Callahan create worlds with incredible production design by Patrick O’Keefe that brings those words to life in wild, animated worlds full of bizarre Earths (like the universe where Mumbai and Manhattan are blended into “Mumhattan”).
(MILD SPOILER ALERT) The AMC Theater where Diane and I watched Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse broke into groans when after 2 hours and 20 minutes the dreaded words TO BE CONTINUED… appeared on the screen. We’ll have to wait until 2024 to find out what happens to Miles and Gwen and all the other Spider-people. GRADE: INCOMPLETE (but trending toward a B+)
I don’t even watch the live action Spider-Man movies, let alone something like this.
Pass.
Jeff, this movie will attract the teenage audience.
They probably should tell the audience up front that this is the first part only. It would be frustrating to learn that at the end. It even is on TV shows.
Patti, the audience at the AMC Theater expressed their disappointment when TO BE CONTINUED flashed on the screen at the “end” of the movie. I felt the same way when DUNE just ended. They didn’t market DUNE as “Part I” but the conclusion, DUNE, PART II comes out in November.
I like Alternate Earth stories. My favourite is even older than I am, Fritz Leiber’s DESTINY TIMES THREE. It’s nice to think there may be a world where Nixon, Reagan, the two George Bush’s, and Donald Trump never existed. But I’m not a big fan of animated movies. I wonder, when will the MCU people give us a movie where the Spider-Verse, the Multiverse of Madness, and the Quantum Realm collide?
Fred, I’m sure the folks at MARVEL are working on a collision of the Spider-Verse, Multiverse of Madness, and the Quantum Realm even as we speak! I need to re-read Fritz Leiber’s DESTINY TIMES THREE!
George, you might find this of interest.
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2023/jun/02/spider-man-across-the-spider-verse-sequel-2-parts
I have to say I agree. If a filmmaker can’t tell a story in one film (and preferably in around two hours) I’ll pass.
Byron, thanks for the link! With the last MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE on the horizon (in two parts) and SPIDER-MAN: ACROSS THE SPIDER-VERSE (in two parts) and DUNE showing up in November (Part II), the only logical reason for this activity is $$$$. The producers of the HARRY POTTER movies pulled that scam of multi-part movies on millions of viewers and ranked in billions of dollars!