Film Review: "Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse" (2023).

From the producers of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse comes Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse. This computer-animated superhero film directed by Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers and Justin K. Thompson, in their feature directorial debuts, written by Phil Lord, Christopher Miller and David Callaham, based on the Marvel Comics characters, and produced by Sony Pictures Animation in association with Marvel Entertainment. It is the sequel to Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018). Miles Morales returns for the next chapter of the Oscar®-winning Spider-Verse saga, an epic adventure that will transport Brooklyn's full-time, friendly neighborhood Spider-Man across the Multiverse to join forces with Gwen Stacy and a new team of Spider-People to face off with a villain more powerful than anything they have ever encountered.

In late November 2018, before Into the Spider-Verse's release, Sony began developing a sequel with the writing and directing team attached. It was set to focus on the relationship between Moore's Miles and Steinfeld's Gwen. In November 2019, the sequel was officially announced with an April 8, 2022 release date. However, in April 2020, the film's release was shifted to October 7, 2022 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. At the same time, design work for new characters had begun. In early June, animation work began with a different visual style for each of the six universes visited by the characters. It was revealed that Lord and Miller told Sony the sequel would be the same size as Into the Spider-Verse, but it ended up having the largest crew of any animated movie ever with around one-thousand people working on it. They added that it has 240 characters and takes place in six universes. In December 2020, Daniel Pemberton confirmed that he would return to compose the sequel's score. In late May 2023, production on the film was completed thirteen days before its release. With a runtime of one-hundred and forty minutes, it makes it the longest animated film ever produced by an American studio.

The film stars the voice talents of Shameik Moore, Hailee Steinfeld, Brian Tyree Henry, Luna Lauren Vélez, Jake Johnson, Jason Schwartzman, Karan Soni, Daniel Kaluuya, Oscar Isaac, Shea Whigham, Mahershala Ali, Andy Samberg, Amandla Stenberg, Rachel Dratch, Jorma Taccone, Kimiko Glenn, Elizabeth Perkins, and Taran Killam. There will never be a better take on Spider-Man characters. This film is better than 90% of the Marvel Cinematic Universe films that Disney has put out in the last fifteen years.

Perhaps the most important animated sequel to come out in the last decade, the film was a renaissance of sorts for the artform. Over one-hundred animators combined computer animation with a hand-drawn style to mimic a comic book look. Inventive visuals, fresh storytelling and embracing the comic books' wackiness helped make the first non-white Spider-Man one of the best. It's an absolutely delightful watch and one of the finest examples of the excitement and joy of which cinema is capable. Another resoundingly successful experiment that will open countless doors to the weird, wonderful world of comic books.

Simon says Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse receives:

Also, see my reviews for Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and Morbius.