Miles Morales catapults across the Multiverse, where he encounters a team of Spider-People charged with protecting its very existence. When the heroes clash on how to handle a new threat, Miles must redefine what it means to be a hero.

Despite entering a very crowded field where Spider-Man had already been on screen in multiple guises over the past 20 years, ‘Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse’ managed to stand out as something a little bit different by telling its story in an animated movie that had a look and feel much closer to that of the comic book pages where the character originated. It also helped that it was pretty good and quite significantly different from the stories being told in the live action movies. Attempting to build on that movies success is the sequel ‘Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse’, which doubles down on the first movies introduction to a new iteration of Spider-Man in Miles Morales and the various other versions of the character from parallel universes. Yes folks, this is another multiverse movie.

Picking up where the last film left off, we join Miles and Gwen in their respective universes as they struggle with their parents while also adjusting to their roles as ‘Spider-People’. It’s a neat enough spin on the stories we’ve seen many times before with Peter Parker, with an additional layer of science fiction dolloped on top. Their separation doesn’t last long however, as they need to reteam to track down a former scientist known as the Spot, who ended up with a body infused with portals in the same collider explosion that led to Miles getting his powers – crucially for the story, through a bite by a spider from another universe, causing chaos and providing the platform for the main plot of this movie. Just like the first film, this is a fast paced, joke filled journey through the world of ‘Spider-Man’, with impressive animation, good voicework and clever humour. It’s visually energetic to say the least with so much happening and a lot will love it, but I must say I found it a little exhausting and at over 2 hours long (the longest animated film ever produced by an American studio) it is quite relentless.

I wasn’t totally sold on the plot either, even as it does seem to have brought the story into a place that may lead to some interesting plot options for the upcoming third movie, with the multiverse concept feeling more lazy than original at this point. It seems to be taking over literally everything in blockbuster moviemaking and I’m not sure I’m all that enthused by it – when done well (a la this year’s Oscars winner ‘Everything Everywhere All At Once’) it can illuminate truths in a way in which only good science fiction can, but in most of the Marvel attempts it feels like it’s a focus because they’ve ran out of compelling stories to tell in one setting. ‘Across the Spider-Verse’ is certainly more towards the positive side of this storytelling device, but it still struggles to compress the sheer scope and scale presented by the infinite worlds and possibilities of its setup.

Lacking the freshness of ‘Into the Spider-Verse’, but suggesting promise for the third movie in the series, in some respects ‘Across the Spider-Verse’ is a very typical sequel.

Rating: 3/5

Directed By: Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers and Justin K. Thompson

Starring: Shameik Moore, Hailee Steinfeld, Brian Tyree Henry, Lauren Velez, Jake Johnson, Jason Schwartzman, Issa Rae, Karan Soni, Daniel Kaluuya, Oscar Isaac, Greta Lee, Rachel Dratch, Jorma Taccone, Shea Whigham, Andy Samberg and Amandla Stenberg

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt9362722/