
From Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantumania to the multi-Oscar-winning Everything Everywhere All At Once, you can’t get enough of multiverses at the movies these days.
So Across The Spider-Verse has to pull something out of the bag to wow, and it truly did.
This starts off where Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse left off a year ago. Producers Phil Lord and Chris Miller have certainly stretched every creative sinew to outdo their 2018 animated success, which is now the best-reviewed Marvel film of all time, according to Rotten Tomatoes.
Miles Morales (Shameik Moore), our Brooklyn-based Afro-Latino hero, is now 15 and has had a growth spurt.
Miles is still hiding his secret Spider-Man persona from his increasingly irritated parents (Brian Tyree Henry and Luna Lauren Velez). But that’s becoming difficult as his heroic needs take control.
Miles is also desperate to join the Spider-Society, a secret, multi-verse web full of Spider-men/women/beings from other Spider-dimensions (including Oscar Isaac and Issa Rae) introduced to him by his returning crush, Spider-Gwen (Hailee Steinfield).
Basically, there’s a heck of a lot going on and it’s all rushing at your brain a million miles an hour from every conceivable direction – plus a few inconceivable ones.
This boasts the largest crew of any animated film ever (around 1,000 people worked on it) and the artistry is next level. There are 240 characters and action takes place in six universes, each with its own distinctive visual style.
Matched by Daniel Pemberton’s sensational score the whole shebang explodes with vim and energy. It’s popping with LOL one-liners too. Possibly I’m just not a big enough comic book nerd to keep up, but it’s ultimately just too much. And this is just part one of a two-part epic (‘Beyond The Spider-Verse’ is out March 2024).

The brilliant thing about Into The Spider-Verse was how the comically multiplying sub-characters (Spider-Punk! Peter ParkedCar!) and ‘Zap! Thwipp!’ comic book flare never detracted from your emotional engagement in Miles’ coming-of-age adventure. While there is still a powerful, heartfelt subject regarding growing parent/teen relationships here, it is more difficult to completely grasp.
‘Everyone keeps telling me how my story is supposed to pan out. Nah! I’m going to do my own thing,’ declares Miles.
Lord and Miller deserve credit for achieving a similar goal. Marvel mayhem at its most cutting-edge and cool.
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse in cinemas from June 2.