Film Snail

8.4

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse

PG·2023·140m

Animation

Action

Adventure

Science Fiction

Animation

Action

Adventure

Science Fiction

Summary

After reuniting with Gwen Stacy, Brooklyn’s full-time, friendly neighborhood Spider-Man is catapulted across the Multiverse, where he encounters the Spider Society, a team of Spider-People charged with protecting the Multiverse’s very existence. But when the heroes clash on how to handle a new threat, Miles finds himself pitted against the other Spiders and must set out on his own to save those he loves most.

Cast

Shameik Moore

Miles Morales (voice)

Hailee Steinfeld

Gwen Stacy (voice)

Brian Tyree Henry

Jeff Morales (voice)

Luna Lauren Velez

Rio Morales (voice)

Jake Johnson

Peter B. Parker (voice)

Oscar Isaac

Miguel O'Hara (voice)

Jason Schwartzman

Spot (voice)

Issa Rae

Jessica Drew (voice)

Daniel Kaluuya

Hobie Brown (voice)

Karan Soni

Pavitr Prabhakar (voice)

Shea Whigham

George Stacy (voice)

Greta Lee

LYLA (voice)

Mahershala Ali

Uncle Aaron (voice)

Amandla Stenberg

Margo Kess: Spider-Byte (voice)

Jharrel Jerome

Miles G. Morales (voice)

Andy Samberg

Ben Reilly (voice)

Jack Quaid

Peter Parker (voice)

Rachel Dratch

Ms. Weber (voice)

Ziggy Marley

Lenny (voice)

Jorma Taccone

Adriano Tumino / '67 (voice)

J.K. Simmons

J. Jonah Jameson (voice)

Donald Glover

Aaron Davis

Elizabeth Perkins

May / Quippy Spider-Person (voice)

Kathryn Hahn

Doc Ock (voice)

Ayo Edebiri

Glory (voice)

Nicole Delaney

MJ (voice)

Antonina Lentini

Betty (voice)

Atsuko Okatsuka

Yuri (voice)

Peter Sohn

Ganke (voice)

Melissa Sturm

Mary Jane (voice)

Lorraine Velez

Maria (voice)

Nic Novicki

Lego Spider-Man (voice)

Taran Killam

Web-Slinger (voice)

Metro Boomin

Metro Spider-Man (voice)

Josh Keaton

Spectacular Spider-Man (voice)

Sofia Barclay

Malala Windsor: Spider-UK (voice)

Danielle Perez

Charlotte Webber: Sun-Spider (voice)

Yuri Lowenthal

Insomniac Spider-Man (voice)

Rita Rani Ahuja

Additional Voices (voice)

Ismail Bashey

Additional Voices (voice)

Oscar Camacho

Additional Voices (voice)

Freddy Ferrari

Additional Voices (voice)

Kerry Gutierrez

Additional Voices (voice)

Kamal Khan

Additional Voices (voice)

Angelo Sekou Kouyate

Additional Voices (voice)

Andrew Leviton

Additional Voices (voice)

David Michie

Additional Voices (voice)

Sumit Naig

Additional Voices (voice)

Juan Pacheco

Additional Voices (voice)

Chrystee Pharris

Additional Voices (voice)

Ben Pronsky

Additional Voices (voice)

Al Rodrigo

Additional Voices (voice)

Stan Sellers

Additional Voices (voice)

Warren Sroka

Additional Voices (voice)

Jasper Johannes Andrews

Additional Voices (voice)

Gredel Berrios Calladine

Additional Voices (voice)

Natalia Castellanos

Additional Voices (voice)

Russell Tyre Francis

Additional Voices (voice)

Deepti Gupta

Additional Voices (voice)

Sohm Kapila

Additional Voices (voice)

Pradnya Kuwadekar

Additional Voices (voice)

Ashley London

Additional Voices (voice)

Christopher Miller

Additional Voices (voice)

Andrea Navedo

Additional Voices (voice)

Lakshmi Patel

Additional Voices (voice)

Jacqueline Pinol

Additional Voices (voice)

Eliyas Qureshi

Additional Voices (voice)

Lashana Rodriguez

Additional Voices (voice)

Jaswant Dev Shrestha

Additional Voices (voice)

Libby Thomas Dickey

Additional Voices (voice)

Jason Linere-White

Additional Voices (voice)

Sitara Attaie

Additional Voices (voice)

Mayuri Bhandari

Additional Voices (voice)

June Christopher

Additional Voices (voice)

Michelle Jubilee Gonzalez

Additional Voices (voice)

Marabina Jaimes

Additional Voices (voice)

Rez Kempton

Additional Voices (voice)

Lex Lang

Additional Voices (voice)

Phil Lord

Additional Voices (voice)

Richard Miro

Additional Voices (voice)

Doug Nicholas

Additional Voices (voice)

Shakira Ja'nai Paye

Additional Voices (voice)

James Pirri

Additional Voices (voice)

Marley Ralph

Additional Voices (voice)

Michelle Ruff

Additional Voices (voice)

Dennis Singletary

Additional Voices (voice)

Amanda Troop

Additional Voices (voice)

Ruth Zalduondo

Additional Voices (voice)

Kimberly Bailey

Additional Voices (voice)

Sanjay Chandani

Additional Voices (voice)

Melanie Duke

Additional Voices (voice)

Jorge R. Gutierrez

Additional Voices (voice)

Miguel Jiron

Additional Voices (voice)

Deepti Kingra-Mickelsen

Additional Voices (voice)

Luisa Leschin

Additional Voices (voice)

Caitlin McKenna

Additional Voices (voice)

Andrew Morgado

Additional Voices (voice)

Arthur Ortiz

Additional Voices (voice)

Eliana A. Perez

Additional Voices (voice)

Juan Pope

Additional Voices (voice)

Mike Rianda

Additional Voices (voice)

Erika Scopelli

Additional Voices (voice)

Narender Sood

Additional Voices (voice)

Cedric L. Williams

Additional Voices (voice)

Kimiko Glenn

Peni Parker (voice) (uncredited)

Peggy Lu

Mrs. Chen (uncredited)

Crew

Director

Joaquim Dos Santos

Director

Justin K. Thompson

Director

Kemp Powers

Head of Story

Miguel Jiron

Head of Story

Octavio E. Rodriguez

Story Artist

Chris Mitchell

Story Artist

Matt Jones

Story Artist

Max Perkins

Story Artist

Mark Ackland

Story Artist

Denise Koyama

Story Artist

Violaine Briat

Story Artist

Darrell W. Johnson

Story Artist

Lauren Sassen

Story Artist

Kasey Fagerquist

Story Artist

Ben Choi

Story Artist

Caitlin VanArsdale

Story Artist

Anthony Holden

Story Artist

Sarah Jean Partington

Story Artist

Wynton Redmond

Story Artist

Stephanie Garcia Rizo

Story Artist

Gabriela Carolina Camarillo

Story Artist

Eugene Lee

Story Coordinator

Melanie Duke

Writer

David Callaham

Writer

Phil Lord

Writer

Christopher Miller

Reviews

garethmb

May 31, 2023

Life as a teenager is never easy and when you are gifted with the superhuman abilities of a spider and lead a double life as a student and crime fighter; life gets even harder.

Miles Morales (Shameik Moore) is finding it even harder to hide his secret from his family who has grown concerned that his erratic behavior is more than the usual teenage angst.

In another earth, Gwen Stacy (Hailee Steinfeld) deals with her Police officer father desperately hunting down her alter-ego believing that she is a killer which drives a wedge between them as Gwen desperately tries to find her way forward.

In “Spider-Man Across the Spider-Verse audiences learn that what one perceives as reality is often just the corner of a much larger picture and when Miles confronts what he dismisses as a “Villain of the Week” in a quirky enemy known as The Spot (Jason Schwartzman), starts a campaign against Spider-Man, he soon finds that the threat is much larger than he expected and secretly follows a visiting Gwen into an another Earth where his actions soon draw the attention of a larger temporal Spider squad.

Motivated by his feelings for Gwen and a desire to do good, Miles looks to undo the damage that the Spot is causing across various Earths and learns that each one has its own version of Spider-man or Woman to protect it.

At this point the film goes into overdrive as Miles learns more about his past and how he became Spider-Man but also learns more about the cost that his powers enact on his life and those around him. There are plenty of special moments and guest appearances that follow from the more obscure to the mainstream and the range of emotions from the audience at the press screening as they reacted to the film showed they were deeply engaged and loving it.

The film does take a darker turn and does end in a cliffhanger which sets up the next film very well but also may be a bit darker than younger viewers might want. That being said; I enjoyed this film far more than I did the prior film. I found the animation style a bit off-putting as the jerky way the characters moved was a bit much over the length of a feature film. This time around there is a mix of animation styles throughout and at times in the same frame which may be a bit hard for some as the film does come at the viewer with waves of flashing lights, sounds, and animations that very cleverly mimic reading a comic complete with small boxes to define various characters from time to time.

The film runs nearly two and a half hours and did seem to go on a bit long at times but thanks to the great voice-acting and strong cast as well as engaging storyline I found myself eagerly looking forward to the next film.

I first saw a rough cut of a scene at Cinemacon in 2022 and it was amazing seeing the final scene near the opening of the film as it was a rare instance of a film surpassing expectations and delivers the storyline and action with a good dose of solid characters that fans will love.

4.5 stars out of 5