“Spiderman Across the Spider-Verse”, released in theaters June 2, 2023, remains a topic of discussion months after its initial release. This movie focuses on the adventures of Miles Morales as he journeys with fellow Spider-Woman, Gwen Stacy, across multiple universes. Miles encounters hundreds—if not thousands — of different Spider-People who are protecting the existence of this so-called “Spider-Verse”. This film expands on Marvel’s multiverse, specifically, within the “Spiderman” franchise.

The character, Miles, first appeared in the American comic book franchise published by Marvel Comics in 2011. This iteration of Spiderman also appeared in two versions of a PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 game based on the comic staple, which was created by Insomniac Games and published by Sony in 2020.

In the first film, “Spiderman: Into The Spiderverse”, Miles got the typical Spiderman backstory. In this sequel, he’s grown up, and grown into his new powers.

In “Across the Spider-Verse”, Miles encounters the new antagonist named The Spot. The major premise of the movie follows Miles, Gwen and other Spider-people, like the memorable Pavitr Prabhakar and Hobie Brown in catching The Spot as he hops into multiple dimensions and absorbs power from each dimension’s colliders. 

But there is an interesting shift in the movie as Miles encounters Miguel O’Hara and the other Spider-People. It is revealed that each Spiderman goes through “canon events”, which keep their timelines on the correct track. Miles believes he can break the canon, even at the risk of causing his own dimension to corrupt and fall.

Miles expresses that the events of one person’s life do not define them. It is how they respond to them. His choices define who he is, not what seems to be set in stone. The inspiring message moves the viewer to really accept difficulty and embrace it. It applies to anyone of any age because everyone goes through tough times and challenges in life, and this film acknowledges that and teaches to embrace it and change the future going forward. 

It is a definite change in tone and mood, as compared to the first movie, with the animation, and specific character design each expressing a lot of variation. While that detail was present in the first film, the style of the different universes cranks it to 11.

Every character has their own animation style, making them all unique and memorable. Miles has a more smooth and realistic animation, Gwen has more of a watercolor and pastel design, Pavitr has a bold animated style with his expression, and Hobie has the most distinctive character style, color palette changing based on his character’s tone and surrounded by paper cut-outs evoking punk rock posters. Each style and animation conveys the mood of her character expertly which makes each character so distinctive and complex.

It’s animation gives a feeling of each and every character’s personality with each individual character style, their personality mixing into audience depiction. It draws the audience in each scene by focusing on the contrast of each of the characters in each action-packed scene, making the audience feel attached to one character or another depending on which style one likes the most out of the many different animation and character styles. This is only the first thing that really immerses the audience into the film.

During each fight scene that many of these Spider Men are in, either seemed smooth and clean or like comic book style fights with its animation, which gave the movie a sense of being realistic while not being shy of its comic book roots. The soundtrack over these scenes really captured the qualities and tone of the film without being too overbearing or unnecessary.

The soundtrack itself is produced by Swae Lee, Lil Wayne, Offset, and other talented composers like Daniel Pemberton of whom capture the mood of the movie relatively well. The score captures the emotions of the character on the screen as it highlights the narrative being told throughout the movie. Whether fast-paced and upbeat or slow and mellow, each song in the score compliments the scene and animation to invoke a strong emotion toward the audience. This captivates the audience even more into the movie. Along with the amazing voice acting of each character, the film really blends in each visual and audible appeal in an immersing movie.

Overall, “Across the Spider-Verse” was worth a long wait since the first film came out, and now viewers are eagerly waiting for “Beyond the Spider-Verse” set to release during 2024. Viewers hope that this upcoming Spider-Verse film relieves a lot of anticipation built up at the end of “Across the Spider-Verse”. Whether one is a comic book lover, “Across the Spider-Verse” is a great watch for people of all ages, and a great action filled movie.