Spider-Man Across the Spider-Verse Review: Comic book comes to life

The climax of Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is one of the best in all-time superhero movies

Hyderabad: Way back in 2018, Phil Lord and Rodney Rothman unexpectedly introduced us to the magic of a web-spinning hero across a concept called Spider-Verse – Spider-Man from different universes in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). It was full of different Spider-Man from different universes a la Dr Strange.

One of the many outcomes of the concept of the Spider-Verse was multiple Spider-Men pointing at one another meme. While the original was short and sweet, this outing in comparison was too long. Taking a leaf out of the protagonist’s character, this outing is akin to a rollercoaster ride.

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This comes as a whiff of fresh air in a season of franchise releases. It is a year after the events of Into the Spider-Verse. Gwen Stacy (Hailee Steinfeld) is having the usual problems with her cop father Captain George Stacy (Shea Whigham) who is still in the dark that she is Spider-Woman. He is hunting for her white-capped crusader alter-ego for the ‘murder’ of Peter Parker.

In the parallel universe, we have Miles Morales (Shameik Moore) still having issues with his African American father police officer Jefferson Davis (Brian Tyree Henry) and his Puerto- Rican mother nurse Rio Morales (Luna Lauren Vélez). They are a bit sceptical of their bright child pursuing and learning about multi-verses and quantum physics at Princeton.

All is not well in the Spider-Verse and Miles jumps in to try to save the Spider-Verse. Once in the S-V, Miles runs into multiple Spider-Men from different universes including Indian Spider-Man Pavitra Prabhakar (Karan Soni), a pregnant Spider-Woman Drew (Issa Rae), and not to mention Peter Parker (Jake Johnson), a father obsessed with his daughter and the rebel British Spider-Man Hobie (Daniel Kaluuya). What is happening in the S-V, will the gang be able to save the S-V, what happens in their respective families is what the story is about.

Directors Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers and Justin K Thompson ensure that the audience is engrossed. However, it is not a perfect outing. It drops off its plot halfway and gets caught up in its own web but bounces back and ensures the dip is negligible.

Fans do have a lot to ponder as the climax is almost a cliffhanger – a premise to the third part. This could well be the best outing in recent times, and it definitely is giving Guardians of the Galaxy a run for its money.

One thing that pains me is the accent in which the ‘foreign’ Spider-Man speaks – let it be Prabhakar or Hobie, sounds artificial. Another drawback of the movie is the 140-minute length. Allocating so much screen time for an animated movie is a big no-no. Special mention to the VFX. It looks a lot like comic books come to life. There is a scene where Gwen is talking to her father about what the Spider-Woman mask means to her, and the colours in the background change subtly as the mood between the two changes.

This is definitely not the typical teen superhero sequel. This is one of those outings where you can feel the growth in character of the protagonist from being a reckless, carefree adolescent to the ‘responsibility-seeking’ protagonist. The climax of the movie is one of the best in all time superhero movies and no other movie (not even The Guardians) would come close. Watch this. This has a little for everyone – those who feel excluded, those who feel included, those who think they are the best and those who think they are just a waste of space. Watch it!!