As Rachel Dratch’s principal says in the film: “Every person is a universe.” (“Across the Spider-Verse” is a sequel in two parts, and ends here in full-on cliffhanger fashion.) That “Across the Spider-Verse” earned that response is surely partly due to its giddy design just as it is to its conviction that we all contain multitudes. It’s the first Marvel movie that I felt in the theater a palpable disappointment that it was over. Yet it surprisingly, even movingly, stays true to the teenage emotions at its core and the parent-kid relationships driving all these multiverse convulsions.
By exponentially multiplying worlds and Spider-Men, “Across the Spider-Verse” risks making itself dizzy. The danger in all these crisscrossing dimensions is that no reality seems to mean all that much. The Machines,” it’s a battle they’ve been girding for their whole lives. For Lord and Miller, the post-modern makers of “The Lego Movie” and “The Mitchells vs. When Miles tests these tenets, he brings about a cataclysmic battle across the Spider-Verse, and a movie series hellbent on deconstruction faces-off against formula. Certain foundational narrative beats must occur, in some form, for every Spider-Man, including the sacrifice of a loved one. Seemingly anything goes in these multiverse realms, but, Miguel informs us, there is Canon that needs to be obeyed. When worlds start colliding, prescribed storylines get upset. Others, like the leader Miguel O’Hara (Oscar Isaac), are more serious and haunted. Some of them are pretty cool - most notably Daniel Kaluuya’s Spider-Punk, a British rocker who looks like he dropped out of The Clash. (Among those here are a Mumbai-like New York, a Lego land and a nightmarish alternate reality.) The portals start opening thanks to The Spot (Jason Schwartzman), a supervillain-in-training who looks like a splotchy blank page with ink drops on him.īut Spot’s powers grow, bringing the attention of the Spider-Society, a gaggle of Spider-People who guard over order in the multiverse. There are actually gobs of them, each from some parallel world. This being a “Spider-Verse” movie, though, there more than just a few Spider-Men lurking about. “I’m Spider-Woman,” Gwen says when a pregnant superhero (Issa Rae) peels in on a motorbike.
But the movie again and again reinforced that, yes, they’re supremely talented, but, no, they’re far from alone. Miles and Gwen, rightly, feel exceptional - that their problems are unique to being enormously gifted kids. In its chaotic and jumbled way, “Across the Spider-Verse” keeps playing with these notions.
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