Cinema Sunday: Spider-Man - Across the Spider-Verse

 

OK, it's been a few years since Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse came out. Nearly 5 years since I posted about that movie on the blog back on December 26, 2018, 

Today's Cinema Sunday turns it's attention the long awaited and much anticipated sequel Spider-Man - Across the Spider-Verse.

SPOILERS! 

Despite the prominent placement of Miles Morales on the movie poster, one might think that Across the Spider Verse is going to be all about Gwen Stacy with the movie beginning with a long extended sequence focusing on Gwen on the Earth where she’s Spider-Woman and is under the weight of her guilt about the death of her best friend Peter Parker.  

Seems picked on Peter Parker decided to get his own super power stuff going on and scienced up a potion that turned him into a giant lizard. Spider-Woman and the giant lizard get into some hard core violence which leads to the death of the lizard who then transforms back into Peter Parker, much to Gwen’s shock and horror.  

Gwen’s father, a police captain, sees Spider-Woman standing over a dead Peter Parker and assumes she murdered him.

Well, that some awkward right there.

And dealing with all this spider shit alone, Gwen really misses Miles Morales.

Meanwhile, it seems the holes in the multiverse are not quite as closed as everyone may have thought at the end of the last movie.  Gwen is joined by two other Spider people who are chasing down a Vulture  from another universe.  These Spiders are part of a a group of Spider people who patrol the multiverse and put right what goes wrong. 

When an encounter with Capt. Stacy goes horribly off the rails, Gwen elects to join them. 

And NOW we pick up with Miles Morales.  It’s been 5 years since Into the Spider Verse but it’s been one year since Miles got bit by a radioactive spider and took up the mantle of Spider-Man.  He’s juggling life as a gifted student and as a super hero and…

Not exactly a spoiler alert: it ain’t going great.  Mom and Dad are perpetually perturbed and perplexed by Miles’ behavior. 

Miles is working double time trying to be the gifted student his parents and everyone else expects him to be with the good grades to match. 

He's also dealing with stuff as Spider-Man that his parents and everyone else have NO idea about. 

Such as super villains like the Spot. Yep, that's what he calls himself: The Spot. OK, dumb name but he does have cool powers that enables him to move across dimensions and stuff. 

And dealing with all this spider shit alone, Miles really misses Gwen Stacy.

Also not exactly a spoiler alert: Gwen has popped into Miles' Earth. Yeah, she misses Miles but she is there on business for the Spider Society. She's tracking a multiversal anomaly who turns out to be the Spot.  

Miles winds up following Gwen as her pursuit of the Spot takes her across the multiverse with encounters with other Spider people such as the Spider Man of India, Pavitr Prabhakar.  

During an epic throw down with the Spot, Miles has a vision of his father, now a police captain, being killed by the Spot. 

Also Miles saves the police captain father of Pavitr Prabhakar's girlfriend. 

Spider Man Miguel O'Hara, head of the Spider Society, is super pissed. Miles saved someone who was supposed to die and now the multiverse is coming apart.  

Miguel O'Hara also tells Miles his father is doomed to die and there's not a damn thing he can do about it. 

Miles disagrees.  

Chaos ensues as Miguel O'Hara sends what seems like an infinite number of Spider people in pursuit of Miles Morales to stop him from returning to his Earth and saving his father.  

1) Miles gets back to his Earth except, no, not quite HIS Earth. He's captured and winds up in the clutches of The Prowler who is really...   well, this can't be happening?

2) Gwen goes back to her Earth and actually reaches a resolution of sorts with her father and decides to assemble a team of Spiders to save Miles and stop the increasingly bat shit crazy...

3) Miguel O'Hara who is on the correct Earth for Miles Morales even if Miles is not as the Spot menacingly draws closer to killing Miles' dad and...

The tension is building. 

And building! 

And...

And....

TO BE CONTINUED! 

...

...

What?

WHAT THE WHAT?!?!

To be...

WHAT?!?!?   

Yep, this movie does not end. 

But... damn! 

This movie works on so many level. Kick ass action, comedy, drama, tragedy. 

For all the multiversal insanity of multiple Spider people, what drives this movie, what anchors it are the emotional beats. Miles Morales is torn in so many directions and we feel his pain. And we feel the pain that Gwen Stacy experiences. 

For all the color and splashy effects and just plain weirdness going on, Spider-Man - Across the Spider-Verse makes you feel things. 

And I hate that. Stupid movie, making me feel things.

And I gotta stay alive until March 2024 to see Part 2?

Well... damn!