Okay,
Spider-Man: Across the Spiderverse is probably better than the first film. It takes all of the promise of the initial outing and ratchets it up.
It's visually creative and original as much as the first film and not just resting on its laurels, it does NEW things and improves upon the animation to do even cooler stuff.
Most of the characters have a character arc that is worth following, and while it is Miles' film overall, Spider-Gwen gets a big arc of her own and her story from the first film is greatly fleshed out.
It's funny as hell (especially with the initial appearance of The Spot, but he slowly grows both funny but also intimidating -- omg, he's SUCH a great character in both the narrative for this story and the visual/vocal execution per the animations and Jason Schwartzman). But it's also deep, meaningful, crazy impactful emotionally. Some of these themes we've already seen but the film manages to make them all feel fresh and unique, as the best stories do. I was brought to tears a few times. This film feels mainly about alienation and standing firm even when you feel alone... and the thing is maybe you're not actually alone as you feel, or at least you're together in your feelings of isolation.
SMAtS takes full advantage of all the crazy variations of Spiderman ever published by Marvel and utilizes and/or riffs off many of them and makes them cool rather than dumb/chintzy. What a great use of the Spiderman properties. This film also, like Everything Everywhere All at Once, manages to fully utilize the idea of the multiverse (compared to dumbass films like Dr. Strange 2 or Quantumania). It's just mind-blowing. Marvel and DC should be embarrassed at being greatly outgunned by both of these films, and I expect this film to win best animated picture because I can't imagine what would be better this year, even with Pixar's hat in the ring.
Even as the first part of what is essentially a two-part story, it is just terrific. I've heard it compared to Matrix Reloaded mainly in the sense that it takes what you already know and gives you new angles on it that open up the story further, spinning things on their head. But i have a feeling that unlike Matrix Revolutions, Spiderverse 3 is going to seal the deal and actually give us a great ending.
I love how it builds on Miles' arc from the first film and the first part of this film. The film goes where it promises to go and Miles proves himself to just be an amazing human being -- and Gwen Stacy as well. I admire them both as characters so much.
I felt great leaving the theater and having seen this film. It is going to be in my top five films of the year, if not the highest. I would consider seeing it again, but there's a lot of films coming out over the summer and I already have a lot of trips to make. But yeah, this one rocks.
There are just some scenes that are also quiet and beautiful. I mean, this was a cool sequence in the film's middle:
