Review of Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (2023)

As someone who refuses to see Marvel movies, there’s only one kind that I’ll see: the Spider-Man movies that featured Miles Morales as the protagonist. I saw the original version of the film, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse at the local movie theater in 2018 when back home from my first year of college.

I used to go to that movie theater as a child because it was the $3 theater and it was all we could afford, but this was the first time in so many years I had been back to that theater. Unfortunately, it is no longer $3 in 2018, but it was $6 now. I did not see this sequel at that theater, though, because I am adult with adult money who has an AMC A List subscription.

So I trekked out to my local AMC on a Wednesday at 11 AM in order to see this version of Spider-Man. I wanted to see it in IMAX because of how stunning I knew the visuals were going to be, but, if we’re going to be honest, as someone who gets overwhelmed easily I should’ve seen this in a regular digital format.

My anxiety started going completely through the roof in this theater because of how high quality it was and the fact this movie liked to go all out with the colors and animation. More on that later.

Onwards with the review!

Confronted with the reality of his parents not knowing his true identity, Miles is dragged into different universes.

There’s so much plot I could recall with this movie, but, if we’re going to be honest, if you clicked on this review, you’re probably not looking for a basic synopsis of everything going on. Let’s get to the meat of my opinions. My disclaimer here is that I’m not a Marvel person and I come from a more traditional film background, having worked as a film and television critic for the past couple of years. I can appreciate a good movie when I see one, even if it is Marvel.

Let’s start with the good about this movie!

The visuals are absolutely stunning. That’s what got me to go out and purchase a ticket to begin with—I remembered how the first movie looked and wanted to replicate it. There were some scenes I thought were absolutely gorgeous.
Voice acting is great. I thought that about the first movie, but I liked the implementation of Spanish between Miles and his mother, although he is getting a B in Spanish.
More on Gwen. We love women in action that actually get stories to live beyond the fantasies of the male lead.
Daniel Kaluuya’s character, Hobie, was actually pretty funny. I also thought the Mumbai version of Manhattan was great and I was straight up cackling at the roast over saying chai tea.
The Spider-Man cat! Loved him.

And now here’s what I thought wasn’t the greatest:

While the visuals were great the vast majority of the time, I thought they went a little too overboard when it comes to certain things. I’m not typically sensitive for sensory issues, but this movie was way too much for me. I thought that after a certain point it was simply trying too hard to seem a certain way mashing up all the styles, which made it feel a little full. I began to think about this during the Lego scene specifically.
Pacing was a bit off. Towards the end I began to nod off, then was quite miffed when I realized they were ending on a cliffhanger. Like come on, now you’re going to make me wait an entire year just to see another sequel?
The storyline fell a bit flat for me. It leans generic when it comes to the struggles, and we see the same impacts rippling across all of the multiverses when it comes to daddy issues.
The fan service. The random references were a bit strange and pandering for someone who wasn’t an intense Marvel fan, like randomly mentioning Dr. Strange in the middle of the movie. No one in my theater was a big fan I guess because the moments that were supposed to be funny if you knew the joke no one laughed, except one guy when Donald Glover appeared in a cage. Andrew Garfield appearing briefly did garner some murders.
The villain, Spot, just kind of exists and pops up every so often. His motivations kind of suck, too, which makes him just propel the story forward in certain scenes. It’s kind of funny how an incompetent villain manages to become like a deity villain over the span of two hours.

All in all, I thought this was a gorgeous movie that was just okay outside of its visual execution. Kudos to the artists who made it!

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