Across the Spider-verse review (no spoilers)

I wasn’t planning on writing this, but after what I just saw, I have to say something.

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-verse is widely beloved and is justly considered to be one of the best comic book movies of all time by many. Sequels are often a letdown from the original movie, especially when the first movie was as critically acclaimed as Into the Spider-verse, but somehow Across the Spider-verse completely surpassed it.

The MCU has been getting dumped on for many things in recent years. The most glaring of which include the overly formulaic storytelling, the lackluster visual effects, and an increasing reliance on comedy that ends up impairing the overall tone of the movie. It often comes across as lazy, predictable, even a little boring. Across the Spider-verse was the complete opposite of that. I was glued to the screen, on the edge of my seat, at times I even felt like electricity was cursing through my veins as if Miles Morales had somehow reached through the screen and zapped me.

So let’s talk about what made it so good. The animation and cinematography was stunning. The soundtrack was great. The action scenes were so exhilarating that I felt like I needed to catch my breath at the end of every sequence. It had the PERFECT mix of comedic moments and serious/emotional moments. This movie had so much heart, which is something that can only shine when the protagonist is in an especially dire and grave predicament. The main villain came across extremely intimidating, menacing, and dangerous.

As someone that likes to think of myself as being a fairly decent writer, there’s nothing I appreciate more than a well written story, and let me tell you, the writers were in their bag with this movie. This movie wipes its ass with the idea of logic gaps. Everything flowed and made sense. Even the one minor logic gap that I noticed was answered by the end of the film. The storytelling was incredible. The movie was engaging, and kept me on my toes the whole time, and that’s not to mention the dialogue. Oh my fucking God, the DIALOGUE?!? The dialogue was ridiculously good. The dialogue was clever, artful, naturalistic, and perfectly fit whatever situation was at hand. Honestly this was some of the best written dialogue I’ve ever seen.

Overall this movie was amazing. When it was over I sat there in disbelief at how good it was. It’s easily the best movie I’ve seen so far this year, it’s easily in the top 5 best comic book movies I’ve ever seen, and one of the best movies in general I’ve seen (although that could be recency bias).

9.5/10