Spider-Man: Across the Spiderverse

Enough other people have focused on the art. It’s good! I’m more a plot guy. It’s good!

I have a post that goes about how one of the big 90s things was having built up enough history in some genres or universes that the audience was familiar with to get real meta with it and this was very much in that tradition, with the plot tension being a literalization of “how far can Miles Morales (and "Spider-Gwen”) vary from the Peter Parker formula and still be a Spider-Man?“

Given that you’d be forgiven for asking if Ben Reilly is in the movie. Not only is he, he’s a recurring ‘90s comics punchline. And a blizzard of other variations that will reward anyone getting the reference with absolutely no loss to newbies.

The villain, "The Spot” is great, pitched as a Condiment King-level loser that internal-logically becomes an epic pandimensional threat, and his chaotic reality-tunneling powerset makes for great cartoon action on screen. His retroactive 1st movie origin is clever but as his motivation feels like hanging one too many meta- themes on the material.

Does make you realize that another Spider-villain that could only be done justice in this format is Carnage.

The new B-tier Spider-Men are fun (the tier list goes to E) but not quite as much as the first set, though they’re teased as returning for the third, and Spider-Punk pulls more weight visually and as plot device.

One complaint is there’s just much in the falling action after the film’s clearly done with major stakes as it not just sets up a sequel but hands off with a “to be continued…” Each major character’s emotional arc has to be paid off but not resolved and twisted to set the stage for the continuation, and then each character needs to be mechanically moved on, but then they need to meet up and reconnect the plots there, and receive further plot twists, and then set up cliffhangers…