Easily one of the best animated movies from the 2010s has got to be 2018's Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. It was fun, exciting and unique amongst the rest of the animated releases that year. It wasn't my favourite, I still think Isle of Dogs is the best animated movie of 2018, but this was easily a close second, and it was a lot more impactful on animation than I anticipated, the 2020s, so far have been one of the best years for stylized animation, beyond just Computer Generated 3D animation, and I do think this was, if not the catalyst than where the ball got enough momentum. So, of course a sequel would be highly anticipated and there would be a lot of expectations on this movie. It not only has to stand up compared to the first movie, but it has the challenge of any sequel, which is that it has to stand on its own... Kinda like Miles Morales... funny how that is fitting.
Immediately, the first thing that hit me was the opening scene with Gwen and her father. After seeing it, I thought I sat through a whole mini-movie, like I would have been satisfied if it was just the opening segment. You know what I'm about to compare it to next, yep, this movie's opening was almost as good as the opening to Up. Legitimately, it was that good, I think I'll give the point to Up by just a tiny margin, but that just kinda shows the talent that went into this movie for the opening sequence to be on par with what is often regarded as the greatest opening to an animated movie of all time. Of course, now one would imagine that with an opening so good the rest of the movie would falter by comparison. Right?
While I won't say that this is as good as the first movie, you do have to understand that was a really high bar in the first place, the animation was a bit more stylized, especially in Gwen's world, and especially on the characters, seeing Spider-Punk in such a very distinct style was super cool, and seeing the scene with Miles towards the end, all his memories coming back, it was so cool. Truthfully, there is so much about the animation I want to talk about but, holy moly, I really want to keep this spoiler free. So many cool bits of animation, blending, live-action integration, it's all very cool.
On top of that, I liked seeing where all these characters went, Peter B. Parker became Spider-Dad and was just amazing to watch, seeing where Miles is, where Gwen is, it was all so engaging. I was sitting there, in the theatre, and what was in my seat's cup holder? Warm Sprite, I often forgot I had my drink right next to me, and my friend stopped eating their snacks we were that invested in what was going on. On top of that, seeing all these new spider-men, not just Spider-Punk, but also Miguel O'Hara, Jessica Drew, Pavitr Prabhakar, Spider-Byte, Scarlet Spider, Web-Slinger, and so many other Spider-mans... Spider-men? Spider-mans that... quite frankly I think only those who are DEEP into comics and Spider-Man lore can really appreciate, though they were good for a good chuckle at the utter ridiculousness of things like Spider-Rex, which I thought they were already digging deep for Spider-Ham. Hey, if you guys can name every Spider-Man variant out there like I can name every member of Donald Duck's family tree, this may be a movie for you.
Also J. K. Simmons comes back as J. Jonah Jameson, which is a plus.
So, do I have any issues with this movie? Yes, I have one very big glaring issue, this is part one of a two-parter. Why does this bother me? Because it means that I have to wait another year or so to see how this story concludes. This is one of those movies I would have been glad to see a full three hour cut of, it was so gripping and exciting that knowing that I can't finish this story right now is irritating, is this how it felt to wait for the Lord of the Rings sequels? Like, people who saw Two Towers in theatres and had to wait a whole year before The Return of the King, is this what it felt like? Still, don't let that stop you from seeing this movie, easily it is one of the best animated movies... Hell, one of the best movies of the year so far. It is kinda nice that 2022, despite being a bit of a dry spell for animated movies, it is nice that most of the one's we've gotten have been really good. I'm excited for the rest of 2022's releases... particularly one... you know which one.
As for Across the Spider-Verse, do I even need to say it's a High Recommendation? I'm considering this as mandatory viewing if you want to get into animation.
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