Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse review — prepare to get caught up in this wondrous web of action and artistry

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, PG

Well quite a lot, as it turns out. Written and produced by Phil Lord and Chris Miller, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse tore up the superhero rule book to tell Spidey’s story in a bracingly original way. A team of almost 180 animators drew inspiration from manga, high art and classic comics to create a uniquely immersive experience.

There was emotional depth, too, to the story of Miles Morales (voiced by Shameik Moore), a Brooklyn teenager who’s not too happy when his parents move him to an elite prep school where he sticks out like a sore thumb. Simultaneously, Miles finds out he’s been bitten by a radioactive spider, and begins spouting webs from his palms. He’s Spider-Man, but not the only Spider-Man as he discovers when a portal takes him to other dimensions.

Trippy stuff, but Miles’ relationships with his parents and Gwen Stacy, his crush from another dimension, grounded the film in relatable experience. And just as well, because things get even wilder in this epic sequel.

Having established himself as Spider-Man, Miles is juggling the demands of schoolwork and crime-fighting when he comes across The Spot (Jason Schwartzman), a slippery villain who rather insists on himself. Miles apprehends The Spot without much trouble, and doesn’t take him seriously. He ought to.

Miles, who has missed Gwen (Hailee Steinfeld), is delighted when she pops up in New York to see him. But what starts out as a social call turns deadly serious when it transpires that The Spot, who has inter-dimensional holes in his body, is threatening the existence of the entire multiverse.

Standing in his way is the Spider-Society, a legion of heroes led by Miguel O’Hara (Oscar Isaac), a prickly avenger whose leadership style has fascist overtones. Gwen is part of O’Hara’s group, and when Miles joins her on Earth-50101, he’s drawn into the battle to stop The Spot from gobbling up lives and planets.

That sequence on Earth-50101 takes place in a futuristic Mumbai, which has mushroomed into a cavernous megalopolis. High-jagged towers seem ghostly and unfinished, their look inspired by the concept art of the late Syd Mead, and the action then shifts to a punkish, 1970s-looking London.

The animation in these action-packed sequences is spectacular, and even better perhaps is the opening segment where Gwen struggles to be heard by her father, her teenage moods depicted by shifting and darkening colours.

Across the Spider-Verse starts at a high pitch and never lets up, its visual invention constantly evolving, and incorporating flashes of pop art and manga as well as the various stages of Spider-Man’s generational depictions. It’s all so beautifully done that it’s exhausting, but in a good way, as though you’ve lingered slightly too long in a modern art gallery.

And underpinning all this optic trickery are the eternal verities of the teenage state. Miles is devoted to his parents, Jeff and Rio (Brian Tyree Henry, Lauren Vélez), but frustrated by their over-protectiveness. Like many a teen, he climbs out the window at night to experience the world on his terms, the only difference being that most of us don’t get to hop through the multiverse.

Across the Spider-Verse is a spectacular achievement, a collaboration brilliantly overseen by Phil Lord and Chris Miller between some of the best illustrators and animators in the world, all at the top of their game.

Is two hours 20 minutes too long for a cartoon? I wanted more, and the good news is that a concluding sequel is on the way.

Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse is released June 2

Rating: 5/5