Luke McWilliams gives his review of the animated super hero film, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.

On Earth-65, after tussling with a baddie from an alternate universe, Gwen Stacy (Hailee Steinfeld) escapes her strict policeman father by following some protectors of the Spider-Verse through a portal.

In Brooklyn on Earth-1610, Miles Morales, aka Spider-Man (Shameik Moore), tries to get to a parent-teacher meeting while being interrupted by the irritating minor villain, Spot (Jason Schwartzman), whose body was infused with interdimensional portals due to Miles’ destruction of the Alchemax collider.

Picking up 16 months after Miles supposedly ended any multi-dimensional shenanigans with the destruction of the MacGuffin at the end of 2018’s Oscar-winning Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, Miles still needs to balance his super-hero responsibilities amidst his school and family life. Still struggling to find equilibrium between his school, family, and superhero obligations, he feels overwhelmed and stretched thin. However, a ray of hope emerges when Gwen unexpectedly appears literally out of nowhere, offering him a chance to reconnect with his Spider family.

The art design and animation are still amazing, exploring all iterations of Spider-Man of past and present multimedia. Each visited world is given a unique art style, with the highlight being Gwen’s home world: a living, impressionistic watercolour painting that visually represents Gwen’s ever-changing, heightened emotions. As Miles’ world expands, so do the number of characters and therefore relationships, adding to his complicated life and conflicting alliances.

Verdict: The movie is a fantastic sequel that expands on its (multi) universe and explores its characters further while celebrating the Spider legacy in all its iterations. 4 stars.

– Luke McWilliams, themovieclub.net. Viewed at Dendy cinemas.