In the alternate universe of Earth-65, Gwen Stacy is Spider-Woman, while Peter Parker is a nerd pushed by a bully. Parker takes a magic potion, transforms into a giant Lizard and attacks the bully, but Spider-Woman kills him in self-defense. The Lizard de-transforms into Parker, and her father, a police officer, thinks Spider-Woman killed him. Gwen becomes a member of the Spider-Society, which unites all different versions of Spider-Men across all known alternte universes, and so she brings Miles Morales, Spider-Man from Earth-1610, with her through the portal. They save a police captain in Mumbattan, an alternate Manhattan populated by Hindi peope, from the carnage caused by villain Spot, but are then summoned to the Spider-Society headquarters. There, Spider-Miguel explains Miles that police captains are meant to die in each alternate universe, forming the "cannon event" which forms Spider-Men, and that Miles' dad is destined to die, too. Miles rebels and escapes, trying to save his dad, a police officer. Miles returns to the wrong dimension, Earth-42, where his dad is already dead, Spider-Man never happened, his uncle Aaron is a criminal, while the alternate world Miles is a villain, Prowler.
The sequel to the surprisingly quality-made "Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse", which aligned with the trend of several movies from that time focusing around the multiverse, "Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse" is surprisingly equally as good, though less funny and much more dramatic and contemplative in its final, third act. The screenwriters Phil Lord, Christopher Miller and Dave Callaham send Miles Morales / Spider-Man on a complicated, wild ride through alternate universes to pose some universal life questions about fatalism, determinism, destiny and individuality, yet they also don't forget to make the whole storyline entertaining and just plain fun. The opening 20 minutes are weak, confusing and autistic, with a very rushed transformation of Peter Parker into a giant lizard, yet after the opening credits, the film rises to the occasion and becomes much better. The fight between Spider-Man and Spot, a villain with foot-long black spots on his body that have the ability of creating portals to different locations, is wonderfully creative and playful: Spot wants to rob an ATM machine by placing a black spot on it to simply reach with his hand inside and get the money, Spider-Man asks how much he owes for the beef patty he is eating, so the store owner replies: "Spidey, if you catch him, it's on the house!" Spider-Man tries to battle and catch Spot in the store, but he has trouble, and even at one point gets his hand with the spider-web glued to his head, so the store owner changes his mind and says: "Maybe just pay me now."
The fight goes outside to the streets of Brooklyn, where at one point Spot places two black spots, one near him, the other near Spider-Man, and then Spot just thrusts his fist inside his own black spot and it emerges on the other side, hitting Spider-Man in the head. Some of the best bits happen during the human 'slice-of-life' moments and character interactions: in one of them, Miles arrives late to the outdoor party of his parents, and they start arguing, louder and louder, so the DJ "subtly" increases the volume of the music, as for the guests to not hear all the arguing. In the Spider-Society headquarters, where hundreds of Spider-Men from different alternate universes work together, Miles / Spider-Man decides to escape, so the alarm voice goes: "All stations, drop what you're doing and stop Spider-Man!" Cue to the movie recreating the classic Internet meme of three Spider-Mans pointing at each other. At one point, Miles even has to fight a Spider-T-Rex (!) from an alternate universe. Some ideas were dumb, though (alternate dimensions with live-action people and Lego people). The theme of the radical Spider-Society leader Miguel is poignant—each goal followed exactly to the extreme ultimately becomes evil in itself—while there are a lot of neat visual touches and ideas throughout, as if every animator decides to add something in the sequence. The high impression is debased in the rather disappointing "cliffhanger ending" which is an anticlimactic let-down, forcing the viewers to wait for the 3rd film to see how this already long story will conclude. Still, "Across the Spider-Verse" is a much more multilayered film than it appears, speaking about people's aspiration to be something more in life, someone special, and proves that sometimes popular entertainment and high art don't necessarily have to be two different things.
Grade:+++
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