Visually Spectacular ‘Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse’ Hindered By Extended Runtime
Outstanding animation and stunning visuals make Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse a worthy sequel to 2018’s universally-loved Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, however, the extended runtime could prove to be too much of a good thing for some audiences.
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse was a groundbreaking animated film that was universally loved and even garnered an Oscar win, so the bar was set very high for the follow-up movie, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse. Thankfully, this film further elevates the breathtaking animation and expands the story to include even more Spider-people in the vast multiverse.
Miles Morales (Shameik Moore) is living a regular life with his mom (Luna Lauren Velez) and dad (Brian Tyree Henry) and doing well as the friendly, neighborhood Spider-Man, but an encounter with The Spot (Jason Schwartzman) proves to be more dangerous than he initially thought and soon the entire multiverse is threatened. To try to stop this disaster, Miles must work with various Spider-folks including Miguel O’Hara (Oscar Isaac), Jessica Drew (Issa Rae), Spider-Punk Hobie Brown (Daniel Kaluuya), Spider-Man India Pavitr Prabhakar (Karan Soni) and reunite with friends Peter B. Parker (Jake Johnson) and Gwen Stacy (Hailee Steinfeld).
The first Spider-Verse movie was one of the most visually gorgeous animated films ever made, and Across the Spider-Verse only amps up the stunning animation. There are several more Spider-people, each with their own visual flare, which gives us a chance to experience more animation styles. I was particularly blown away by Pavitr’s universe, filled with warm, saturated colors, and Hobie’s style, filled with paper textures and halftones. I wanted to watch both of those characters for hours just to take in all that gorgeous animation.
At nearly two-and-a-half hours, there are times when the story feels a bit too languid. Some of the themes are repeated a few too many times and several of the scenes feel like they could be tighter, but because of the incredible visuals, you’re rarely bored because there’s always something beautiful to look at. In one scene between Gwen and her father (Shea Whigham), the paint in the background drips as Gwen’s emotions emerge. In another scene, technology created by Hobie has a rough, unpolished appearance that perfectly contrasts with the way we previously saw that tech animated. The movie might be a good half-hour too long, but the visual experience makes that runtime a lot easier to swallow.
The ending of this movie is likely to be divisive. Without giving away any spoilers, I’ll say that I found it pretty unsatisfying and there was some audible dissatisfaction from the audience at my screening as the credits rolled. Comic book fans might be more prone to liking it, but general audiences might be split by some of the choices made in the third act.
So even though this movie didn’t stick the landing for me, I still found it to be an enjoyable watch. The visuals alone created a theater experience akin to spending a day at Meow Wolf, and with so many films feeling so visually bland these days, that was enough to keep me interested throughout the overly long runtime.
