Spider-Man Across the Spider-Verse movie review: A restless, firing-on-all-pistons rollercoaster ride

The film kicks off this time with Gwen Stacy (Hailee Steinfeld), who is having the usual problems with her cop father who, not knowing that she is Spider-Woman, is hunting for her white caped crusader alter-ego for the “murder” of Peter Parker. Gwen is also moping for another friend from another dimension she met last time, Miles Morales (Shameik Moore).

Miles is having his own issues with his parents ( Brian Tyree Henry, and a lovable Luna Lauren Valez ), who can’t understand what’s going on with their 15-year-old bright thing who has the potential to study multi-verses and all that quantum physics at Princeton.

Both the families are lovely, rendered in magnificently different styles but with emotions that are common across time-and-space when it comes to parents dealing with teenagers. Gwen’s home is in the style of a painting that fades into relief, reflecting her and her father’s mood; Miles’s is all colour and sound, seeped with the loud lives of Brooklyn’s Black Hispanic community he belongs to.

However, the film is not about staying at home of course, though some of its best scenes are when it is holding still and doing just that. As expected, the two teenagers soon have a villain they must fight, though true to the film’s spirit, he is a lovable rogue called the Spot (Jason Schwartzman), who holds a genuine grudge against Miles. You see, when Miles blew up the collider last time, he reduced a scientist called Jonathan Ohnn to this Spot figure – so called because essentially he is a shroud skeleton studded with holes, which do all sorts of things that you soon lose track of.

Spider-Man Across the Spider-Verse movie trailer:

The chase of this Spot brings Gwen to Miles, and then Miles to Spider-Man Heaven – a headquarters populated by web-weaving superheroes from different dimensions. There are plenty of adorables here, including Peter Parker (Jake Johnson) as a pink-bathrobe wearing father obsessed with his toddler daughter and taking her photos, a pregnant Spider-Woman called Drew (Issa Rae), the Indian Spider-Man called Pavitra Prabhakar (Karan Soni) who has little to do but give a short tour of Bombay (though more seems ahead), and the ninja version of Spider-Man called Miguel O’Hara (Isaac), who is the real mean hair-raiser of this Spidey HQ.

But the one who truly stands out from this tangled web of dimensions, canons, and creepies and crawlies, is the British Spider-Man called Hobie (a brilliant Daniel Kaluuya), a rebel against the “System”, who can’t do much in terms of that but does what he can with his Bob Marley-esque hair, his over-long guitar and his one-liners such as when Peter’s daughter poops around Miguel: “You took a crap on the Establishment, I salute you.”

Rendered again in the style of true comic books with their frenzied energy, their panels that change from one page to the next, their exaggerated expressions, and their violence that is more bark than bite, Across the Spider-Verse is impressive.

It loses its way in the middle, caught up in its own genius, taking one too many swings, but builds up to an unexpectedly spine-tingling finale. There is suspense in it, fear, family, love, some big decisions to be made, and several wrong ones. Could Gwen and Miles have their moment again hanging upside down from a building and holding a chat, or Miles who can turn invisible look into her eyes as she looks past wistfully, not knowing he is there, and seeking him out?

For all that, you will have to wait for the third chapter. Yeah, Across the Spider-Verse ends on a cliffhanger, for why have less when you can pack in more?

And that tells you all about oh the tangled web this bunch of Marvel creators has weaved; they are still practising to deceive.

Spider-Man Across the Spider-Verse directors: Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers, Justin K Thompson
Spider-Man Across the Spider-Verse cast: Shameik Moore, Hailee Steinfeld, Oscar Isaac, Brian Tyree Henry, Luna Lauren Valez, Jake Johnson, Issa Rae, Daniel Kaluuya, Karan Soni, Jason Schwartzman
Spider-Man Across the Spider-Verse rating: 3 stars