If you’re a Star Wars fan, you should be really pissed now. Phil Lord and Christopher Miller were originally slated to do the Han Solo movie. But the producers, in their infinite wisdom, decided to go with a safer option. So what did the Lego Movie and Jump Street directors do instead of directing Solo? They have become animated gods, making the incredible Mitchells vs. the Machines and giving us a little boundary pushing gem called Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. Lord and Miller’s creative spirit could be all over the Star Wars universe; instead, Sony/Marvel snapped them up, launching their current boon, culminating in Across the Spider-Verse, a near masterpiece of imagination, story, and full blown entertainment. Apparently the Spider sense is stronger than the Force these days.
When we last left Miles Morales (Shameik Moore), the multiverse had been closed off, and he had officially taken up the mantle as his world’s new Spiderman, unbeknownst to his mom Rio (Luna Lauren Velez) and soon to be police Captain dad Jefferson (Brian Tyree Henry). While doing the Spidey thing of balancing human vs. superhero time, Miles still longs to see Gwen Stacy (Hailee Steinfeld) again despite their interdimensional distance. Fate throws him a bone in the villain the Spot (Jason Schwartzman), who can leap between dimensions, drawing Gwen back into Miles’s world.
Of all the movies inside of a genre (in this case, superheroes), two types stand tallest: the ones that set the rules for a genre, and the ones that know those rules and consciously rewrite them. Like Deadpool before it, Across the Spider-Verse is one of those special rule breaking films. At this point in time, we know that Spiderman or Spiderwoman (and many superheroes *cough* Batman *cough*) have to deal with the death of their uncle Ben, or aunt May, or Gwen Stacy/Mary Jane/Peter Parker to become the superhero they are supposed to be. As you can tell by the links I put there, we’ve certainly seen many Spiderpeople go through the emotional ringer, driven by their desire to pay forward their wrongs into something right for society. You know: something about power and responsibility or whatever. Lord and Miller really ask some smart questions about these origins: does that one canon moment define you? Can you move on from that moment and be driven by something else? Are you the product of fate or your own decision making? The talented writers take these questions and put them in other characters, like the tragic complicated Miguel O’Hara (Oscar Isaac), tortured by his traumatic past, or even our “villain” the Spot, stuck in the wrong place at the wrong time and suffering the consequences for it. Across the Spider-Verse takes all that we know about Spider lore today, and makes us really think about what are the most important aspects of the character that we love to root for, and keep us rooting for them, resulting in some extremely complex emotional situations that I think most 10+ year olds might be able to understand, a pretty impressive feat to pull off.
While all these feelings are being felt, Lord and Miller also expand upon their incredible animation/entertainment style they created in Into the Spider-Verse. I thought Makoto Shinkai’s Your Name was going to be the most beautiful animated movie I was ever going to see. Well, I’m not afraid to admit I was wrong. There were multiple times I said to myself “Gosh darn!” and “Holy Shoot!” out loud (for the kids, duh) watching Across the Spider-Verse. As the title suggests, we end up going to multiple dimensions in this story. Lord, Miller and the terrific animators and directors (Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers, Justin K. Thompson) find a way to do three things at the same time. 1) Each dimension is animated differently, giving us different color splashes and combinations that pop off the screen. 2) All the dimensions still feel cohesively animated like Into the Spider-Verse, giving the feel of a full on living breathing comic book, and 3) the action sequences and storytelling have to blend in seamlessly as we jump from dimension to dimension. Despite the expanded scope, Lord Miller and the team never really make it hard for the audience to follow along, build around their solid foundation of Gwen and Miles’s story, and slowly expanding it out, evolving what the story is about with the expansion.
Despite how complicated and impossible I thought it might be to top Into the Spider-Verse, turns out we should probably just trust creative people to figure it out and deliver something fantastic for audiences everywhere. Hell, even people that aren’t Spiderman fans will find something delightful inside Across the Spider-Verse, a testament to Phil Lord and Christopher Miller’s ability to craft incredible entertainment. If Beyond the Spider-Verse can stick the landing, this trilogy could rival Toy Story’s as the best animated franchise ever. See that Kathleen Kennedy and George Lucas? This could have been your galaxy, but you blew it!