The 2022-2023 Film Journal #34: "Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse"

2022-2023 Film Journal #34: "Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse"

2022-2023 Film Journal Entry #34

by Xavier E. Palacios

"Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse"

4.5 out of 5

Directed by Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers, and Justin K. Thompson

Rated PG

A year after Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, teenager Miles Morales (voiced by Shameik Moore), a.k.a. the new Spider-Man of Earth-1610, is dealing with more problems than being a superhero. He and his parents, not knowing he is Spider-Man, struggle to communicate. Miles longs for friends and people who understand him, like Gwen Stacy (voiced by Hailee Steinfeld), the Spider-Woman of Earth-65. He longs to craft his own life story but faces confusing complications that hold him back. During these growing pains, the Spot (voiced by Jason Schwartzman), a supervillain with portal powers, wreaks harmless havoc before, in a bid for revenge against Miles, finding a way to enhance his abilities and become a cosmic threat. The battle across alternate universes against the Spot reunites Miles with Gwen, who has joined with the powerful and pessimistic Spider-Man, Miguel O'Hara (voiced by Oscar Issac): leader of an army of Spider-People that protects the multiverse from annihilation. When Miles learns that, as a Spider-Man, he must let someone he loves die or lose his entire universe, the young man chooses to chart his own path and live with the consequences.

Man, if for nothing else, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, the long-awaited sequel to the revolutionary Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, got me to think two amazing thoughts as the credits began rolling: "HOW did they make this film?!" and "Bro, why do people even bother with live-action movies?"

I did come up with good reasons why the live-action form of film should continue to exist, albeit without the mainstream zeal of worship animated works have never received. Animation cannot achieve the sense of theatre, one of humanity's oldest practices, like live-action cinema can. Likewise, physical acting is a different acting craft from animation. The art of costume design is important, too. Finally, whether in digital or celluloid, live-action cinema is the art of photography, whereas animation will always be the art of illustration.

Otherwise, especially since too many big-budget flicks nowadays use a distracting amount of fake CGI while being constricted to the realms of physics, Across the Spider-Verse makes me wonder why anyone bothers with live-action cinema. Or, at least, why people have that aforementioned and vehement mania for that form of the medium in comparison to this one. This picture is such a mind-boggling, exhilarating, enchanting, and inspiring piece of animation that I felt I had truly been transported into realms only my nightly travels into The Dreaming could comprehend. These animators outdid themselves from the already classic Spider-Verse, and prove that, no matter the style, as long as animation filmmakers pursue visions unconceived of, the medium will not just survive but flourish.

Yes, I know of the reports about the gross mismanagement from the film's head honchos, and the comments against animators by producer Amy Pascal are especially heinous. I reject the notion that such magnificence here can only come through such poor, loveless leadership and disrespect towards workers. My compliments are only to those who truly achieved these wonders with their bare hands, exhausted eyes, and over-stressed minds, and no executive of ImageWorks studios or Sony Pictures, (which I will never call a real film company). So, my continuous praise, filled with a tone of childlike wonder, to the animators of Across the Spider-Verse.

If one reads his reviews, they will see that the late great film critic, Roger Ebert, was a fella who truly understood animation. Not as an intellectual, but as one of us crazy animation nuts. During the 1990s, he consistently praised, with writing I can only describe as true love, the great works of the era as achieving what live-action cinema cannot. Recently, I was especially enamored with how he described the medium in his review for Disney's Tarzan: "Animation cuts loose from what we can actually see and shows us what we might ideally see." If he were alive today, I have a feeling Ebert would have dug these Spider-Verse films, because they certainly have shown me that this sublime medium is so gosh dang beautiful.

And yet, beyond the incredible animation that must be seen to be believed, there is, to my relief, a really great story here. A clarification: I have been a lifelong fan of the Spider-Man stories since I was a wee little lad in the late 1990s, and my connection with this titular character's stories goes past just being a big ole' fan. As Stan "The Man" Lee described me and countless others of my ilk in the pages of those earliest Spidey comic books, I am a True Believer. God help me, I suppose.

Given the utterly preposterous and borderline soulless writing in the comic books nowadays, (and much longer, but this matter is a story for another day); the culture and attitude of narcissism surrounding contemporary Spidey stories; and the over-exaggerated greatness of the excellent first Spider-Verse film, as if the (marketable and trendy) idea of Spider-Man is more important than the actual story of Spider-Man, I had my doubts on this picture. I feared, as I had been shown to me in the past, that those like me, who fled from tormenting days at school to their bedrooms and be reminded of who they really were in the pages of Spider-Man comics, were not the film's intended audience anymore. As I said: God help me.

Boy, was I thankfully wrong! The pacing of this astonishing two-hour-and-twenty-minute film, a mighty first for Western animation, flies by, leaving me wanting more! The dialogue has hardly any of that modern day, false sass plaguing Western blockbusters, and, instead, has much humanity, heart, and maturity; not to mention a great spirit of fun and humor. The plot is supremely comic booky in the best of ways, both in spectacle and conflict, and not just an excuse for tiresome Easter Eggs, (although there are plenty of those that tickle a longtime fan like me). Rather than fetishize the supposed problems of a teenager and the titular hero, as modern Spider-Man tales tend to do, Miles and Gwen's problems are those that make for the best coming-of-age stories: true, difficult, relatable, and painful. Heck, I even got to see what the comic books will never dare to pursue: a married Peter Parker, voiced likeably once again by Jake Johnson, with a baby girl. Proof that Spidey is only as good as the damned Marvel corporate machine allows the character to be.

And my thanks to a new friend and writing partner, Jared M., for preparing me for this film's conclusion, 'cause, golly, does it pack a (good) wallop!

There are many, many ideas and themes woven throughout Across the Spider-Verse, (including shockingly strong meta-commentary). Yet, for me, as a dedicated fan, I most especially adored the fact that this film returns something to the forefront of the legend that, for disingenuous reasons, has been lost in the Spider-Man stories; an element that has mattered a lot to me since I was a boy. To be Spider-Man is a curse. Being Spider-Man means being the best version of oneself. A hero worthy of the highest honors any afterlife can provide. Yet no one should want the title. Unless they are innocent youths, those who do only desire the shallow thrills of web-slinging and the self-importance within super heroic melodrama. They do not understand the costs of being this hero, which would crush the spirits of so many; me included.

If Into the Spider-Verse showcased the old Stan Lee adage that, because of the costume, anyone can be Spider-Man, Across the Spider-Verse emphasizes that being Spider-Man is not a gift but a privilege, one that comes with enormous sacrifices and impossible choices. Life is tough and unfair, and being Spider-Man means one will hurt more than others. Yet what makes Spider-Man such a powerful character is that whoever dons the mask, be they a Parker, Stacy, or Morales, chooses to believe that they must use their extraordinary powers to try and do good, or else their souls be forfeit. No matter the cost and without any personal gain. Sometimes they lose and or make mistakes. Still, they change and grow from failures and victories because that is who they are, their story, not what anyone else says, even if things turn out for the worst. While audiences will have to wait until next year to see the full conclusion of this conversation, I can certainly say this picture understands what has made Spider-Man such an important part of me.

Come to the film for the animation that will be talked about for ages. Stay for a reminder of why Spider-Man, despite all Marvel Comics and Sony Pictures have done to the image and meaning of character, still matters.