Into the Spider-Verse set a standard that seemed impossible to match, and Across the Spider-Verse responds not by repeating it but by expanding it, pushing the visual ambition further than seemed possible and deepening the emotional stakes considerably. It is an incomplete film, the first part of a story that will not be finished until Beyond the Spider-Verse, and that incompleteness is a genuine constraint. What surrounds it is a work of sustained creative force.
At a Glance
Director: Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers, Justin K. Thompson
Runtime: 140 minutes
Starring: Shameik Moore, Hailee Steinfeld, Oscar Isaac, Issa Rae, Brian Tyree Henry, Luna Lauren Velez
Release: 2023
Critics Rating: ★★★★★ (5/5 stars, a sequel that surpasses its predecessor through sheer creative force)
Audience Rating: ★★★★★ (5/5 stars, unmissable)
Plot
Miles Morales, now a year into his life as Spider-Man, is struggling to balance his responsibilities with his parents, who do not know he is Spider-Man. When Gwen Stacy leads him to the Spider-Society, led by Miguel O'Hara, Miles discovers his existence as Spider-Man may be a fundamental anomaly, and that a canonical event, the death of a police captain, may be unavoidable. The central conflict, between Miles's insistence on defying fate and Miguel's conviction that the multiverse requires sacrifice, is one of the most searching philosophical arguments in superhero cinema.
Characters
Miles is given a richer and more painful set of choices than in the first film, and Shameik Moore rises to meet them with skill and precision. The scenes between Miles and his mother Rio are the film's most harrowing. Oscar Isaac's Miguel O'Hara is a formidable antagonist: a man whose fanaticism is rooted in genuine loss and remains comprehensible even as it becomes monstrous. Hailee Steinfeld's Gwen Stacy receives her own extended prologue that deepens her considerably, and Issa Rae's Jessica Drew brings dry wit as a counterpoint to Miguel's absolutism. Brian Tyree Henry's Jefferson Davis is given more to do than in the first film, and his scenes with Miles are among the most affecting in the franchise. Luna Lauren Velez's Rio Morales is the film's most underrated performance: a mother whose love is expressed with a warmth and specificity that makes the climax land with real weight. The cameos from across the Spider-Verse are handled with wit and economy.
Meaning / Themes
Across the Spider-Verse is about the tension between individual will and systemic necessity: whether a person has the right to defy a fate determined to be inevitable. Miguel's Spider-Society argues the greater good requires individual sacrifice; Miles argues no system has the right to demand that without consent. The film does not resolve this, and its refusal to do so is one of its greatest strengths. It is also a film about the things we cannot tell the people we love most, and the cost of that silence.
Direction
Each dimension has its own distinct visual language, from the watercolour impressionism of Gwen's world to the thick-lined graphic novel aesthetic of Mumbattan, and the transitions between styles are handled with a fluency that makes the multiverse feel expansive and alive. The action sequences are the most visually complex the medium has produced. The structural ambition, sustaining a 140-minute first act of a larger story without losing momentum or emotional coherence, is itself a directorial achievement.
The film moves between comedy, tragedy, action spectacle, and philosophical argument with a fluency that the first film established and this one deepens. The Mumbattan sequence, set in a dimension blending Mumbai and Manhattan, is one of the most visually audacious action sequences in the history of animation. The quieter scenes between Miles and his parents carry an emotional weight the first film only approached. Daniel Pemberton's score builds on the first film's musical identity while finding new registers for the sequel's darker emotional terrain. The ending, cutting to black at a moment of genuine crisis, is a bold choice the film earns through the quality of the work that precedes it.
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse received universal critical acclaim on its release and was a major commercial success, becoming the highest-grossing Spider-Verse film by a wide margin. Critics responded with near-universal enthusiasm, with many declaring it among the greatest animated sequels ever made and a high point of the medium. It won the Annie Award for Outstanding Achievement for Animated Feature and received widespread recognition for its visual innovation, its emotional depth, and Oscar Isaac's performance as Miguel O'Hara. The film's cliffhanger ending generated significant discussion and anticipation for Beyond the Spider-Verse, and it is now regarded as one of the most ambitious animated films ever produced.
Final Verdict: A landmark of animation and one of the most accomplished sequels ever made. Across the Spider-Verse pushes further than its predecessor through sheer inventive force, emotional honesty, and a visual ambition that has no equivalent in the medium. Miles Morales's story has never been more compelling, and Oscar Isaac's Miguel O'Hara is one of the great antagonists in the franchise's history. The incomplete ending is a real limitation, but it does not diminish what is, in every other respect, a film of the highest order.