Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (PG)
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Caution: spoilers
This is the first sequel to Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. It came out in 2023, and I saw it in 2024. I'm not actually sure whether I loved it slightly more, slightly less, or pretty much the same as the first movie, but I've rated it very slightly higher. It's just as inventive as the first movie, maybe even a little bit more so. But on the other hand, the novelty of that inventiveness isn't quite as intense in the second movie, just because I've seen it before in the first movie. There are some welcome returning characters, though not all the ones who were in the first movie, as well as some cool new characters. And of course, the story is great, probably even more epic than the first movie.
It starts out on Earth-65, Gwen Stacy's universe. She narrates her backstory, which includes inadvertently killing her best friend, Peter Parker, who had taken a serum that turned him into a monstrous lizard. Her father, police captain George Stacy, sees Spider-Woman crouching beside Peter's body, and assumes she killed him. So he is determined to bring her to justice, but she gets away. Later, she fights a Vulture from another universe, and gets some help from two other Spider-people, Miguel O'Hara (voiced by Oscar Isaac) and Jess Drew (Issa Rae), the latter of whom rides a motorcycle. They've come to send Vulture back to his own universe. After the fight, Captain Stacy confronts Spider-Woman, and she reveals herself to be his daughter, but he still tries to arrest her. So Miguel and Jess take her with them to their headquarters, on Earth-928, which is Miguel's universe.
Meanwhile, in Miles Morales's universe, Earth-1610, he fights a villain called the Spot (Jason Schwartzman), who reveals that Miles is responsible for turning him into what he is now, over a year ago when he destroyed Kingpin's collider. The Spot was a scientist who got caught in the explosion, and it covered his body with spots that are dimensional portals, which led to his losing everything he cared about, so he wants revenge against Miles. We also learn that before the explosion, he had transported a radioactive spider from Earth-42 (a number I'm always happy to see) to Miles's Earth, and that's the one that turned him into Spider-Man. Then Gwen shows up and hangs out with Peter for awhile, which she wasn't supposed to do. She's now a member of the Spider-Society, run by Miguel, along with countless other Spider-people from throughout the Spider-Verse (which Miguel calls something else, I forget what he said). Their mission is to protect the multiverse from any disruptions of "canon" events (which I thought was a cool term for it), things that are meant to happen and if they don't, the universe (or perhaps even the multiverse) would unravel. Anyway, Gwen had a mission in Miles's universe, but then she gets called away to a mission on Earth-50101, where she teams up with that universe's Spider-Man, Pavitr Prabhakar (Karan Soni), and Spider-Punk Hobie Brown (Daniel Kaluuya). Miles secretly follows Gwen through her portal to Pavitr's universe, and helps them try to stop the Spot.
Later, Miles is invited to the Spider-Society, where he meets Miguel and is reunited with Peter B. Parker, who now has a baby daughter named Mayday. Miguel explains the job of the society, protecting canon events, which include people dying. Miles had saved someone who was meant to die on Earth-50101, which is a problem. Miguel also reveals that Mile's father, Jeff, who has just become captain in his universe, is meant to by killed by the Spot in two days. Miles is determined to prevent that, so all of the Spider-people chase him as he tries to get back to his own universe. Miles outwits them and succeeds in teleporting himself via a device the Spider-Society uses to send wayward villains like the Vulture back to their own universes, after reading their DNA. (I watched this movie for the first time with my cousins Matty and Jamie, and Matty totally predicted a plot twist that I'm not going to reveal until my review of the third movie, whenever that comes out.)
Well, I have left out some details from throughout the movie, like Miles's parents worrying about his future and where he goes when he skips classes or is late to meet with them. And I'm not going to say anything about what happens after Miles teleports out of Earth-928. But it ends on a major cliffhanger that will have to be resolved in the next movie. So I'm greatly looking forward to that. As for this movie... there were brief cameos by characters from shows like Spider-Man and The Spectacular Spider-Man, which was cool. And some of the villains from other universes that the society had in containment, waiting to be transported home, were cool. We even see some live-action characters. And there were amazing character arcs for Miles and Gwen. And a lot of great humor, in addition to all the drama and wicked cool action scenes. Plus there's a reason Miguel has for considering Miles's very existence as Spider-Man a massive problem, and that ties into the plot twist I'm not spoiling. But I think Miguel is kind of right, and I am eager to see if and how that problem can possibly be resolved in the third movie. Anyway... this movie is incredibly awesome for lots of reasons, in and of itself, but it will probably be even better in retrospect, once the trilogy is complete.