WesternAnimation This is the best movie I have ever seen
And that isn't hyperbole - there may be a better movie out there, but I haven't seen it yet. The movie, like Miles, is older and more mature, taking its character arcs seriously, but still allowing space for the jovial nature of the previous movie. All the characters are well-developed and stand out, both through their character and their visual design (especially Spider-Punk - every part of him is animated on a different framerate to the rest). The only exception is the fact that I felt Jessica Drew had most of her development come off-screen, and most of it in the movie was implied, but it's still technically there, and there's another sequel to come, so this doesn't bother me much. Daniel Pemberton absolutely knocked it out of the park - Gwen's theme is astounding in how similar the ethereal sounds reflect her watercolour universe. Additionally, I love how they threw out the rulebook on what an animated movie is supposed to look like - the aformentioned Spider-Punk and Earth-65 being prime examples, given that the world is like a mood ring, and no colour stays the same from shot to shot to better reflect the mood of the characters, which culminates in an incredible shot at the end of the movie when Gwen hugs her father, and pink spreads out from them to overpower the darker blue tones. I loved the fact that Gwen took on a co-lead role alongside Miles, as she was my favourite character from the first movie apart from Miles himself, and her arc in this movie is exceptional.
The ending is also great, because of how it subverts the expected character progression for Miles. From the beginning, it establishes how badly he wants to tell his parents that he is Spider-Man, but is afraid of how they will react (Gwen's reveal to her father being a prime example of how it can go wrong). So when he returns to his universe, ready to break the news to his parents, we the audience are expecting an emotional payoff where Miles is finally accepted for who he is, finishing the arc established in the first movie and carried through in this movie, where he proves himself to be a true bearer of the title "Spider-Man". What happens next is such an excellent subversion of this reveal - all of the emotional weight is shifted from "will they accept him" to "where are we?". Miles' story isn't finished yet, and so his ultimate desire cannot be fulfilled yet - leading into the cliffhanger ending. I could not believe the ending of the movie when I saw it, and my jaw dropped a few times in the space of about 10 minutes, made even better by the slight signs that something is wrong, like Earth-42 appearing on the Go-Home Machine's console rather than Earth-1610, ramping up the tension. For those who say the movie is not a full movie, I disagree - I think the cliffhanger ending is an excellent subversion of the natural progression of the character, while simultaneously building hype for the next movie.
WesternAnimation “DC have better animated films” No more of that please.
This was freaking awesome, not quite as tight as the first one imo but still amazing. The animation is absolutely stellar and pure porn for the eyes, loved all the Miles development and him fighting against “canon” i.e the writer wants nothing but misery for the Spider-Person. Miguel O’hara getting proper attention even as an antagonist I really loved and appreciated and little Mayday getting to exist. Everything with The Spot was fantastic as well as British and Indian Spider-Men (the former getting the best lines in the film). The biggest highlight for me was Gwen’s story. I haven’t read Spider-Gwen but vaguely know what happens in it and so seeing it unfold for the first time was great and all the stuff with her dad Captain Stacy made the emotional core of the film for me. In fact without the pay-off at the end I wouldn’t like this film nearly as much.
My problems are few but still glaring. Jessica Drew getting this massive overhaul to her character being fused with Valerie the Librarian and going around on a bike while pregnant (I do like that Jess storyline in the comic)— yet really doing little to nothing with her character was annoying. If you gonna seriously alter a character like that at least give her a bigger role beyond being Miguel’s sidekick who has a hypocrisy square off with Peter B. over who’s a worse child endangering parent. Also everything with Ben Riley, yes the Clone Saga wasn’t great, no reason to throw my boi under the bus like that. The Cliffhanger bummed me out particularly because I wasn’t in the know but I get it, given how many elements there are here. Instagram spoiled me on Prowler Miles, people need to chill with spoilers.
This movie really made me wish Marvel overall would just delve deep into the animation game again. Yes DC animated movies are good but they aren’t billion dollar blockbusters like these two films. There needs to be more Marvel animated adaptations, DC shouldn’t be the only ones pumping them out.
WesternAnimation Further Perfection
It's hard to sum up ATSV as anything other than another banger from Lord & Miller and a perfect sequel to 2018's Into the Spider-Verse. It doesn't rehash the same storyline like so many followups do, nor does it retain the same jokey tone - this is a mature continuation of Miles (and Gwen!)'s story that does justice to them and their friendship while, indeed, also exploring the broader universe in much more depth. All the new characters are amazing (stuck on a favorite between Pavitr and Ben), the returning ones are heartful (PARTICULARLY Peter B.), and everyone gets a good amount of time to shine.
The part I forgot about going into this, but which the film definitely earned, is that this is a two-parter with Beyond the Spider-Verse (currently) slated to come out 9 months from now. With the complex story set up here, that's more than okay with me, and as I said in my review of the first time around: we NEED more Spider-Verse! It just continues to deliver excellence!
WesternAnimation Awe-inspiring yet again...but maybe not quite a standalone film.
This is a great era for good sequels, holy crap.
Gwen has been recruited into a society of Spider-people after a fraught encounter with her police captain father. Miles has been Spider-Man for about a year now, and he encounters a small-time crook called the Spot who's mutated to be covered in antimatter holes that serve as portals. When Gwen returns to Miles' dimension to keep tabs on the increasingly-dangerous Spot, Miles follows her into Spider-society and learns just what they're really up to—policing the canon of the multiverse so every Spider-Man's echoed story falls into place—bitter tragedies included.
Again, it'a a visual masterpiece. And they upped their game like a billion percent. There's like a thousand more perfectly-executed medium blends and unique art styles mixing around here, and some of the most visually dynamic ones, like the Disneyesque pastels of Gwen's world, and the underground-collage art of Spider-Punk, are given lots of time to shine. Every frame is still a painting and the visual chaos is mind-blowing.
The story is good, for what we get. This is really the first half of a two-film saga, so there's a lot that doesn't get resolved yet. The queer allegory for Spider-ness is done better and stronger here, with both Gwen and Miles having coming-out struggles of sorts with their parents that portray real emotional blocks and tensions where each side is understandable even as they hurt each other. Having the rawest half with Gwen also helps since she's been given notes of trans coding that makes the allegory land stronger. For a character who seems queer, it clicks more. The themes of growing up and fighting destiny are also strong and serve as a wide commentary on tradition in comics again— both the hero and the villain become existential threats to the very fabric of the comic medium and expected storytelling to posit that canon is more flexible than audiences are conditioned to expect and that stories can vary more under one concept. Miles broke the rules with his background and his origin story and why shouldn't he? It's a radical look at storytelling and real-world tradition supported by the fact that a noble full-blown anarchist is a huge reason the defiance becomes viable. Let's be punk. Let's break it all the way open!
I couldn't help but feel a tad resentful that at the end of over two hours, the film was a "part one" with so much left undone. But what we got was challenging, dazzling, powerful, and excellent, and I can't wait for the completion of this story.