As I write this it’s been nearly two months since I sat in a theater opening weekend to see this (July 26). I think I ordered my ticket alone, expecting that every other Friend I had would already have seen it at a early release screening, or that only a month after our welcoming a new terror into the world, it would be too early to step out for a few hours to see something, but as it turned out there were many, many Friends there at the exact same time I was by complete dumb luck. I think the reason that I took so long writing this one is that I was probably pretty sleep deprived and so much else was happening at the beginning of last month that took up headspace, but what I will say is that it hit in just the right place at the right time for me. Bestie hasn’t seen this and I don’t think she will probably for a long time, but a lot of the opening sequence made me wonder what she’d think of the art style, the fact that each multiverse has its own artistic aesthetic (“just like in the comics,” my two friends droned at me afterwards as I attempted to keep my eyes from rolling into the back of my head), and the way that so much more care and attention is directed to Spider-Gwen, who is the real star of the show, either considering her voice actor (Hailee Steinfeld, how can you be the coolest superhero in two different universes???) or not.
As someone thinking a lot about the ways in which the multiverse is creating and breaking narrative structures and allowing for new kinds of shapes of stories, not just new stories, I’m really pleased with what Across the Spider-verse is able to accomplish. Indian Spiderman is amazing. Punk Spider is rad. Vampire Spider. I could go on and on. I’m a little bit confused on the whole lionization of pregnant and post-pregnant spiders and the encouragement of them to go into combat, but I guess it’s fine? For those who haven’t seen this movie yet (some Friends went tonight which made me think maybe I ought to organize some of my thoughts before this becomes my first review of the year to get permanently iced), spoilers, but I love how the villain is introduced as a petty criminal whose ego is bigger than his ability at first. I think it’s fun how they were able to develop this guy into the perfect multiversal villain, because it seems like a lot of what makes a multiversal villain has to do with their ability to travel the multiverse a lot faster and more easily than you can. The sense of imposter syndrome that they build for Miles Morales is excellent and a neat kind of commentary on the backlash to his character in the real world by certain conservative internet subgroups. The slowburn of the romance between Miles and Gwen is excellent, and you can even forgive how hetero the whole movie is because of how cute and awkward they are together. The twist at the end is excellent, though I’ve been told by the two comic book nerd Friends that it’s not really a twist and I am dumb for being surprised.
