Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse

A staggering piece of craft — the sequel to *Into the Spider-Verse* takes that film's visual revolution and pushes it further, giving nearly every universe its own rendering language and packing the frame with ideas. Critics are close to unanimous that the animation is the star: each dimension reads like a different art movement brought to life, and the set pieces — most memorably a sustained chase through a headquarters teeming with hundreds of Spider-People — are routinely described as among the most thrilling action sequences the superhero genre has produced. The voice cast is praised across the board, with standout work from the film's villain, a small-time antagonist who grows into a genuinely menacing threat, and from its punk-rock variant of Spider-Man, whose anti-establishment energy lands as a constant delight.

That ambition comes with costs. The plot is dense — a whole society of interdimensional Spider-People, a multiverse rulebook, and a running philosophical argument about whether the defining tragedies of every hero's life are fixed points — and a vocal slice of reviewers found the exposition heavy, the 140-minute middle section baggy, and the sheer volume of characters hard to keep straight. The most widely shared criticism is structural: the film ends on a cliffhanger, openly the first half of a two-part story, and critics split hard on whether that is a thrilling tease or a frustrating cop-out that keeps the film from standing on its own.

Thematically, this is a film about growing up and outgrowing the people who raised you: Miles and Gwen each wrestle with parents who love them but cannot know the truth about their double lives, and the film's premise about "canon" — inherited tragedies every Spider-Person is supposedly fated to endure — becomes the vehicle for a larger question about whether young people must accept the scripts written for them. Critics genuinely disagree on whether that argument lands: some call it profound, others say the point is belabored well past where it was established. Nearly everyone agrees, though, that this is essential viewing for anyone who still believes animation can do things live action cannot.