Written by Cameron Geiser

Roughly five years ago, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse appeared in cinemas and captured the energy, spirit, and heart of what made comic books and the many variations of Spider-Man tales so engaging for generations of readers. That film firmly established the origins of Miles Morales (Shameik Moore), a biracial new Spider-Man created for the Ultimate Comics line separate from the main Marvel Comics Universe. While Marvel ended up cutting the majority of those storylines, they kept Miles and incorporated him into the main comics and the rest is history.

The sequel out now, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, picks up with Miles and Gwen (Hailee Steinfeld) from the first film in their respective worlds as they try to figure out life… and maybe even love? As it turns out, there's a whole interconnected organization of alternate versions of Spider… people from every conceivable universe called the Spider Society. They’re working together to keep the Spider-verse from collapsing, and it's run by Miguel O'Hara (Oscar Isaac) better known as Spider-Man 2099. After Gwen's inducted into the group, she eventually makes her way to Miles' universe again, right as he's in the middle of your typical Spider-Man family drama and also the introduction of a new super villain aptly named, The Spot (Jason Schwartzman). Directly connected to the events of the first film, The Spot is the literal manifestation of the consequences of the Kingpin’s particle collider explosion that set things off the last time around, and being transformed into a faceless omnipotent super villain wasn't exactly on his vision board.

*Across the Spider-Verse* carries on the visual splendour of its predecessor (and then some).

All that's well and good, but does Across the Spider-Verse actually live up to the hype? Yes, yes it does, almost absurdly so. The animation is, somehow, even more impressive this time around. In fact, everything has been improved upon and that's saying something as Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse was already a phenomenon in animated storytelling. The most arresting aspect of this film’s upgrade is in the animation itself, as each new universe depicted gets its own visual style. The visuals embrace the abstract, the emotional, and the humanity of these characters and their stories. After the success of the first film, this one feels bolder, it takes bigger swings creatively, and it's simply impeccable. This film succeeds at what every good sequel wants to be. The stakes are effectively raised, characters and themes are expanded upon in thoughtful and layered ways, and above all else this is a character driven story that never forgets the most important part of any Spider-Man story: sacrifice.

These films have proven twice over now that they fully understand the nature of Spider-Man comics and why people have connected so deeply with the web-head over the decades. In fact, despite that we're now fully inundated with tidal waves of superhero movies every year- these are the only films that seem to not only embrace the physical form of comics but they respect the medium as an art form. It also doesn't hurt that all of the major characters are well written, voice-acted with the appropriate amount of emotional clarity for any given scene, and all in service of a story that is both astonishing and heartfelt.

Push the aesthetics aside, and *Across the Spider-Verse* is still a fantastic film due to its engaging story alone.

Not to mention that these films do an excellent job of continuing the quality representation of many people from a variety of ethnicities, cultures, and colors! I'm not going to even attempt to list all of the variations of Spider-people in Across the Spider-Verse, however I will detail three new spectacular additions. They come in the form of Jessica Drew (Issa Rae) a no-nonsense pregnant Black Spider-Woman who rides a motorcycle, Hobie (Daniel Kaluuya) a British guitar-wielding Spider-Punk anarchist with a flair for nonconformity, and Pavitr Prabhakar (Karan Soni) better known as the Spider-Man from a universe where Mumbai and Manhattan have been melded together to form “Mumbattan”. Okay, I lied, I was also quite entertained by the inclusion of the Scarlet Spider (Andy Samberg)- which was a fun throwback.

As the middle chapter of a trilogy, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse succeeds where a lot of sequels fail. It never takes the easy road, the humor feels effortless and intuitive for all characters involved, and the animation is downright groundbreaking. Or at least, for me, it was breathtaking. This is the best film I've seen this year so far, and all other superhero sequels should take some notes; they would do well to study this one.

Cameron Geiser is an avid consumer of films and books about filmmakers. He'll watch any film at least once, and can usually be spotted at the annual Traverse City Film Festival in Northern Michigan. He also writes about film over at www.spacecortezwrites.com.