INT. FRIEND’S APARTMENT - PROJECTOR ON A BEDSHEET - FRIDAY NIGHT
This is the first review on Post-Credits, so I picked a movie I have seen more times than I can count. Across the Spider-Verse is the second animated Spider-Verse film, and it is the one I put on when I want to remember what animation can do.
A different look for every world
Gwen Stacy’s world looks like a watercolor painting, and its colors shift with her mood. Spider-Punk is a collage of cut-out photocopies, like a zine that started moving. Mumbattan, home of Pavitr Prabhakar, is packed with color and pattern. The movie changes how it looks every few minutes and never loses track of whose story it is.
Pause anywhere and you get a frame worth printing.
Miles
Under all the style, the story is simple. Miles Morales is told that certain tragedies have to happen for any Spider-Man’s story to work, and he refuses to accept that one of them is losing his father. Shameik Moore plays him with the right mix of confidence and panic.
The catch
The movie does not end. It stops in the middle of a cliffhanger, and the conclusion is still on its way. If loose ends bother you, know that going in. I still think it is worth it.