Audiences weren't really expecting much from Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, which was announced at a time when all the majority of fans wanted was for Marvel Studios to regain the rights to the iconic wall-crawler, and viewed this animated Miles Morales movie with a cynical eye.
Perceptions soon changed when the film was released, of course, and Into the Spider-Verse has since gone on to be widely regarded as not only the best Spider-Man movie yet, but one of the best comic book movies we've seen - animated or otherwise.
So, it's probably fair to say that Sony Pictures and first-time feature directors (Phil Lord and Christopher Miller only penned the screenplay this time) Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers, and Justin K. Thompson were under a bit of pressure to deliver with this sequel - and deliver they have.
Set less than a year after the events of the previous movie, Across the Spider-Verse picks up with a now 15-year-old Miles (Shameik Moore) as he continues his attempts to juggle his school and family life with the responsibilities that come with being Brooklyn's resident superhero. He has gained a few new abilities and become more proficient at taking down bad guys, but it's getting more and more difficult to lie to his increasingly concerned parents, and when a seemingly inept "villain of the week" named the Spot arrives on the scene, the young hero is thrust into the middle of an adventure that could have dire consequences for everyone he cares about.
This plotline could have become a tad repetitive, so the story wisely chooses to split its focus with Gwen Stacy (Hailee Steinfeld), as we learn how Spider-Woman's tragic tale brought her into contact with an entire Multiverse full of Spider-people led by the stern - and very powerful - Miguel O'Hara, aka Spider-Man 2099 (Oscar Isaac). Gwen pays Miles a visit, but has ulterior motives for travelling to his reality, and swinging by to see her friend sets off a potentially catastrophic chain of events.
If you thought the action sequences in Into the Spider-Verse were spectacular, wait until you witness what the sequel has in store. It may actually be giving too much away to go into any detail, since most of the scenes in question are so plot-focused, but there's some truly groundbreaking stuff on display.
Across the Spider-Verse is every bit as stunning to look at as its predecessor, and may actually surpass its visual style by introducing multiple uniquely-realized worlds along with hundreds of new Spidey Variants. Of the debuting "Spider Society" characters, O'Hara, Spider-Punk (Daniel Kaluuya) and another Spider-Woman Variant (Issa Rae) stand out, but Shea Whigham as Captain George Stacy and Jason Schwartzman as the Spot also make big impressions.
Fortunately, Jake Johnson returns as Peter B. Parker, but there's no sign of another major highlight of the first film, Nicolas Cage's Spider-Man Noir... and he is missed. Across the Spider-Verse still contains plenty of humor, but if it falls short of the original in any way, it's that it's just not quite as funny. In a way, this is understandable, since we are dealing with slightly more intense themes and things take a darker turn in the final act.
No spoilers here, but it's definitely worth keeping in mind that this is very much a Part 1, and the story won't fully conclude until next year's Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse.
With its incredibly inventive animation style, riveting story and pulse-pounding score (composer Daniel Pemberton outdoes himself), Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is a true feast for the senses. Noir's exclusion is a little baffling, and we can see one particular narrative decision being divisive, but it still emerges as a worthy sequel to one of the greatest superhero films of all time.