{"id":160093,"date":"2023-06-24T23:49:02","date_gmt":"2023-06-25T05:49:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/?p=160093"},"modified":"2023-06-24T23:49:02","modified_gmt":"2023-06-25T05:49:02","slug":"movie-review-spider-man-across-the-spider-verse-2023","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2023\/06\/24\/movie-review-spider-man-across-the-spider-verse-2023.html","title":{"rendered":"Movie Review: “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” (2023)"},"content":{"rendered":"

I won’t talk specifics, but this is a sequel that is at least an equal of the first film, possibly its superior.<\/p>\n

\"Spider-Man:<\/a>By having a commitment to a third film, the creative team could lean into richness of characterization, and creating a cast with depth and texture. Presumably the production was all of a continuum (the third film comes out next year), and that allowed some powerful development to be teed up and\u00a0fulfilled.<\/p>\n

Visually<\/strong>, the film is stunning, playing with color, texture, medium, style, focus and orientation. The animation is amazing in its variety and quality, truly cinematic in everything from quiet dialogue scenes to crazy four-dimensional action sequences.<\/p>\n

\"Spider-Man:<\/a><\/p>\n

Writing<\/strong>-wise, the story arguably more complex than Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse<\/em> — again, leaning into having two films to follow up from that first film. But the through-lines are strong — growth, autonomy, destiny, truth, lies, identity. All the primary characters (and there are several) face challenges and conflicts, sometimes with each other. The dive into Spider-Man lore and creating a meta-narrative out of is brilliant.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Spider-Man:<\/a><\/p>\n

At the same time, as serious as things get (and they do get damned serious), there is also a tremendous amount of fun, playing with a vast array of Spider-folk (many from canon, many invented for the purpose), as well as others people and places. That contrast between fun and wonder and gut-wrenching drama makes this a pretty special movie, even without its merits as animation or as a super-hero\u00a0tale.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0music<\/strong> isn’t necessarily my personal cuppa, but it works with the imagery and the action. The voice talent<\/strong>, as with the first film, is top-notch.<\/p>\n

All in all, I couldn’t ask for anything better, other than that “To Be Continued” at the end.<\/p>\n

\"Spider-Man:<\/a><\/p>\n

This review first appeared, in an earlier form, on Dropbox<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A more-than-worthy successor to the first film, full of fun, drama, and spectacle.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":160100,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[45,11,525,41],"tags":[1234,1130,1360],"class_list":["post-160093","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-media-cartoons","category-media-comics","category-marvel-cinematic-universe","category-media-movies","tag-mcu","tag-moviereview","tag-spiderman"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/spider-man-across-the-spider-verse-poster-1.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":135611,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/12\/11\/movie-review-spider-man-homecoming-2017.html","url_meta":{"origin":160093,"position":0},"title":"Movie Review: “Spider-Man: Homecoming” (2017)","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 11-Dec-17 8:35am","format":false,"excerpt":"Yeah, I know I'm late to the game with this one, because, honestly, I've been burned out on Spidey -- in movies and comic books -- for quite a while. This movie changed that. \u2605\u2605\u2605\u2605\u2606 (with a \u2665) Full Review: https:\/\/letterboxd.com\/three_star_dave\/film\/spider-man-homecoming\/ A \u2605\u2605\u2605\u2605 review of Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017) I lost\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/spider-man-homecoming.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":49530,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/02\/10\/spider-man-will-join-the-marvel-cinematic-universe.html","url_meta":{"origin":160093,"position":1},"title":"Spider-Man will join the Marvel Cinematic Universe","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 10-Feb-15 7:23am","format":false,"excerpt":"Albeit with some contractual strings attached back to Sony.I would be more excited about this if I were more of a Spider-fan. In general, though, I find him ... meh. Mostly stand-alone, witty banter, tragic relationships, web-slinging and all that -- I just don't see him fitting into what has\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":130655,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/05\/14\/force-ranking-the-mcu-heroes.html","url_meta":{"origin":160093,"position":2},"title":"Force-Ranking the MCU Heroes","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 14-May-16 12:43am","format":false,"excerpt":"Here's an attempt by \/Film to force-rank the heroes of the Marvel Cinematic Universe [(which apparently excludes Marvel's Agents of SHIELD, though not the Netflix series or Agent Carter). It's a mook's game, of course, because (a) everyone's going to have their own preferences, and (b) there are cases where\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":44197,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/08\/06\/the-marvel-cinematic-universe-and-the-march-of-time.html","url_meta":{"origin":160093,"position":3},"title":"The Marvel Cinematic Universe and the March of Time","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 6-Aug-14 2:37pm","format":false,"excerpt":"As far as I know, Kevin Feige and Marvel have been pretty quiet about the subject, but the clock is ticking on the MCU's stars. There was a lot of talk from and about Robert Downey, Jr, hanging up the Iron Man role after the next Avengers movie (though I've\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/falcon-black-old-captain-america-4-147165B15D.jpg.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":49544,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/02\/11\/the-amazing-spider-deal.html","url_meta":{"origin":160093,"position":4},"title":"The Amazing Spider-Deal","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 11-Feb-15 5:59pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Has there ever been an intellectual property deal like this? Sony agreeing to Spidey appearing in some Disney\/Marvel films, but neither side is paying anything, exercising creative control, and both studios are planning things for the character -- who (it sounds like) will be played by the same (new) actor\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":156571,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2022\/03\/12\/movie-review-spider-man-no-way-home-2021.html","url_meta":{"origin":160093,"position":5},"title":"Movie Review: “Spider-Man: No Way Home” (2021)","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 12-Mar-22 9:28pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Tom Holland SM films have been about growing up. This one's even more so.","rel":"","context":"In "Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU)"","block_context":{"text":"Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU)","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media\/franchises\/marvel-cinematic-universe"},"img":{"alt_text":"Spider-Man: No Way Home poster","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/spider-man-no-way-home-multiverse-poster.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/spider-man-no-way-home-multiverse-poster.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/spider-man-no-way-home-multiverse-poster.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/spider-man-no-way-home-multiverse-poster.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160093","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=160093"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160093\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":160105,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160093\/revisions\/160105"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/160100"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=160093"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=160093"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=160093"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}