It’s my opinion that the 2018 animated movie Spiderman Into the Spider verse was a far better spiderman film than any of the Tom Holland movies and a superior superhero movie to much of what marvel has been making. However….that’s not the movie I’m talking about today. My siblings and I loved Into the Spider verse and we bought the movie so naturally, we were excited when a sequel was announced. We saw it this week and it did not live up to its predecessor. Disclaimer-this review will contain spoilers so if you don’t want any or haven’t seen the film yet, watch the movie and then check this out. But I’ll say in advance since it is 2 hours of your life and Cinemark isn’t cheap, I suggest skipping this one.

The good:

I’ll confess right away this section will probably be the smallest that I cover in the review though I don’t want to do a disservice to the good material which was in the movie.

• A good context and established world. The movie was building off the first film in which we’d already been  introduced to various Spider men, the multiverse in all its enjoyable insanity and several different versions of our main hero. It was interesting and it set us up easily for a sequel.

• Spider Gwen’s story. Gwen Stacy (Spider woman in an alternate universe) was a good character in the first film and has an interesting story in comics. This movie opens in her universe and the first 15 minutes are pretty intense following the death of Peter Parker in her world and showing us how heavily the weight of being a superhero burdens her. I appreciated how much the movie took her and the stakes in her world seriously. 

• After all the recent marvel films I’ve begun to cringe whenever heroes come on screen because I’m worried about off color jokes and forced comedy. In this film when scenes were trying to be dramatic they took themselves pretty seriously for the most part. I had my issues with the family drama (we’ll stay positive for this part of the review), but I appreciated that when characters were sad, in turmoil, or distressed there weren't stupid quips every second. 

• Another point which goes hand in hand with the last one, is that the movie tried to show what a burden it is to be spiderman in many different ways. It tried to display the conflict of someone Gwen or Miles’ age having a dual life, the isolation, the risk to their own safety, and how being Spiderman is more than eating churros and going to prom  cough* Homecoming you owe me an hour and a half of my life back– this movie strives to show the viewer that being spiderman is a gift and a curse. 

• The action was pretty impressive for the most part. The animators came up with extremely cool and outlandish ways to use the spider powers and make the fight scenes entertaining and different every time. 

The beginning of the bad…Miles’ forced drama with his family:
I just said that it wasn’t a picnic to be Spiderman and I meant it with every fiber of my being, for Gwen Stacy we see that. But for Miles….it feels forced. If you're going to have your hero have a family, and they’re still a part of the hero's life but the protagonist doesn’t tell them who they truly are–you need to have an excellent reason. This movie gives us one example of a strong reason to keep your identity a secret and another not so strong.

• Gwen Stacy has a father who’s a Police Officer and in her universe Peter Parker is her best friend. Parker becomes the Lizard whom she fights and kills in battle. He reverts back to human form and Gwen sees that she’s killed her best friend who was also close with her father. Captain Stacy–her father–walks in to see Spider Woman over the dead boy of his friend. Naturally, Captain Stacy is now hunting Spider woman who he doesn't know is his own daughter. Gwen has to keep fighting crime as Spider woman to protect the city even though her father seeks her life. When Captain Stacy discovers her identity he tries to arrest Gwen. All of this makes it clear why Gwen is forced to keep a double life of secrets and lies as well as how it’s wrecking her family. The conflict makes it clear to the viewer why Gwen can’t tell people the truth, especially her father.

• Miles Morales’ father is also a Police Officer only he works with Spiderman since the end of the first film, the two of them seem to be on good terms and even congenial with each other. Miles, though, still hasn’t told his family the truth when they’re begging for him to share. Miles is late for everything, misses important family events, and fights with his parents when they confront him and refuses to tell them who he is even though his father has accepted Spiderman. In Gwen’s case, she’s afraid of being brought to jail or of her father hating her when he learns she’s the one who killed their friend Peter Parker. What exactly is Miles afraid of?  His family likes Spiderman now and they’re always begging for him to talk to them but he never does. 

As the audience knows, Miles is really off risking his life as Spiderman, but his family doesn't. To them he would look like a disrespectful punk who never tells them where he is and blows off his commitments. The movie spends at least 30 minutes on building this tension and then introduces Gwen to make it worse. She has run away from her family and so she immediately bonds with Miles saying his family doesn't understand him and they run around the city together talking about how alone they are. For Gwen this makes sense, she ran away and so she's trying to find escapism instead of confronting her problems and dealing with reality. But Miles has a family waiting to understand him and he just jumps at the first chance to run off and be free with someone like him instead of confronting his problems. This could have been fine as an arc for the characters to grow from, but the movie spends way too much time on it for the arc to be effective. Which brings me to another thing….time.

If I could save time in a bottle…I would take out half of this movie, put it in a bottle and toss it in the ocean or back in the oven because it was not ready: 

• The first portion was 40 minutes of Miles avoiding his family and then running into Gwen, and then chasing a random silly villain who we introduced as a joke but now wants to destroy the multiverse and everything Miles loves.

• Gwen is now with this task force which keeps the multiverse in check and Miles wants in because I guess he has a crush on Gwen and he really doesn’t want to confront his problems with his family. 

• They run into two other spidermen, one of whom is a generically east Indian character, and the other is British and doesn't believe in much of anything so I’m not sure why we’re supposed to sympathize with him. Neither one of them has much impact as a character or does a lot in the movie. 

• Then Gwen and Miles go to Spiderman headquarters where hundreds of web slingers are just hanging around. Question: if they all come from universes where they're Spiderman what are they doing chilling here while super villains tear up the town in their cities? 

• They meet Miguel–the head of the organization which keeps the multiverse in check and he tells them that the multiverse is at stake because some non-cannon events were changed. These were caused by Miles of course but were finding it out far too late in the film.

All of this puts us more than halfway though, I believe, and yet nothing has really happened except for throwing out hundreds of Spiderman characters and having a lot of flashy action. The funny villain Holes has been jumping around getting more powerful so he can kill Miles because he hates him, and now we’re thrown that the course of events in the prewritten multiverse are at stake–it’s kind of random and feels tossed in to add friction. The plot was all over the place while the first film had a concise plot thread to follow and was a strong origin story. Kingpin was the villain, Spiderman dies, and Miles feels compelled to take up the mantle when he’s given spider powers–only he spends the whole film realizing exactly what it means to take up the mantle and it takes the loss of his uncle and an inability to mend his relationship with his father to push him forward.

The rushed conclusion:

For a 2 hour movie this film had a rushed beginning of a conclusion and no real ending. We are told Miles upset the multiverse by saving someone who wasn’t meant to be saved. Miles saves the East Indian Spiderman's girlfriends, father–a Police Captain. In every universe a Police captain close to Spiderman will die as will his uncle-these events can’t be changed, apparently. This means Miles' father will die. Miles wants to stop the event but Miguel says that when things were upset in the past, the entire universe' fabric will crumble and everyone in that reality will die. Miles naturally rushes off to save his father in his reality, but Miguel and the other Spider people of his organization chase Miles to stop him. Miles gets thrown into a different reality and everyone is out to get him but we don’t see how it ends. This creates a number of problems.

• Gwen and Miles are acting like Miguel is a jerk for not wanting Miles to save his father but if we have difinitive proof that saving someone and breaking the rules will kill the whole universe–then he’s not wrong. If Miguel were operating on a hunch or a theory then yes Miles has every right to save his father but we’re told a whole reality was destroyed because Miguel saved someone and broke cannon.

• The plotline of all reality being at stake should have been introduced sooner and that way we’d actually be able to ask questions about how certain we are changing one action would kill billions, or how much we know about our futures is set in stone? Then Gwen and Miles would be able to make a decision as to what would be morally right in the given situation. But the whole thing feels rushed. 

• Miguel forces Gwen to go home when she tries to assist Miles and she acts like he’s being a villain, but again–have we proven he’s wrong and that letting one person die won’t spare the whole reality?  It seems like characters acted as if they had extra information we didn’t, and knew Miguel was supposed to be a bad guy. 

• Right as Gwen and Miles are forced to go home and confront their problems (which should have happened much sooner) another wrench gets thrown in the works. Gwen is able to reconcile with her father but Miles is in another universe where he’s the Prowler. So he doesnt get to talk to his family.

 It felt like the movie wasted an hour having Miles run around with other Spider people, be distant from his family and then they resolved nothing. 

In conclusion:

This movie was a good example of something that had an unfocused plot and didn't need to be as long as it was. The hook at the end wasn't gripping because we know Miles will save his father, and Miguel will be proven wrong. But that's something that could have been done in this film, it didn’t need to go on that long and get nowhere. Basically, I think you could skip this movie but if you want to see it and decide for yourself then have at it.