Michael's Movie Grade: A+
One of the best superhero movies ever.
Oh my gosh, where do I even begin to praise this amazing film? I came into this movie with high expectations and even those were greatly exceeded. When I saw the first Spider-Verse film it quickly became one of my favorite superhero movies, but this sequel tops it in every single way. This is something that is even clear from before the film's title even appears on screen. This early in the film, you heart is already breaking from the more emotional parts of the story, your eyes are already wowed by the beautiful visuals, you laughed at the humor and you already find yourself deeply engrossed in the world (or worlds) of this movie. While the original mainly focused on Miles Morales, this sequel has both Miles and Gwen Stacy as its main protagonists. This allows Gwen to be given a bit more depth and feel all the more real to us. It is hard not to care deeply for this character and put ourselves immediately in her shoes. This is the secret to this film. Even with the pure visual innovation, world building and offbeat humor, the main focus of this film is always the characters and their emotions. Because of this no matter how fantastic the story gets; everything still feels completely real to us. This movie uses the superhero genre to look into the deep emotions that anyone watching can easily relate to. This film uses the idea of being a superhero and having a secret identity to look into a feeling of isolation. This is not the type of isolation that comes with being physically alone but instead emotionally alone. Miles and Gwen are surrounded by people who love them and always have their best interests at heart. Yet these people cannot enter into the same emotional plane that Miles and Gwen are on. These people can love them with all their heart but they can't understand them and makes it so that Miles and Gwen feel that they have no one to confide in at all. This is why their friendship becomes something so beautiful and touching, because they are the only ones who can see each other on their own plane. The fact that they are separated by multiple universes is what makes this so heartbreaking. This film also goes into much darker places than the first. It approaches these darker moments in a very mature and intelligent manner. For anyone who thinks that animated movies are simply children's entertainment this movie will hopefully show them, the kind of incredibly storytelling that animation is truly capable of. Even with how much I like (or even love) a lot of the live action Marvel movies, this film is much more mature and adult than the majority of the live action Marvel movies. This movie puts our heroes in not only physical dangers but also moral dilemmas for which there are no easy answers. These dilemmas are treated in a very intelligent way and the movie never once talks down to its audience. This movie also amazingly takes a corny villain like the Spot and makes him into a giant threat that is legitimately creepy at times, while still having fun with the character humor-wise.
This movie is just as visual impressive as it is emotional. The movie often combines many different styles of animation, often times with many of these styles appearing on screen at the same time. This is always simply a treat to look at, taking one's breath away easily. Yet at the same time it never feels like too much or ever becomes a distraction. Also through its animation and design work, this movie creates a world (or worlds) all of its own, many of which feel like something we have never seen before. I have seen many animated movies and I have never seen one that looks even remotely looks like this. I recommend seeing this in Dolby or IMAX as a regular movie screen could never capture all the incredible visual innovation that is seen in every second of this film. There has never been anything quite like this and I hope it goes on to be a game changer for animation in the future. I also love how this movie uses animation to tell the story and represent the emotional state of the characters. There are times when the animation style can get quite abstract but this is never done to be artsy but rather to bring you further into these characters' emotional states. Though these moments look abstract they feel more real to us than anything we could ever see in a live action superhero film. It also helps that these scenes are used sparingly, giving them a great emotional impact whenever the appear. This movie also continues what the first film did by using the medium of animation to make it feel like you have left your own world and entered into the world of a comic book. As a lover of both movies and comics this helps make these films something truly special.
This is something truly special and something that is not only seen but also experienced. There is not another film quite like this. Yet it is not the innovations but rather the heart and emotional connection I felt, that makes this one of my favorite superhero movies ever made. Go out and see it as soon as you can.
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