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Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (2023)

Five years ago, I wrote about the first part here – very briefly and reservedly (less than a line, I think), but I praised it; I also wrote a review, essentially right after watching it in the cinema. Since then, I've rewatched it a couple of times, but it was quite a while ago. To give a somewhat objective assessment of the sequel, frankly, it would be necessary to rewatch the first part and then write here. But I'm too lazy to do that, and I'm not writing a professional review, but just my humble opinion for a limited circle of forum users. So, if my memory fails me during inevitable comparisons, please forgive me.

I will still have to give a brief description of the first part to set the context for the second. For reference, I'm talking about the animated film Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018). First, it had a unique visual style that tried to mimic an animated comic book. At first, immediately after starting, it looked awful, as if the animation was cut short, and that's why we're watching a cartoon in 14fps. Second, the main character is black. And at first, the cartoon doesn't look particularly appealing. But after about 15 minutes, the visual style starts to unfold, and you realize that it was a bold but cool decision. It's hard to explain in words, but everything looks really great. As for the main character, he wasn't just lazily recolored black; they decided that this was it – he really feels like a different character, not a black Peter Parker, but a different personality, with a different lifestyle, different problems. Therefore, regardless of the desire to find "agendas," the authors at least worked out their decision. So, the first minus turns into a huge plus, and the second becomes at least neutral. All this is polished with excellent humor, evenly scattered throughout the cartoon, which is always appropriate and never causes negative feelings. And finally, interesting ideas about what the Spider-Men from parallel universes would be like (I'm only talking about the three main characters, although there are more) give the film not so much an interesting "plot," but create interest in observing what is happening. Well, since I've essentially written a ready-made review, I'll say that, in my opinion, the result turned out to be simply excellent, and the bold visual solutions made this cartoon objectively a breakthrough of the year. And I was very much looking forward to the sequel, the release of which was delayed.

The first impression of the new part, when I started watching, was that this time the artists/animators were given complete freedom and a complete carte blanche to implement their vision. Well, you understand – like, the first part was a limited experiment, it worked, and in the second, the responsible people were given a budget and freedom of action. There is no feeling of jerkiness and low FPS at any point. But the change of styles, the work with colors became very dynamic, constantly changing, and at the same time, there is a certain "boldness," as if the artist didn't care if anyone liked it or not; he did what he thought was right. And it turned out simply amazing. Among the many styles and colors, there were moments when what was happening resembled art from Disco Elysium – and although I didn't particularly like it in the game itself, in this cartoon, it worked just great. But at the same time, there was a feeling that, on the way to this, the original authorship and originality were lost. On the other hand, this feeling could have been caused simply by the greater polish and refinement of the animations in the second part, and not by a conscious design decision in the first part. This is what I was primarily talking about when I said that it would be more objective to watch both parts one after another. So, if someone does this, they will most likely give a more objective assessment than I will.

But if I liked everything visually, then the plot is a completely different story. This is partly due to circumstances independent of the original product – in the cinema where I watched it, there was some absolutely terrible sound. But even apart from this, the Russian dubbing and translation could have influenced the perception of what was happening. In the first half hour, there are no funny jokes, but there are completely idiotic attempts by the translators to insert Russian-style modern-meme expressions. When the original is released on DVD, I will check how justified this was, but there is a feeling that not the best original was further ruined by brilliant Russian talents. In terms of new characters, we are introduced to another Spider-Man, who is a woman, black, and, attention... take a deep breath... pregnant. When I found out about this, I regretted that they didn't make her one-legged or one-armed, because in this way, they could immediately fulfill the quota and not introduce new "quota" characters. So, even though everything looked great visually, I felt discouraged.

But then, everything (not quite everything) improved. Funny jokes began to appear, and a plot began to appear – I can't say that it was original, but if you're not deconstructing superheroism, it's difficult to come up with an original plot; in the end, everything will still come down to the fact that the good guys/girls/non-binary people fight the bad guys. In general, it became interesting to watch what was happening, and the outstanding visual style simply pulled all this further and made the process of watching enjoyable. I wasn't even worried that they didn't introduce a single new white character, only two old ones, whom it was already too late to recolor. If the cartoon annoyed me, I would not fail to criticize this and ironically note that I may not fully understand the meaning of the English word "diversity." But honestly, when it's interesting to watch, I practically don't care. But if this is a red flag for you, you have been warned. I also heard objections to the plot, saying that everything again came down to saving the universe and so on. In general, the claim is valid, but this made me think about the first half hour. No, I won't suddenly start defending them and say that they became good, but I will still note one fact, which may explain its dullness. The first half is devoted to fighting the so-called "villain of the day" (in fact, even two), and by the way, this term is used in the cartoon itself. Perhaps the screenwriters wanted to show how stupid and ridiculous such a story would look, given that in the first part, the heroes essentially saved not just cities or planets, but entire dimensions. Even if this was the intention of the script, and not my personal excessive imagination, the beginning of the cartoon is still very weak and boring.

I completely forgot the most important remark about the plot. Formally, this cartoon is divided into two parts. That is, the "ending" here is not a full ending, but only a prelude to the next film. Usually, I consider this technique to be the most uncool and unjustified. But this cartoon specifically pleased me so much that I am willing to forgive it. And yes, in the end, despite all the comments, I had extremely positive impressions after watching.

And a little more about ratings. The first part has a rating of 8.1 on Kinopoisk and is in 145th place in the top 250 films. The second part, at the moment, has a rating of 8.8 and is in 34th place in the top 250 films. I will treat the rating of the second part more cautiously, mainly because of the weak beginning and, possibly, the loss of the original vision compared to the first part. But at the same time, I will say that these ratings from viewers mean something. The visualization here is so well done that it caused delight not only in me.

Perhaps, someday, I will watch the first and second parts one after another and return to this topic. But no promises.