Susan Granger’s review of “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” (Sony Pictures Animation/Marvel/Columbia)
Although the mixed-media Pop Art animatronics are dazzling and the superhero saga compelling, watching “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” becomes an exhausting endurance ordeal. At 2 hours, 20 minutes (140 minutes), it’s the longest American animated film.
Back in 2018, the Oscar-winning, comic-book adaptation “Spider-Man: Into the Spider Verse” explored the idea of alternate universes, as Miles Morales (Shameik Moore), a troubled Black-Latino Brooklyn teenager, discovered countless other web-slingers, variations on a theme. This sequel takes the ground-breaking concept even further.
It opens on Earth-65 with a prologue detailing a major misunderstanding between Spider-Woman Gwen Stacy (Hailee Steinfeld) and her police captain father (Shea Whigham), who blames her for the death of Peter Parker, and her battle with Vulture (Jorma Taccone) who flaps in from an alternate 16th century.
Meanwhile on Earth-1610, now 15 year-old Miles argues with his NYPD officer father (Brian Tyree Henry) and battles villainous, dimension-hopping scientist Jonathan Ohnn, known as Spot (Jason Schwartzman) because his body is riddled with black-hole-like portals, the result of a laboratory accident at Alchemax.
That goes on and on – until – some 50 minutes later, Gwen and Miles finally get together in the sleek Spider-People HQ, a chaotic conglomeration of the Spidery Super Elite, run by glowering Miguel O’Hara (Oscar Isaac) and pregnant Jessica Drew (Issa Rae), who monitor multi-verse “abnormalities.”
Among the many free-wheeling arachnoid variants: India’s Pavitr Prabbakar (Karon Soni) in Mumbattan, Britain’s cool punk-rocker Hobie Brown (Daniel Kaluuya) and, of course, Peter Parker (Jake Johnson), now a proud papa.
At one point, someone tells Miles: “There’s no playbook for being someone like you,” which succinctly sums up his dilemma as he tries to escape and get home.
Co-written by Phil Lord, Christopher Miller &David Callaham and co-directed by Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers & Justin K. Thompson, despite its quick-paced editing during the action sequences and Daniel Pemberton’s cohesive score, it’s simply far too long, concluding with a cliffhanger, teasing the next installment “Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse” (2024).
FYI: The inventive Lego universe sequence on Earth-13122 was animated by 14 year-old Preston Mutanga, the Minnesota-born son of immigrant parents from Cameroon, after producers spotted his Lego-laden YouTube blog.
On the Granger Gauge of 1 to 10, “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” swings in with a sly, subliminally superb, if self-indulgent 7, playing in theaters.
