Before we begin in earnest, I would like to take the change to encourage you to go see this movie if you haven't. Partly because I will certainly touch on some spoilers, but also just because I think it's absolutely phenomenal and I can't imagine why anyone wouldn't enjoy it. I'm not even a classic Spiderman fan. I never read the comics and I haven't seen any of the Tom Holland stand-alone ones. But if you haven't seen it and you're just curious to continue reading, my personal belief is that if a movie is good enough, then the spoilers don't fully matter. I've seen it twice now, and I probably enjoyed it more the second time.
When I first saw the teaser trailer for Into the Spider-Verse five or six years ago, I remember very clearly thinking, "WHOA." Even as animation had gotten better and better and better, there was something distinctly different about it. And beautiful. Miles running through the city with the bright yellow taxi cab in the foreground (this is the one I'm referring to). It certainly piqued my interest, but I never saw it in theaters, probably because I had a one year old at the time, and going to the movies was just not a regular thing. But I ended up watching it a year or two later, and really enjoyed it, and I filed it away as one of the movies it'd be fun to watch with Nolan once he got a little older.
Nolan is nearly 6 right now, and about two years ago he started to get into Spiderman in a serious way. Disney, in their infinite wisdom, purchased Marvel and the entire catalog of Marvel characters to produce both the teen-and-adult-centered Avengers stuff we're all familiar with, and some new kids versions of the characters to hook the audience at a younger age. So he started watching Spidey and His Amazing Friends, which is actually a really great show and for someone (me) who doesn't have an encyclopedic knowledge of Marvel characters, it's a fun way to get to know them in a very basic manner.
Once he plowed through all of the Spidey episodes available, he started watching some other Avengers shorts on Disney+ and eventually a version of the Spiderman cartoon that was definitely meant for older kids, probably 8-10 years old. (It has a pretty freaking awesome theme song.) Suddenly, half of his wardrobe was Spiderman t-shirts and Spiderman pajamas and Spiderman hoodies. And then Spiderman sheets on his bed and a Spiderman backpack. He was running out of ways to consume Spiderman, and I was personally kind of tired of having to buy EVERYTHING with the Spidey logo on it. You're allowed to have socks that don't have Spiderman on them. At least I think you are.
So I decided we would take a shot at watching Into the Spider-Verse, to see if he could handle it or if he would like it. He was historically pretty skittish about new movies (he watched the first 25 minutes of Encanto from behind our couch with his hands over his eyes -- yes, Encanto) so I wasn't sure we'd make it through the whole thing, but I figured it was worth a try, and if he didn't like it yet, we'd come back to it later.
Turns out, he loved it. He loved Gwen Stacy, he loved Peter B. Parker, he loved Spider-Ham, he loved Peni Parker. He wanted to know about the Prowler and what it meant that Miles's uncle was the Prowler and why would Kingpin kill the Prowler if they were on the same team? We started listening to the soundtrack on Alexa in the morning before school. Nolan learned all the words to Post Malone's Sunflower, and shortly thereafter Lennon at barely 2 years old was singing it with him. They'd ask for it in the car. We'd turn the volume all the way up on What's Up Danger and Nolan would scream "CAN'T STOP ME NOW" at a level that nearly broke the windows.
He started asking if there was a second one. So we looked it up and found out it wasn't coming out until 2023. This was still in fairly heavy covid times, so the thought of going to a movie seemed questionable, and the thought that eventually the year 2023 would actually get here also didn't sound believable. It was a bit of a bummer to have to wait so long, but there were teaser trailers on YouTube to tide us over, and re-watches of Into the Spider-Verse whenever necessary.
In April, Nolan was able to conquer a long-held fear of going to the movie theater, where he saw Super Mario Brothers and loved it. We had been counting down the days til Across the Spider-Verse was coming out, so knowing that he'd be excited to actually see it in the theaters was a big win.
I'm sure you can sense that there's a very important throughline happening in this, and if you're a parent I think you can visualize in your mind those moments which represent basically pantheon parenting experiences. Like taking them to their first baseball game or watching them sing in their first school concert or riding a roller coaster with them for the first time. I ordered our tickets for Sunday June 4th and immediately began feeling the excitement that I would get to experience this with Nolan as he sees a movie that he has literally been counting down the days towards. He told me afterwards that he was "a little bit shaking" going into the movie, and I asked him, "Because you were scared or because you were excited?" He said, "Both." But when I sat down in the seat next to him, I couldn't help but look over and watch his face to see his expressions as it was starting. I felt so lucky to be able to see that smile on his face (and in some ways I felt bad for Siobhan, as she decided she would hang at home with Lennon so that we could go together).
It immediately became an emotional experience for me.
I know that I have a background in studying film in a critical way, and part of me wants to separate just how much I love the movie independently from the fact that it was an incredible experience for me as a parent, but honestly, it's just not important. It was my actual experience that I got to do this with him and it of course made it better. But as of this writing, that was 22 days ago, and we have since gone back to see the movie again, this time with Siobhan, because I thought it was so incredible that I just needed her to see it to tell me if I was being unreasonable with just how much I loved it. It wasn't *just* that I was watching it with Nolan -- the movie is just fantastic, and I can't see how anyone wouldn't enjoy it, no matter if you're with your kids or if you even like Spiderman. For 22 days I have been thinking about just how good it is, and telling everyone I know about it.
Halfway through my first time watching it, I took my phone out to check the runtime so I could let Siobhan know when we'd be home. And then after I did, I typed into Google: "Across Spiderverse Oscar Best Picture". This is true. It has been years since I've really cared about what movies do or do not win Oscars, because ultimately I don't think it matters and I've learned not to let myself be disappointed when the movies I like don't win anything. But ATSV is such a tremendous achievement that I am not actively rooting for it to win all the awards -- and not just Best Animated Film, which seems like way too low of a bar right now. It should legitimately win Best Picture (and I'm aware that I'm saying that without having seen really any of the other contenders). There's just nothing that it doesn't have. The animation is remarkable, of course, and it even combines several different art styles but in a way that stays consistent. The music is again outstanding -- we've listened to the soundtrack a dozen times, and now Nolan has learned all the words to a Lil Wayne song called Annihilate. I find myself playing the original score by Daniel Pemberton often throughout the day, especially this compilation of all the Gwen-specific songs, which I cannot get enough of. The story itself is funny and moving and intense and keeps you engaged even though it's fairly long for an animated film -- but again, I think I'm at the point where I am done comparing it to other animated films only. How good a movie is should encompass the entire experience, and shouldn't be minimized because it was created using animation. The vast majority of movies at this point use CGI in some respect to enhance what is captured by the camera, so how is a fully animated film seen as "less-than"?
I knew that there had to be haters to the movie, and because I have morbid curiosity, I wanted to see what some of the negative reviews had to say, because I felt like it was a personal attack that somebody could not like ATSV. Some of the reviews said blatantly incorrect things about the plot, which to me sounds like they were just not paying attention, and hey, maybe that's why you didn't like it. "Miles spends his days on Earth-42 missing class and messing with villains" -- UH, it is a HUGELY important part of the plot that Miles does not live on Earth-42, thank you. If you are taking the time to write a professional review of the movie, holy hell I think you would not miss that detail. Some other critics argued that "multi-verse" storylines were tired at this point, because of Doctor Strange and Spiderman No Way Home and many others that have been popular recently. If you wanted to hold something like that against a movie, I guess you probably didn't like Saving Private Ryan because we've seen war movies before, like, lots and lots and lots of war movies.
The one that stood out to me most, and that felt like the deepest attack, was a review that said the movie lacked "emotional stakes", in part because it ended on a cliff-hanger (which to some people is a complete dealbreaker, I can minorly sympathize with that), but also because the multi-verse and the all-knowing Spiderman 2099 was removing the seriousness from Miles's story and softening the threat to his future. I just don't see how this can be, because to me, this movie has some of the simplest and clearest stakes of any movie -- Miles is told that his father is going to die, and that his friends (and idols!) are going to step in and stop him from saving his father's life. What more could you possibly ask for in terms of "emotional stakes"??
The story, to me, is deeply emotional. Yes there is the whole "canon event" stuff going on, twisting the narrative into somewhat confusing levels (but not really confusing enough that I couldn't have a conversation with my 5-year old son about it). But that is part of the dressing for the story. The real baseline story is about belonging, and about walking the tightrope between what you want for yourself and how you handle the expectations of others, especially parents. It's what binds Miles's story to Gwen's story, and it's why Gwen takes the lead in telling her story during the first 10 minutes of the movie. I've always been very moved by father-child/parent-child relationships in movies, even before I had kids of my own, and anyone with any psychology training could easily say it's due to how much I depended on my own father when I was a kid. It's been taken to a completely new level now that I am the one with kids, and all I want for my life is to have a relationship with them that they appreciate. For that reason, the movie was deeply emotional throughout, and I had tears in my eyes at several moments, just from the entire breadth of emotions taking place.
After I saw it the first time, I pictured in my mind the climactic moment of the movie, both action-wise and emotionally, which is the meeting with Miguel and learning about the "police captain canon", followed by the 3,000-Spiderperson Chase and Miguel's confrontation on the lunar highway. I thought about it over and over again, at just how deeply that hit me, and the chills that came over my spine at Miles's key line, "Everyone keeps telling me how my story is supposed to go. Nah, I'mma do my own thing." It was just so good, and I couldn't wait to see it again for that moment. All Miles had wanted since the first movie was to be a part of a group where he could share things with people who would understand him. That seems like a universal need, and here's a kid with superhuman ability going through the same thing. And just when he finds it -- he's the hero of the Mumbattan event, he gets the invite to the Spider Society, he reunites with his mentor -- then it all comes crashing down. To me, there's plenty at stake here for Miles, and for Gwen, and for Miguel and Jessica and Peter B. Parker, and for Jeff and Rio.
The second time seeing it, there were even more things that stood out to me. I love the very beginning, with Gwen's voiceover both summarizing the first movie and foreshadowing what was to come. It's a perfect tone-setter, and the cadence of her speech along with the music heighten the intensity. I love how Spot evolves from a comical side character at the beginning to a "do not F with him" menace by the end. Even though he's not the main antagonist in the story, Spot is the main villain, and I really appreciate the way he is introduced as sort of "figuring himself out" the same way Miles had to figure himself out in the first movie. (Nolan got a ton of laughs out of Spot "kicking his own butt", even acknowledging several days later that he was just thinking about the scene to himself and it made him laugh.) I love how Spot grows in power as the movie goes along, and both his animation and the music associated with him seems to grow in intensity as well. Maybe it's not groundbreaking, but I just thought it was great how we as the viewers essentially go through the same experience that Miles goes through with Spot -- at first he's just a joke and easily dismissed, but as it goes on you realize he's going to be a much bigger headache.
Last of all, when I saw it a second time, I allowed the final few minutes to wash over me in a deeper way than I had the first time. I mentioned above that I had checked the run time of the movie to see if I could estimate when it'd be finished. But I didn't really account for how long the credits would run, which is a very long time especially since it's an animated movie that has hundreds of animators working on it. So when the movie ended the first time, I seriously was not prepared for it. I thought we still had 10 more minutes left. I was stunned and wanted to see more. It felt like a gut-punch to have to wait until the next one is released. I can understand some people who maybe feel like it's a bit of a cop-out to end on such a cliffhanger when so much remains in the balance. But it's not like it's the first movie to ever do that. And I can't fault the filmmakers for having so many ideas they wanted to address that they had to split it into another movie. There are many ways in which the story of ATSV *did* come to a conclusion -- Gwen, after running away from the conflict with her father and staying away to avoid the tragedy that she was certain to witness, was forced to confront the situation directly and learned that change *is* possible, that you aren't just resigned to your calculated set of canon events. Peter B., along with Peni and Spider-Ham and the others, decided to firmly take sides in the disagreement, joining on with Gwen's band. Miles had grown the confidence in himself that he didn't need to keep hiding his abilities from the people he loved. Of course there is more to the story and of course they want you to buy tickets to another movie next year, but I think it's actually a sign of a very entertaining movie if it ends and all you want is to keep watching.
After all, as my good friend Dan suggested, it's really just a 9-month intermission. That's not so hard to wait for, is it?
Right after Nolan and I went to see it the first time, I said it was one of the best experiences I've ever had at the movies, and I still don't think that was an exaggeration. The experience was definitely elevated by the fact that I was seeing it with my son, who was now old enough not only to watch it but also to eagerly count down the days until its release, and his excitement was equal to mine. But it was just a spectacle. I doubt that I have felt this way seeing a movie since at least The Dark Knight, which I think I saw 4 times in theaters (at a very different stage in my life regarding responsibilities). But a few days after, it kind of hit me what experience it mirrored most, and that was seeing Hamilton live. Where I just couldn't believe how talented all the people involved were, and how I just couldn't wait to see what happened next -- and how, even though I was excited going into it, I left the theater 100x more impressed with what I had witnessed.
I just feel very grateful to have had this experience, both as an individual and as a parent, and my hope is that everyone else out there had that same rush of enjoyment as I had. Apparently it was so good that it caused me to dust off this blog I hadn't contributed to in FIVE YEARS just to talk about how much I loved it.
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Editor's Note: The author is currently investigating how much room is in his schedule to see ATSV a third time in theaters
