It really is The Empire Strikes Back of the Spider-Verse.

Score: 5 / 5

How do you build off of what was the excellent Into the Spider-Verse? That’s the question that the team at Sony had to figure out, and coming up with a movie that has been compared to Star Wars The Empire Strikes Back is probably the best possible answer to that question.

This sequel builds off of everything from the original and improves it in one way or the other. Animation? Check. Characters? Check. Music? Check. This is all with a complete story for the leads of this entry while setting the groundwork for what the next entry will focus on. That’s a lot of spinning plates, more often than not, accomplishing that task doesn’t work. It works here, and then some.

To elaborate, the story. This entry divides its focus between Miles Morales (Shameik Moore), and Gwen Stacey (Hailee Steinfeld). It’s a smart decision for a story that was going to be broken into two parts. Across the Spider-Verse begins with both Gwen and Miles lacking confidence in either their place in their world or their confidence in who they are. By the end, both have an answer. This is also the case to a smaller degree with the villain Spot (Jason Schwartzman). The introduction of Spot is what really sets off the journeys for all of these characters as he is able to hop between universes at will. This will push all the major characters to journey throughout the multiverse instead of the multiverse invading just one reality. This movie ends with a pretty huge cliffhanger, and what makes that work is that these characters all end in drastically different places than where they started.

Along the way, the movie introduces so many other fresh and interesting Spider-People. Pavitr Prabhakar aka Spider-Man India (Karan Soni), and Hobbie Brown aka Spider-Punk (Daniel Kaluuya) are major stand-outs. It’s a continuing trend from the first film that these side characters feel unique and fleshed out. They may all be a Spider-Person but they are never exactly the same. Which makes the other major antagonist’s mission all the more interesting.

Oscar Issac plays Miguel O’Hara, Spider-Man 2099. His goal in this movie is to keep the multi-verse intact, which he believes means that there are rules of what must happen in a life for a Spider-Person. Called Cannon Events, these are moments that must happen or else a universe will collapse. Events such as Uncle Ben having to die. This wrinkle comes directly in conflict with Miles Morales who refuses to believe that this is the only way things have to go. So many levels of conflict with both sides not necessarily in the wrong, it makes for such entertaining spectacle. Moving away from story, I cannot finish any review of this movie without talking about the animation.

Carrying the torch of unique animation choices of the first movie, Across the Spider-Verse takes things up one notch. Instead of mashing several characters of a different style of animation into one location with a consistent animation style, this movie does the opposite in several occassions. As Miles and Gwen travel through the Spider-Verse, they are the ones with a unique animation style while everyone else is a constant. It’s pretty wild that the studio and animators were able to pull this off, but they did and then some. This movie deserves every award in that category. Spider-Punk, and the Renaissance Vulture, by the way, are major spotlights on the bold wacky animation styles that are used in this movie character wise.

There is so much more I could say about this movie, it’s that fun, but to close it out. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is a confident step forward in creating the best part two of a trilogy I have seen in a very long time. Beyond the Spider-Verse cannot come soon enough (but take all the time in the world if all the reports of animation crunch is spot on).