Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse continues the story of Miles Morales in a film that is sheer eye candy to watch, but what makes it so good?

All right. Let’s jump into the Spider-verse.

The written review is below (originally published on Medium). If you’d rather watch it, here is my video review posted on YouTube:

I have a lot to say about this film, so I want to start by letting you know that I’ve split this review into two pieces. This is the movie review where I get into the story and the characters, and in my next video, I dive into the art and technology.

Across the Spider-Verse is spectacular. The first film was great, and it is tough to make a sequel that is as good as the original. Across the Spider-Verse is better.

Because the original film had such a strong storyline and well-developed characters, and some cool story telling devices for scene setting information, Across the Spider-Verse was able to simply pick up and run, jumping straight into Miles’ life about a year and a half later without any wasted time. I really love that we get straight into the plot.

We see what Miles’ life is like now and we get a glimpse into his daily struggles. This feeds directly into the coming conflict that Miles faces as he confronts what it means to be A Spider-Man within the spider-verse canon. His fears, his choices, his sacrifices all come to a head as his character grows into the hero that he wants to become rather than the hero everyone else thinks he should be.

Because the film just dives straight into Miles’ life, staying on the original film’s trajectory, Across the Spider-Verse can expand its reach into the various lives of the ancillary characters within the multi-verse, from the captains to the love interests, to the villains, and (most important) to the other Spider-men. This extra time with Miles’ parents, lets us experience and understand their strong family bond, and we also see their corresponding multiverse characters through the eyes of the other spider-men — which creates this layered understanding of the characters and why they are so pivotal to the character of Spider-man. This layering of characters is a fascinating storytelling device that puts every other multiverse story to shame in both the DC and Marvel universes. This is how you tell a multi-verse story.

Across the Spider-verse also doesn’t waste time introducing us to Spot, the “villain of the week.” We don’t see the slow build up that reveals him as the bad guy. We see Spot trying to be a villain and just utterly screwing it up, and we see Miles — who is now very comfortable in his role as Spider-Man — confronting spot.

Do to the nature of Spot’s condition, there are some hilarious fight scenes … the kind of scenes that we have never seen on the big screen. They are as funny as they are fascinating.

As Spot grows into his villainhood, he gets scarier, and the humor dies down to elevate the seriousness of the situation. I wish a little more of the humor was retained, but that choice does make sense.

We get a lot more of Gwen, which is great because we see her as the hero of her own story. When she is on screen in those scenes, she easily transitions to the main character as she confronts her own failures as a Spider-woman, as a daughter, and as a friend.

We also get so much more of Rio Morales, Miles’ mom, as she imparts love, wisdom, parental guidance, and concern for her son. This type of family dynamic is something that is missing from a lot of superhero films. Either the loving parent is already lost, creating this gaping hole in the hero’s heart, or the parent is very shouty and frustrated with the strange actions of their child. Rio blasts past all that relationship red tape and just loves Miles through thick and thin, and that’s different.

The family theme has always been strong in the Spiderman series, but it is on fire in Across the Spider-verse. Even better, the movie doubles down on the multiverse family theme and shows the expansive diversity of the Spider-People as the heroes behind their masks. We see Peter Parker again, this time as a dad. Plus, we meet Jessica Drew, a new pregnant Spider-Woman; Miguel O’Hara who is suffering from the loss of his family; Pavitr Prabhakar, who is madly in love; and my personal favorite new Spider-Man, punk rocker Hobie, who is in it for his friends..

This brings us to the themes that play out in Across the Spider-Verse. After seeing so many superhero films that go desperately dark and gritty, especially in the DC universe, it is so nice to see the themes of love, family, and friendship as canonical fixtures within the Spider-verse.

This film is also funny. The use of humor to counterbalance the fear and pain, is nicely done, keeping the film feeling lighter and full of hope — primarily because of Miles.

This is a film for anyone and everyone. You don’t have to see the first film to get into Across the Spider-Verse, but it would be helpful. It’s so good, that, if you are like me, you’re going to want to see it at least twice in the theater, because the story, the characters, and the art are that good.

Just a reminder that I also have a review where I talk about the art and technology of Across the Spider-verse. So, if you like this review, I think you’ll like that commentary, too.

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