When Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse swung into cinemas in 2018, it proved something startlingly obvious, but stubbornly unchangeable till that moment: not every major studio animation needs to look like Toy Story to be successful. This epiphany has been widespread and keenly felt since, but COVID-19-delayed sequel Across the Spider-Verse proves that this trendsetting series remains Miles ahead of the copycat competition.
A supremely confident, ravishingly rendered follow-up, Across the Spider-Verse dazzles out of the gate with a bravura 25-minute pre-title sequence featuring multiverse-hopping Spider-folk from the future, a Da Vinci-world Vulture constructed from parchment, and a formative tragedy for Gwen Stacy. It only raises the stakes from there.
