Gwen Stacy (Hailee Steinfeld) and Miles Morales (Shameik Moore) are now living their separate lives in their own universe’s following the events of Spider-Man Into the Spider-Verse. Both struggling to juggle their superhero and daily lives as they keep their true selves from their families. That is until Miguel O’Hara (Oscar Isaac) and Jessica Drew (Issa Rae) stumble into Gwen’s life and tell her of the existence of a secret Spider organisation that is trying to save all the universes from collapsing as a result of anomalies appearing that threaten their canon.

As with the original film the plot said out loud sounds unwieldy but the expertise with which it is laid out before us makes it simple to follow. Miguel who was teased in the post credits of the first film is a stern and serious leader who has witnessed exactly what damage an anomaly can do to a universe. He is pulling together Spider heroes from each universe to capture any anomalies and have them sent back to their own universe whilst trying to ensure key events happen as they should and are not disturbed by interlopers. A new villain known as The Spot (Jason Schwartzman) who is able to create portals between space and universes is threatening existence as we know it and all of the Spiders want to prevent him damaging the threads between them. Other significant Spider heroes we will meet along the way are Pavitr Prabhakar (Karan Soni) who is relentlessly positive and charismatic and Hobie Brown (Daniel Kaluuya) who is a punk rock anarchist who steals every scene that he is in. We will spend time in Miles, Gwen, Miguel and Pavitr’s worlds which all have their own look and feel as the gripping story unfolds.

Back in 2018 I labelled Spider-Man Into the Spider-Verse my film of the year in my 2018 – Year in Review. I then earmarked this sequel as my 3rd most anticipated film in my Top 10 Most Anticipated Films of 2023 so I entered the cinema with a mixture of excitement and trepidation about whether or not the film makers could live up to such a spectacular original film. To my amazement they appear to not only have lived up to the original but surpassed it. Across The Spider-Verse is spectacular and amazing in equal measure (yes, those are Spider-Man puns). It is brimming with imagination, filled with wonderful set pieces, has fully realised characters, a perfect voice cast and goes darker as all middle films in trilogies should. If 2024’s Beyond The Spider-Verse hits the landing and measures up to these two films we should all be talking about one of the best trilogies of all time, let alone in the bracket of animation or superhero movies.

The artwork and animation in the original was ground breaking and Across The Spider-Verse goes bigger and better. Each universe features different styles, colours and tones with perhaps the most striking being Gwen’s universe which features water colours that seem to change colour and wash out as the characters move and the scenes change. Whilst different characters also feature striking changes with Hobie appearing to be almost cut out from his comic pages and a Vulture enemy appearing to be lifted from a Leonardo Da Vinci style drawing. There is so much style and invention in every single frame and there are moments that I would happily have framed and put on my wall such as when Miles and Gwen sit upside down on a building looking out at the New York skyline.

The inventiveness and originality on show is also second to none. Superhero movies have started to touch into the multiverse for a while now but nothing has done it better than here. The alternative universes and characters are so interesting you would probably love to spend an entire film in each but the film makers are also clever enough to move on so that you get just the right dose. Good characters can be bad and vice versa when you have infinite universes. Big fans of the Spider-Man films and universe will spot references to the other films and various comics. Plus the story telling mechanism that they have continued from the first film where each Spider tells their story in voice over where they declare themselves the “one and only Spider-Man” of their universe is wonderful.

This inventiveness extends to the end credits as well where instead of seeing the usual mid or end credits sting you get a James Bond-esq credits sequence complete with a “Miles Morales will return…” title card. I actually enjoyed this much more than I would have for a short sting for the upcoming trilogy closer.

Then we have the absolutely perfect voice cast. This was true of the first film and the likes of Moore and Steinfeld as the leads are wonderful. But then we have the new additions such as Oscar Isaac, Jason Schwartzman and Karan Soni who are all brilliant. Whilst Daniel Kaluuya as Spider-Punk, aka Hobie Brown absolutely kills every line he delivers and steals the whole thing. But of course the voice acting alone is not the only thing that brings the characters to life. The script by Phil Lord, Christopher Miller and Dave Callaham give the characters time to breathe and delve into their lives and feelings in an organic way that the action builds around. Whilst the story itself has a lot to say about the difficulty of growing up where teenagers have to choose their own path and become adults and their parents have to learn to let them go.

The whole exercise is wondrous to behold and I can not wait to experience it again.