african-american directors series: spider-man: across the spider-verse (joaquim dos santos, justin k. thompson, and kemp powers, 2023)

I called Into the Spider-Verse "endlessly inventive and full of surprises." Thus, this sequel couldn't surprise me as much as the first one. Guess what? I was surprised, once again, at just how amazing this movie is. You don't need to be conversant with the Marvel Cinematic Universe ... honestly, I'm not sure it is canonical in that series. Just sit back and let it work you.

I didn't always know exactly what was going on (nothing new for me), but it didn't matter, because the animation was so jaw-dropping, I didn't care about any incoherence. And I'm not sure you can call it "incoherence" in a movie like this, with countless places in countless time lines. I mean, yes, it's hard to follow, but the characters struggle with this, too.

The voice actors are great, the various permutations of Spider-Man are great, the added emphasis on Gwen Stacy/Spider-Woman is great (she's as much the main character as she is supporting). The Easter eggs are inventive, although of course I barely spotted them ... there are almost as many Easter Egg YouTube videos as there are worlds in the multi-verse, at least one of which approaches an hour in length.

It might all be overwhelming, if it wasn't so much fun to watch. Maybe the best trick of all is that the two Spider-Verse movies, which are not exactly in my range of favored taste preferences (non-Miyazaki animation, Marvel superheroes), delight me to fully. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is easily the best movie from 2023 that I have seen so far.