Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, a sequel that lives up to its ambitions (review)

Five years after the first part, Spider-Man returns to weave his web in a spectacular and moving sequel, boosted by expert work on the animation.

First broadcast for Across the Spider-Verse, this Friday evening on Canal+. The encrypted channel’s blockbuster evening is worth a watch: here is our favorite review of the animated film, interspersed with interviews with its creators.

The multiverse. This new narrative has come, for better or for worse, to irrigate American cinema in recent years. Recently popularized by Marvel with Doctor Strange: In The Multiverse of Madnessthis concept evolved to become a phenomenon with the success ofEverything Everywhere All At Once, pop candy from A24 which won the Oscar for best film at the start of the year, opening the door to a new, more uninhibited cinema in Hollywood. In 2023, how can we succeed in reinventing this already outdated concept? Nothing could be simpler: you have to go and see animated cinema, which, unlike live action, allows you to multiply the possibilities, enrich the narration and take considerable risks, provided that the work on the The animation itself lives up to the ambitions.

In 2018, Spider-Man: New Generation was one of the first films to explore this idea. The result was already prodigious, crossed by a genius coming from both comics and manga, not content with being a simple “Animation Film”. Imagining a sequel to this little masterpiece was therefore risky. But in the end, the risk (very) often pays off. Because Across the Spider-Verse is a little marvel of animation, which goes well beyond its ambitions as a simple sequel to draw on a scenario of incomparable richness, aided by a multiplication of dramatic twists, each more astonishing than the last. This sequel is not content to be entertainment calibrated for the youngest, it is also a real emotional outlet. Miles Morales, this teenage Spider-Man son of African-American and Latino parents, finally enters the prime of life, and logically seeks his independence. Facing him, Gwen Stacy, known as Spider-Gwen, a teenager also in search of independence, must save the universe alongside a team of super Spider-Men from different branches of the multiverse.

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse: “Spider-Man is a character who belongs to his audience”

The great strength of the film lies in the portrayal of its heroes: far from clichés, every child, adolescent and adult will be able to recognize themselves in the character of Miles Morales, this street child of New York who seeks to flourish far away. of the family home. We can therefore only be moved when our young hero finds himself face to face with his mother, worried about her son, seen as a figure of wisdom and recalling the description made by Romain Gary in The promise of dawn : “She had eyes where life was so good that I never knew where to go since”, she also showing a reassuring look in which Miles ends up instantly getting lost, bringing him back to his childhood. The father, on the other hand, is the incarnation of an ideal, much more focused on his person but nourished by a wisdom equivocal to that of the mother, seeking to climb the ladder in the face of the pressures that accompany his profession as a New cop. Yorkers.

Behind this idea, the screenwriting duo Phil Lord and Chris Miller succeed in building an exciting adventure, on which they strive to extend the representation: an Indian Spider-Man, a punk Spider-Man, a Spider-Woman acting with a virtual reality headset, or even a Spider-Man dad, seen through the figure of Peter Parker, also moving, trying to reason with Miles Morales in the face of the dangers of the multiverse. But one of the film’s greatest strengths lies above all in its depiction of evil. The bad guy is never seen as a concrete threat here, at least not really at the start: he is a “Sunday enemy” as Miles indicates, before he reveals his true nature in the middle of the film. We won’t say more.

In order to serve this narrative richness, the work on animation provides fabulous support. All styles of animation are explored here, from the pop side of the original comics to more modern, less still styles. The only black spot on the picture of this adventure, which we will here describe as the “Dune” effect: the suspension of the action at a fateful moment, while the adventure was about to resurface again, before finally being left aside to allow the film to be separated into two parts. We forgive this awkwardness, and we remain patient before the second part of the film, scheduled for 2024.

Trailer :

Who are the heirs of Spider-Man: New Generation?