Typically, animated films do not do a lot for me.  They are usually made for a different audience than myself, and that is okay.  People like what they like, there is no accounting for taste, to each their own, yada yada yada.  Many of the adults who take their children to see cartoon movies try to fool themselves into thinking it is actually aimed at the grown-ups.  Let it go, people.  Let your young ones have it.  Just sit there looking at your phones until it blessedly ends.  None of this seems to apply to the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU).  As I have stated in recent entries into this series, it is getting to the point of critical mass.  This is a fitting idea to keep in mind when thinking about Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, as you will see with this review.  At any rate, when physicists talk about this concept, it is to explain what is needed to initiate a chain reaction.  In layman’s terms, this means there is about to be something big happening.  It could be an explosion that will ruin everything, or lead to a new beginning or creation.  Only time will tell as to what this means for the rest of the MCU, which is also apropos as it ends on a cliffhanger.

In Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018), we focused on Miles Morales (voiced by Shameik Moore).  He is high school kid who is bitten by a radioactive spider and becomes the title hero.  It also features other versions of the web slinger from multiple dimensions, chief among them is his love interest Gwen Stacy (voiced by Hailee Steinfeld), also known as Spider-Woman.  She is the one we meet first in Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.  She is back in her own dimension, and we get a bit of her back story.  If you are used to Peter Parker being the being the eponymous character, do not worry, there are plenty of those in this movie.  In Gwen’s world, Peter (voiced by Jack Quaid) ends up consuming a potion that turns him into the Lizard, a classic Spider-Man villain, who dies fighting Spider-Woman.  Gwen’s father, George Stacy (Shea Whigham), is a police officer who comes to the scene of this fight just after it finishes, seeing Spider-Woman flee from the scene.  Already feeling alienated from her friends, and losing her best one in this universe, Gwen now has to worry about her father vowing to track down Peter’s killer.  This does not stop her from being Spider-Woman, though, and she is back at it fighting the Vulture (voiced by Jorma Taccone) in a nearby museum.  This turns out to be from a Leonardo da Vinci-esque dimension, and a few other Spider-people show up to help defeat this villain.  In the aftermath, George corners Gwen and is about to arrest her.  Instead, she reveals her identity to her stunned father.  Nonetheless, he is going to proceed with taking her into custody when Jessica Drew (voiced by Issa Rae), the other Spider-Woman, offers Gwen a way out.  Gwen is given a chance to join other Spider-People in keeping the multi-verse in order, and she takes it rather than being imprisoned.  We then shift to Miles, whose parents, Jefferson Davis-Morales (voiced by Bryan Tyree Henry) and Rio Morales (voiced by Luna Lauren Vélez), are about to meet with a school counselor to discuss college choices.  Miles is not present because he is out being the friendly neighborhood Spider-Man.  This particular adventure brings him to a local convenience store where the automated teller machine (ATM) is being robbed by a bad guy going by the name The Spot (voiced by Jason Schwartzman).  He is formerly Dr. Jonathan Ohnn, but during the climactic events of the last movie involving a bunch of science stuff, he developed the ability to open up portals in space and time that cover his body like a cow.  He wants Spider-Man to take him seriously, who Dr. Ohnn blames for all his current problems.  After a bit of a struggle, Spider-Man traps him in some webs and makes it late to the meeting at school.  The Spot gets away, however, while Miles is showing his parents that he has other priorities than what they intend for him.  This includes not showing up on time for a party they are having to celebrate Jefferson’s promotion on the police force.  They ground him for his behavior, but while sitting in his room, Gwen appears.  He sneaks out with her and she explains some of what is going on with her new duties in helping to protect the multi-verse.  He invites her back to the party and she gets to meet Miles’ parents.  Yet, this turns out to not be a social call, and her duties have her abruptly leaving.  Seeing his hurt over this turn of events, Rio relents and lets Miles go after her.  He tracks Gwen to an abandoned warehouse where she sees the evidence of Dr. Ohnn’s experiments with multi-dimensional travel.  It also shows that she had not been entirely honest with Miles.  Seeking answers, he follows her into another universe where the Spot gains access to another multi-dimensional machine in his attempt to grow more powerful.  Miles is also given a vision of Jefferson dying at the Spot’s hands.  In the resulting chaos, Miles meets Spider-Man India (voiced by Karan Soni), and ends up saving his girlfriend’s father.  This turns out to be a mistake.  This is according to Miguel O’Hara (voiced by Oscar Isaac), otherwise known as Spider-Man 2099, who is the leader of the multi-dimensional protecting Spider-people.  In his view, these “canon events” are what hold the multi-verse together.  If they are not allowed to happen, then everything collapses.  He also views Miles as an anomaly since the spider that bit the kid was from another dimension.  To Miles, this is unacceptable, and he demands that he be allowed to return to his home to save his father.  Miguel will not let this happen, so Miles must fight his way through an army of Spider-people to accomplish this goal.  He also feels betrayed by Gwen because she told him nothing about this world.  Unfortunately, the dimension that he is sent to is the one from which the spider that bit him came.  This one already has a Miles, and he, along with his Uncle Aaron Davis (voiced by Mahershala Ali), are criminals.  Specifically, this Miles is the arch villain known as the Prowler.  Meanwhile, Gwen, feeling bad about what she had done to her Miles, tracks down a number of sympathetic Spider-People who travel to the dimension where Miles is Spider-Man.  And this is where this ends.

There is a lot to take in from Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.  I say that not just because there is a lot going on with the plot, which I am afraid I did not do justice to, but because it is one of the more creative films I have seen in a while.  Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse had fun with the concept of many different versions of the famous wall crawler.  Not to be too cliché, but Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse takes it to another level.  This is what I was getting at with the idea of critical mass in the introduction.  The potential is for a catastrophic disaster because the plot deals with multiple dimensions where the rules are tenuous, at best.  The human brain can only comprehend so much, and there will, regrettably, be those out there that see this and think it is a bunch of nonsense.  In fairness to them, by and large it is nonsense.  Yet, there are two ways of approaching something that could potentially blow up in everyone’s proverbial cinematic faces: you can either play it safe or embrace it and let it take you as far as the imagination can go.  It is obvious that those responsible for this film opted for the latter route.  If you are in need of a thread, the film provides it with Miles’ need to stop The Spot from killing Jefferson.  Focus on that if the rest gets to be too distracting.  On the other hand, if your brain can handle things multi-dimensionally, then what you have here is art.  I am not being disingenuous or joking.  This film is art.  It is beautiful to look at, and it has some heavy-duty themes going on in it.  It is all one can ask for in a movie.

Now to talk about those aforementioned “heavy-duty themes” in Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.  The biggest one is fate.  This is a tricky one with Catholicism.  In short, we do not believe in fate, yet it is complicated by the fact that God knows everything we are going to do before we do it.  This is hard to understand because it sounds a lot like I am contradicting myself.  It is also hard for Miles to accept as Miguel explains it.  Miguel offers as proof of the dangers of messing with fate his own attempts to do so.  He had found a dimension where a version of himself had been killed, and he decides to take his place.  It leads to the entire dimension destroying itself before his eyes.  What Miles cannot let happen is the death of Jefferson, even though Miguel claims that by stopping it Miles will end up killing countless billions in that universe.  The problem here is that this is all theoretical.  There is no theory with God.  Ultimately, whether it is fate or the result of our own choices, we have the ability to trust it all to God.  Not only can this affect our own salvation, but those of others.  It may seem like a poor excuse, but some things are truly beyond our understanding.  How can we have free will and yet God knows how we will spend eternity?  Faith is the only place where two seemingly opposite ideas can be true at once.  It is best to trust in Him and let Him reveal to you what He wills.  Doing good along the way helps.  That is Miles’ mission, whereas Miguel seeks to control.

I unequivocally recommend Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.  There is nothing in it that I would say is too difficult for any audience to handle.  There are also some references to actual prayer, which I found amazing.  Unlike the way other animated films try to trick adults, this one truly has something for everyone.