“Across the Spider-Verse” has so much going for it, but its visual style and scale are, for me, the best parts. The movie feels huge without compromising the interpersonal drama and heart at the core of Miles’ and Gwen’s stories. And aside from working in literally thousands of Spider-People from 60 years of Spider-Man history, the story spans six different timelines. Which for three filmmakers in their feature directorial debut, is just a massive thing to take on.
So, to say Santos and his co-directors were nervous going in is somewhat of an understatement. The trio spoke to IGN about their trepidation for “Across the Spider-Verse,” revealing some of their specific concerns about the sequel. As Kemp Powers put it, “For me, the biggest nerves I had about it was people saying it was too dark. But that’s also necessary, as Justin said, to make people want to go into the next film.”
The film certainly isn’t entirely light-hearted, with Oscar Isaac’s Miguel O’Hara, aka Spider-Man 2099, conveying a genuinely threatening and vampiric aura at various points. Meanwhile, the film’s central villain The Spot (Jason Schwartzman) transmogrifies from a wise-cracking “villain of the week” as Miles puts it, into a terrifying vision of anarchy and decay by the film’s end. But what Powers seems to be referring to is the twist ending, where Miles believes he’s back in his own universe but discovers he’s actually been transported to an alternate reality where his father has died and there’s a sinister version of himself who’s taken on the mantle of the Prowler — the villainous alter ego of his deceased uncle from back in Miles’ own timeline. And all while The Spot travels to Miles’ actual universe to kill the hero’s father. Pretty bleak stuff.
