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4K Ultra HD/Blu-ray Review: SPIDER-MAN: ACROSS THE SPIDER-VERSE

Home » 4K Ultra HD/Blu-ray Review: SPIDER-MAN: ACROSS THE SPIDER-VERSE

Sep 12, 2023 Posted by in DVD/Blu-ray, Reviews | Comments

It’s been about 16 months since Miles Morales (Shameik Moore) and his small group of inter-dimensional Spider-friends joined forces to stop Kingpin and his henchmen from destroying the multiverse. Since then, Miles has been serving as Earth-1610’s lone friendly neighborhood Spider-Man. However, his heroic activities often cause him to miss class, or important family events, such as the party to celebrate his father passing his exam to become a police chief. Miles also feels a bit lonely, missing Gwen, Peter and his other multiverse cohorts. However, a new villain has appeared in Brooklyn to keep him occupied. The Spot (Jason Schwartzman) claims to be Miles’ nemesis and wants revenge for him turning him into the mutant he is. However, Miles doesn’t really know what he’s talking about, and doesn’t take the goofy, portal-hopping mutant as seriously as he probably should.

Meanwhile, on Earth-65, Spider-Gwen (Hailee Steinfeld) finds herself wrongly-accused of killing her Earth’s Peter Parker (her best friend), and the cop trying to hunt her down is her own father—though he doesn’t know that it’s his daughter under the Spider-Woman mask. She also feels a bit lost and lonely, missing her friends who understand what she’s going through. It eats away at her that she can’t tell her father the truth about who she is. One day, while trying to stop a DaVinci-era Vulture causing havoc in the Guggenheim Museum, Gwen crosses paths with members of an elite Spider-Society strike force dedicated to maintaining the security and stability of the multiverse (or, more accurately, the Arachnohumanoid Polymultiverse). Heading up the Spider-Society is the ninja-vampire Spider-Man Miguel O’Hara (Oscar Isaac), who comes from a futuristic Earth-928, set in the year 2099. Miguel takes things very seriously, and doesn’t really have the goofy sense of humor the other Spider-people have. Miguel has made it his mission is to hunt down and eliminate anomalies—creatures that are on an Earth other than their own—and to ensure that “canon events” that happen on every Earth (such as the death of a loved one) aren’t disrupted.

Gwen manages to talk her way into becoming the newest member of the team, helping them fix the multiverse. While gathering intel for one of her missions on Earth-1610, Gwen reconnects with Miles, who ultimately follows her back to Spider-Society headquarters on Earth-928, where he learns just how many Spider-People there are out there. Miles soon finds himself faced with a moral dilemma when one of the canon events the group is trying to protect hits very close to home. Miles now must decide for himself what is most important, who should be saved, and what truly defines a hero.

The original Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse film was groundbreaking, redefining what a superhero film should look like, and taking things to new and creative places. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse raises the bar yet again. It is like 5 different movies in one. In addition to the more traditional comic-book style look of Miles’ Earth-1610, this sequel also explores several new Earths, each with its own unique look and animation style. In a 20-minute cold-open, we learn a lot more about Gwen’s backstory and motivation, and this takes place in the watercolor world of Earth-65, which is like a mood-ring, changing colors to match Gwen’s emotions. Later, we visit the busy, colorful, vertical world of Mubattan (which is like Mumbai meets Manhattan) in Earth-50101. Here we meet the delightful and fun Pavitr Prabhakar (Karan Soni), who hasn’t experienced the tragic loss that usually defines a Spider-Person. The film also includes the futuristic world of Miquel’s Earth-928, with several other fun and unique animation styles popping up here and there.

Each time we meet a new Spider-Person, we get a brief rundown of their world and backstory. One person Gwen meets early on is the motorcycle-riding Jessica Drew (Issa Rae), who feels like a character out of a 1970s blaxploitation movie. She’s cool, tough, and pregnant, but always gets the job done, while also looking great while doing it! There’s also Spider Punk Hobie Brown (Daniel Kaluuya), whose animation style looks like magazine cutouts and rock posters. The film also sees the return of Peter B. Parker (Jake Johnson), who’s in a different phase of his life, and trying to integrate that into his work.

The film is certainly a feast for the eyes, with all kinds of creative animation styles, and loads of Easter eggs and other references strewn throughout. This is especially true once we get to the Spider Society headquarters, and there are literally hundreds of different Spider-People. The film has a lot of humor and some exciting action sequences—sometimes these are one in the same, such as when Miles tries to make his way out of the facility and is being chased by hundreds of unique Spider-People. While the film has lots of action and humor, at the core is this theme of love and family, which is central to all of the characters’ stories. Miles and Gwen both struggle with telling their parents’ the truth about themselves as they see their secret and personal lives threatening to ruin one another. Peter B. Parker is also becoming a family man and trying to find a work/life balance.

While I quite enjoyed this movie, it feels about 30 minutes too long, especially since it is only Part One of the story, and ends on a cliffhanger. I wish the filmmakers had actually labeled this film as being Part One, to set expectations for those going in, much like Mission: Impossible did with its most recent installment. Ironically, between Fast X, Spider-Man and Mission: Impossible, the latter is the only one that notified viewers ahead of time in its title, and is the only one that feels like a complete movie, not ending in a cliffhanger.

Sony’s 4K Ultra HD release of Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse looks and sounds excellent. The picture is pristine, with an excellent level of detail. While I wish the film had received a 3D disc release to match it’s theatrical release, the video presentation is still stellar, with beautiful, rich colors, and looking almost 3D in some parts. The 4K disc’s Dolby Atmos track is also, for lack of a better word, amazing, providing clear dialogue throughout, and constantly filling the room with an aural feast for the ears. There is so much going on in every scene, and all of that is presented in such an immersive way. You could watch this film over and over again and catch new things visually and aurally each time. The film’s worldly and delightful soundtrack and score also sounds great.

This release includes both a 4K disc and a Blu-ray disc, which are placed on either side of a standard 4K keepcase with a glossy cardboard slipcover. An insert provides instructions on how to redeem a 4K Movies Anywhere-compatible digital copy of the film. The only bonus material included on the 4K disc is the filmmaker audio commentary. Everything else resides on the Blu-ray disc. This includes over 100 minutes of behind-the-scenes featurettes, a deleted scene, and some music videos. There is so much material for the Spidey fan to enjoy!


What’s Included:

Film: (2:20:05)

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