SPOILER REVIEW! Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse and Why it’s NOT Better Than the Original

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Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to a spoiler review. Today, we're talking about Spider Man Across the Spider Verse, So listen to this episode if you too have watched Across the Spider Verse, or for some reason you had no intention to see it, and you want to hear the entire thing spoiled in a short little podcast episode. I am a huge Spider Man fan. I've been sitting with this movie now for a week at the time of recording this, and I have just been all Spider Man all week long. If you open up my TikTok, it's people breaking down every single scene, people freaking out over parts of this movie. So I feel like I've rewatched the entire thing on social media and I've had a lot of time to think about what I felt about this movie being such a big Spider Man fan, and I will say I still stand by my four point five at a five review, and by the end of this spoiler review, I can finally tell you why. Well, let's break down what this entire movie is about. It opens up like we talked about in the spoiler Free review with Gwynn Stacy, which I love the visuals in that whole opening scene, but she meets Spider Man twenty ninety nine and Spider Woman who are from another universe, and she has the whole encounter with her dad, and you know, the whole thing with her is she hasn't been able to tell her dad that she is Spider Woman, and then he finally figures it out and he holds the gun up to his own daughter and is going to arrest her. So after that she's like, I'm out of here. They put her dad into this force field and they recruit her and they are trying to solve all these Spider Man related anomalies that are happening across the Spider Verse. And the thing that we learned into the Spider Verse is if you are in the world that you are not from, you start glitching out and you can't stay there forever. You eventually have to go back to the universe where you are the one and only Spider Man, and that is where you are supposed to live. But the way Gwen and Spider Man twenty nine and Spider Woman and everybody else in this group of Spider people are able to go into other universe says they have this wristband essentially that keeps them from glitching with this technology. So she's traveling around to all these different Spider Man universes and trying to stop things from happening, and you don't really find out until later. But then in her journey, she finds her way back to Miles's world and goes to see him spend some time with him, which is one of my favorite scenes and moments throughout the entire movie. But then she makes the mistake of telling Miles and he goes and follows her and then jumps into the portal as she goes into yet another Spider Verse in India, And it's at that Spider verse in India where Miles is trying to prove to all the other Spider people that he is worthy of fighting in the cause and helping them out to save all these people, to the point where he does something really heroic and goes back to save someone when they are on the brink of death, and you think he saved the day and he's going to be rewarded for this, but there is an odd tone shift when he does that, and it feels like something is wrong even though he saved the day. There you have this crew going to still try and clean everything up and it doesn't feel like he actually did something good. Then it shortly after that that you learn through Miles that they are trying to make sure that all these cannon events happen in every single timeline. So for the most part, these cannon events are really tragic things like Uncle Ben dying, like Aunt May dying. Usually someone has to die for a cannon event to happen. That makes it so that everything stays in line in the Spider verse, that the certain people who are affected by these deaths go on to become Spider Man, and everything stays completely in line. And this is all happening while the main villain, Spot is wrecking havoc in all these different Spider verses, so they are chasing him, trying to stop him from doing these things, and Spot is trying to get stronger and stronger so he can go back and defeat Miles because he was offended by what Miles told him at the beginning of the movie, telling him he wasn't a worthy opponent. This is when Miles learns that the cannon event in his world is his dad becoming the police chief and then Spot killing him as soon as he becomes the police chief. So Miles obviously isn't gonna let his dad die, and it's the heroic Spider Man thing to go and try and save everybody, which is what he's been doing in this movie, which is what he's been doing since he became Spider Man. And then you have Spider Man twenty ninety nine telling him you gotta let it happen. We are going to keep you here by force because you have to let this cannon event go off, because you never were even meant to be Spider Man. And that's when you have to remember that the Miles we know in our universe was bit by a spider from Earth forty two, and we find out that that spider was not meant to bite him. It got there by accident. It was actually supposed to bite a different Miles who lived in Earth forty two, and he was supposed to become Spider Man, and the Miles that we know are Miles was supposed to become the Prowler. So from all this chaos, from all this confusion, Miles is able to escape and go back to where he thinks is his home. So there's this device that once you get in it, it looks at your DNA and sends you back where you came from. Miles gets in that and we think he is back home in his world, in his Brooklyn, but everything looks a little bit off, and if you pay attention to the colors, you will notice it's not the colors that our Miles Morales wears, it is the colors of the Prowler. And you find out that in this world, Spider Man's dad, instead of his own uncle, is the one who died. And you think that Aaron Davis in this situation, in this world is the Prowler, but that's not the case, because from the shadows comes another Miles dressed in the Prowler outfit, which would have been our Miles. Is real fate if everything had happened the way it was supposed to do so with that scene, it completely sets up the second part of this story, and that is why I think that the first one is better than the second one. Now, there is nothing wrong with this movie. It is still, in my mind, an almost perfect movie. But I've told you guys time and time again, I just don't like movies being deliberately split into two. And that is why I still think that the first one is better than this one. It's a more cohesive story. The first one doesn't leave you on a cliffhanger. I am not a fan of cliffhangers in movies. I really don't like big movies. Being split into two feels like a tactic that is meant for TV. Even though we knew this was going to be split into two movies, I didn't realize it would come at this point the best part in the entire movie, and I loved everything that was fleshed out and developed in this although I do think the first act dragged just a little bit so for that reason in the cliffhanger ending, I had to give it a four point five at a five, which is still awesome, and compared to all the other Spider Man movies, it's still, in my mind, the best interpretation. I just loved the different take on the struggle to become Spider Man, and we haven't seen this before of a character who was not supposed to be Spider Man but still has those same values, much like Toby Maguire, much like Andrew Garfield. He wants to help everybody because he believes in the greater good, and that is what being Spider Man is all about. But now there is a divide between all the Spider people. Are you with Spider Man twenty ninety nine and you think, well, these things have to happen to keep the world intact, to keep all the Spider Man living in a perfectly synced ecosystem, Or are you with Miles in the mindset that you have to save everybody no matter the circumstances. I and I think a lot of people would be on our Miles Moralesis side. I just think that's a great struggle. It's a great way to divide a bunch of people, and it led to an awesome scene of Miles being chased by every single Spider person. That was an amazing moment. And I think him saying Nah, I'm gonna do my own thing is one of the best lines in a comic book movie, and it was just so much building to that moment. For me, it just came a little bit too late in the movie. So that's why I think I know so many people. Really, everybody is so hype on this movie, calling it not only the best Spider Man movie, but calling at the best comic book movie of all time. I'm not ready to give that title away yet because the way this movie ended, I just know that the next installment is going to be so much better. And I think of when I first saw Infinity War, and I still believe that that is a better movie than Endgame, and you think, well, how can you like that cliffhanger ending and not like this one. That was the final part of that story. It was Stanos winning. That was the end. It didn't have to be a good ending, but it was still an ending to that chapter. Endgame picked up from that low moment and tried to fix that, but that story could have ended there. I don't really think that was a cliffhanger. It was just a bummer ending that continued on to a different story and Endgame. We could have not got Endgame and just had Infinity War and thought, man, they really left us on a low note. But sometimes that's how life works out. With this movie, it ends on the cliffhanger of discovering that this Miles in this Earth forty two is actually the Prowler, and then it's like ah, then it's over. That is the cliffhanger ending. So I believe it is different in this case. But luckily we don't have that long to wait because the next part comes out on March twenty ninth, twenty twenty four, which is pretty soon, so I'm okay with that. The other thing that I found myself enjoying in this movie that I kind of feel was a little bit of a cheap tactic in Marvel movies now is the cameo. I don't want to go watch a movie just because of the cameos. I'm not itching for him. If I like Captain America, I don't need him showing up in an Iron Man movie. If I'm a fan of ant Man, I don't care that he shows up in a Thorn movie. I will just watch that character's movies. I don't really get the thrill and the hype of just having these random cameos. But there is one cameo in this movie that I got really excited for for a lot of reasons. But it's the scene where Miles is walking through the facility with Spider Man twenty ninety nine with Spider Gun and Spider Punk, and you see all of these villains from all the different universes, and they're all in different animation styles. You also see glimpses of other Spider Man too, so you see Toby maguire as a live action person, you see Andrew Garfield and live action, and you see all the cannon events. But I love the part where you see all the different villains, like Rhino, like the Green Goblin. They're all just there. But the one I freaked out about because it was a cameo I had been waiting for it was Donald Glover aka Childish Gambino as the Prowler and Childish Gambino has a long history with Spider Man movies dating back to his time in Community, dating back to about twenty ten where this internet campaign got started around the time where they were casting for The Amazing Spider Man, which the role ended up going to Andrew Garfield, but somebody on Twitter put up a picture of Donald Glover photoshopped into Spider Man. He saw it, retweeted it and started a campaign called Donald for Spider Man, and it got some pretty good tractions. Maybe I'm your hero, Donald spider Man. He has done all the things that I would love to do. He started out in the very early stages of YouTube with Derek Comedy. He went on to be a writer on thirty Rock, which led him to being a cast member on certain episodes of thirty Rock. From there he branched out into more movies, got more into the mainstream in community on NBC, but was also doing stand up and doing music with Childish Gambino, but has now become a big movie star. It was freaking Lando in the Solo movie. He was a voice actor in The Lion King, and he is just one of my favorite I wouldn't say I don't even just consider him an actor. He is just an entertainer who does it all. And at the time that that internet campaign was getting some traction, even stan Lee gave the Seal of approval on Donald Glover being cast as Spider Man, there was just so much hate and uproar of people saying there couldn't be a black Spider Man. But then, of course what ended up happening. Andrew Garfield got the role. But then through that campaign and through that idea of there needing to be a black Spider Man, we ended up getting Miles Morales. But his first appearance was in the Ultimate Comics Fallout number four, which was published in August twenty eleven. So you may think that every comic book movie that gets made has source material. Maybe dating back to the early days of Marvel, dating back to the forties, fifties, and sixties. Not the case with Miles Morales. He is a relatively new character. So from that campaign of trying to get Donald Glover to be Spider Man, we got Miles Morales. Donald Glover even voice Miles Morales in an animated series of Spider Man. And then when Marvel was making Spider Man with Tom Holland, Kevin Feige said, we got to get Donald Glover in this movie. So if you remember back to Spider Man Homecoming where Peter Parker is trying to discover in that movie where all of these dangerous weapons are coming from using this very futuristic technology, there is a scene where he meets Donald Glover. And in that movie, Donald Glover is playing Aaron Davis, aka Miles Morales's uncle who goes on to be the Prowler and into the Spider Verse. And in that scene he even references having a nephew. I think in the deleted scenes he actually calls the Miles And now Sony is also developing a movie with Donald Glover as the Prowler, so it all came full circle in this cameo That is why it meant so much to me. So I don't normally get hype about random cameos, but the smile that went across my face when I saw Donald Glover as the Prowler, I was so happy. Another thing that was announced in the week that this movie has been out is that the next Chapter will be the final installment of Miles Morales, at least in this capacity, and they are also now green lighting a live action Miles Morales movie. The only thing that worries me about that is when it comes to the rights of Spider Man, which Sony still owns. They only license him to Disney to be a part of the MCU, which is a really expensive deal. But the fate of Spider Man still lies in Sony, and although they haven't really fumbled the bag when it comes to live action Spider Man movies, they just haven't really got it right with any of the side movies. I love Venom, sometimes even more so than what attracts me to Spider Man. The character is all of his villains, Venom being my favorite villain of all time, the look of him, the backstory, everything about Venom is what I love about comic book stories and getting that Tom Hardy version wasn't exactly what I was looking for with my favorite villain. And don't get me started on what they did with Morbius, Doctor Mobius. It's Morbon time. So I just hope that they don't mess up a live action Miles movie, and I hope they do some justice with Donald Glover as the Prowler. And I still believe that every superhero movie should be a trilogy. So I would rather them go out with three movies being absolute bangers and not trying to keep cranking these movies out because they are their most popular franchise now because they are doing so well, because everybody loves these movies. The animator said, they are tired, we are exhausted. We can't keep making these movies. So I appreciate all of the detail they put into this movie. If you look at every single frame, there's something hit and in every single aspect of this movie. The spider Man ice Cream is one of the Spider Man in this movie. That is next level. So I do want to go watch this movie again, at least one more time in theaters, But as soon as this thing is available for us all to watch it home, I'm gonna be rewatching every single second, every single frame of across the Spider Verse. So that was really the only things I held against this movie was the cliffhanger ending, making the story feel a little bit incomplete, But I get it was supposed to be a two parter from the very beginning. Maybe I shouldn't have held that against this movie. But also, the soundtrack in this one wasn't as good as the first one. I loved how the first one blended music in the movie a little bit better than this one. I mean Sunflower in the first one, in that scene of Miles actually interacting with the song, I felt like that had a better tie in than any song in this movie. But I will say they both provided us with some iconic Spider Man moments. But I am saving my five at a five rating for what I think will come to us and Beyond the Spider Verse again. That is coming out next year March twenty ninth, twenty twenty four. So thank you for listening to this spoiler edition of my Into the Spider Verse review. I could honestly go and on and on and on and on and on about Spider Man, but I will leave you with that. So thank you for listening, and until next time, go out and watch good movies and I will talk to you later