New ‘Spider-Man’ film a grand, universe-hopping adventure

Miles Morales made quite a splash with his first big-screen adventure, “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.” The web-slinging adventure brought Spidey’s exploits to vivid life in a way that was closer to what you’d find in the pages of Ol’ Web-heads comics. While the latest chapter, “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” doesn’t feel quite as fresh and isn’t the sugar rush of fun that the first movie was, it’s still well worth watching.

“Across the Spider-Verse” finds Miles (Shameik Moore) trying to live something that resembles a normal teenage life while fighting bad guys. The Spot (Jason Schwartzman), a scientist who was collateral damage at the collider incident at the end of the last movie, has taken a heel turn and sworn to rob Miles of everything he holds dear.

At the same time, Gwen Stacy (Hailee Steinfeld) re-enters Miles’ life and he follows her to a different dimension where innumerable variants of Spider-Man led by Miguel O’Hara (Oscar Isaac) are trying to prevent worlds throughout the Spider-verse from blinking out of existence.

This movie doesn’t feel like just another installment in the “Spider-Verse” franchise, like way too many sequels from other franchises do. “Across the Spider-Verse” has more on its mind than just getting the hero into a situation where he has to beat this movie’s villain. It’s got questions it wants to ask, things it wants us to think about.

First and foremost, this movie is about loneliness and feeling like there’s nobody you can talk to because no one will understand what you’re going through. That point is made in the opening scene where Gwen tells us about the suffering Miles has been through. She keeps repeating “And he’s not the only one,” implying that to be a Spider-Man is to suffer and the only people who might understand are other Spider-Men.

But this movie could just as easily be about taking back one’s right to decide who you want to be and finding people you belong with. It’s also a cinematic rendering of that thought experiment where you have to choose between a runaway train killing one person you love or killing many people you don’t know. How can either choice be moral?

Because it’s juggling weightier topics, “Across the Spider-Verse” isn’t quite as much fun as the original movie. The front end of this flick also feels a little too long and it spends too much time taxiing down the runway before it really takes off.

Rest assured, though, take off it does. The action scenes make up for a lot of flaws in the film, combing stylish visuals, energy and color in a way live-action movies can’t reach quite yet. The scene where hundreds of Spidey variants chase Miles is a blast, and the fight scenes with The Spot employ portals in some really amusing ways.

Visually, “Across the Spider-Verse” can still take your breath away. From Miles and Gwen sharing an upside-down view of the city to the way the movie integrates multiple character designs and styles from multiple different comic books, this movie is always a joy to look at.

Throw in some solid voice work, especially from Steinfeld and Moore — who carry this film emotionally — and plentiful moments of humor, and “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” is almost as much fun as the first one. And with the more thought-provoking themes, this one might wind up being more rewarding on multiple watches.

3 ½ Indy Fedoras out of 5

MPAA Rating: PG