Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is here, and as promised, it vastly expands upon the wider multiverse teased in Into the Spider-Verse. There are a ludicrous amount of Spider-People (and Spider-Animals), a whole bunch of imaginative worlds, and no shortage of character development for Miles and Gwen.
Critics have gone doolally over it, awarding it a 95 percent positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and showering it with praise as one of the greatest animated movies of recent years. Fans have gone one better, as on Letterboxd it’s at 4.7/5, making it the fourth highest-rated movie of all-time on the platform.
The Letterboxd system means it’s only been beaten three rather unexpected titles. Third place goes to the concert movie Radiohead: In Rainbows – From the Basement, second to the National Theatre Live’s stream of the play Prima Facie, and top place to the 1999 Brazilian movie O Auto da Compadecida. Across the Spider-Verse‘s success is the exact opposite of the review-bombing that tends to happen, particularly to movies starring Black characters. Even so, some aren’t happy:
A hot new superhero movie shooting up the cards to become part of the IMDb’s Top 250 or becoming very highly rated on Letterboxd isn’t exactly an uncommon occurrence. The first people seeing these features are usually the biggest fans and they tend to rate it the highest, though when more casual audiences show up over the following days, they won’t be quite so enthusiastic and its score will settle down.
However, at least in this instance, Across the Spider-Verse is so good that it deserves all the accolades bestowed upon it. We haven’t seen an animated movie so visually dazzling since… well, Into the Spider-Verse. Here’s hoping Beyond the Spider-Verse continues this white-hot Spidey streak.
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is now in theaters.