[WARNING: This article contains major spoilers for Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse]
“Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” is one of the most critically acclaimed movies to hit theaters in the 21st century. It boasts a 97 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, 4.4 average rating on LetterBoxd, 8.4 on IMDB and 8.3 on Metacritic. With so many passionate fans of this movie, there were very high expectations for its sequel.
On June 2 of this year, “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-verse” was released to the public, and caused heads across the world to spin. Looking at the numbers, the sequel was just as good, if not better, than the first — but the fan base was divided by the movie’s unsatisfying ending. The question is, does the movie deserve a rewatch now that it has dropped on Netflix?
For those who don’t remember or didn’t watch the film, “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” centers on the rookie superhero, Miles Morales, who is struggling to balance his crime-fighting career with his regular civilian life. On top of all that, he’s missing his interdimensional team from the first movie. He doesn’t miss them for long, and ends up getting thrown into the multiverse along with a dimension-hopping villain.
The audience liked the plot of the movie and all the characters, new and old. Sophomore Miles Hamiltonis a huge Spider-Man fan and rated the movie a “10/10, I really liked it. I’m mad that I’ll never get to experience it for the first time again.” Most parts of the movie were loved by critics and audiences alike, though not all of them can say they saw the exact same movie. The directors released several versions with small differences between them as a fun easter egg for viewers. It’s clear that careful thought and effort was put into the movie by all the staff who were involved.
The ending, however, caused a great deal of controversy. The movie ends with Miles trapped in another dimension, faced with a version of himself that has turned into The Prowler, a side-antagonist from the first movie. Gwen Stacey, along with Miles’ other friends from the original movie are geared up to go save him, and the credits roll just as Gwen is starting to run towards the portal.
This cliffhanger comes in, what some fans argued, was the middle of the story. Senior Nick Rivera said, “I thought it was gonna be a fake-out ending, but then it just ended-ended. It was really anticlimactic.” Rivera rated the movie 9.5/10 with half a point being taken away for the ending alone, and a lot of fans agreed with him. The movie was review-bombed shortly after its premiere, partly by fans who were upset with the ending and partly by film-fanatics who were upset that classic movies were being outranked by this “children’s movie.”
With the disappointing ending in mind, is the movie worth a rewatch? Hamilton says yes. They commented, “I got so mad at the cliffhanger, but it left me really hype. I still really liked the movie.” The story of Miles Morales is far from over, but “Across the Spider-Verse” did provide a satisfying arc through the character of Gwen Stacey. The writers explored more of her backstory and showed some substantial character development over the course of the movie. For those that decide to give the movie another shot, you can now find the movie streaming on Netflix. Try looking at the story from her perspective, and you might find a dynamic and entertaining story with a more satisfying conclusion.
ith a more satisfying conclusion.
