Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse @ SIFF and Other Seattle Cinemas

Opens Friday, June 2nd with Thursday, June 1st previews 

It was 2018, and we were sick of spider-men. Left and right, dang spider-men. Up to here in frickin’ spider-men, I tells ya! Eight Spider-Man movies in 15 years with three different actors, three different directors, and three different timelines. Sure, Raimi’s initial 2002-2007 trilogy established the modern comic book movie template—and perfected it with Spider-Man 2, a.k.a. Dock Ock Tik Toks Around the Clock—but it’s been mostly downhill since then, and there were just too many man spiders shooting their sh*t all over New York (including on Broadway!). And now there was going to be an animated one, too?! Who has the time?

Then Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse came in and absolutely slayed. A comic book movie that isn’t afraid to actually look like a comic book? (Didn’t Ang Lee try that with 2003’s Hulk and get smashed out of the room?) A chance for an Afro Latino lead in young Miles Morales? Actual room for goofy humor, one that has room for references but doesn’t only use references? (see: The Super Mario Bros. Movie.) Propulsion, humor, excitement, and earned emotion beats in a groundbreaking animation style that doesn’t look like it went through a Dreamworks factory? It’s a sensational film with a dynamite cast and one hellllll of a score.

Now it’s time to re-enter the Spider-Verse. After an ensemble of spidey people/animals/robots from parallel universes helped Miles get in touch with his inner arachnid and become New York’s newest defender in the last film, it’s time to repay the favor, as Miles must now travel outside his own universe (the one you and I know, more or less) and save his friends from portal-hopping supervillain The Spot. It’s going to be a feast for the senses, it’s probably going to make me cry, and it will definitely have a soundtrack that will have heavy rotation on my workout mix.