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Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (2023) (4 Viewers)

Sean Bryan

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This was excellent. I loved it.

The creative team behind these Spider-Verse movies is nailing it.
 

Malcolm R

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$120.5m opening weekend. That’s about $85m higher than (and almost 3.5 times) the original’s opening weekend! Has to be close to a record increase between the original and a sequel?
Possibly in gross dollars, but Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me had a nearly 5.8x multiplier over the opening of the first Austin Powers movie ($55 million vs. $9.5 million).

In fact, the opening weekend of The Spy Who Shagged Me was bigger than the entire domestic run of the first film ($53.8 million).
 

Joe Wong

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Possibly in gross dollars, but Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me had a nearly 5.8x multiplier over the opening of the first Austin Powers movie ($55 million vs. $9.5 million).

In fact, the opening weekend of The Spy Who Shagged Me was bigger than the entire domestic run of the first film ($53.8 million).

That’s what I remembered as well for AP2. But Box office Mojo is saying Austin Powers 2 only had a 17m opening weekend, which does seem off. The website has been having some issues lately.

Also, AP2 is coming off a lower base, which can help the multiplier.
 

Malcolm R

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But Box office Mojo is saying Austin Powers 2 only had a 17m opening weekend, which does seem off.
That seems to be just the opening Friday number, for some reason. They have a higher first weekend total, but BOM also likes to double-count the preview totals so I think that explains the difference.

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Jake Lipson

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Has to be close to a record increase between the original and a sequel?

I think there was a similar spike in attendance for The Dark Knight as compared to Batman Begins, but I don't have time to look up the numbers right now because I'm about to head back to the movies to see it again. Batman Begins is another film which saw its reputation grow over the course of its time in theaters and then at home after its theatrical run, and that led to a big increase in upfront demand for The Dark Knight. This does seem to be following that pattern.
 

Adam Lenhardt

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There is not. I think that the film ends in such a way that any scene after the end would have to pick up right from there, and they obviously wanted to leave the cliffhanger exactly where it is and not expand on that more.

And yes - Sony announced that the film was being split in half all the way back on December 4, 2021 when they released a trailer calling this "Across the Spider-Verse Part One."
I think Sony would have been wise to make this a bigger part of its marketing campaign and calibrate audience's expectations accordingly. I found the cliffhanger ending and the "To Be Continued..." infuriating, and by the grumbling from the rest of the audience I was far from the only one.

If I'd known going into it that it was only half the story, I still would have been irked but I wouldn't have felt as extorted as I did this afternoon. I also think they would have been wise to include the release date in the title card announcing Beyond the Spider-Verse, so audiences would know they wouldn't have to wait another five years for the next one.

It takes the foundations established in the original and amps up the story complexity, the emotional depth, the spectacular animation and artwork, and the incredibly kinetic action, while managing to throw in a bunch of surprising yet logical twists that add even more layers and intrigue. Does it all work? Is it cohesive? Does it stick the landing? Oh, yes! By a factor of 10, and then some!
The main thing that worried me about the trailers was that they would throw so much spectacle into this one that there wouldn't be much room for the story, and I was glad to be proven wrong here.

There's an argument to be made that Gwen Stacy is the protagonist of this movie; the movie opens with her, and she gets at least as much screen time as Miles does. Peter B. Parker takes a step back in this one, so that Gwen and Miles's stories get the room they need to breathe. He's essentially the MC-2 Spider-Man, from the universe where May "Mayday" Parker grows up to become Spider-Girl.

I cared deeply about Miles's journey and Gwen's journey and how the choices each of them make affects the other, for better and for worse.

I'm going to disagree with this part of your post only because there is no landing to stick at the end of this film. I really thought this was great, but the nature of open-ended cliffhanger storytelling means that we'll have to wait until next year to see if it sticks the landing. It depends on how this ends, and we just don't know that right now.
Yes. We got a terrific beginning and a really compelling start to the middle. The rest is TBD.

I watched the first film again yesterday afternoon prior to my evening screening of the sequel. It held up as it always does, which was not a surprise. But coming out of the sequel and texting friends who haven't seen it yet, I was struggling to find the appropriate words because what they have done here really makes the original look quaint.
And yet, it all feels like an organic evolution. I never felt that anything in this one was flashier just to be flashier. Miles's world looks much like we remember it. It's just, now we get a whole bunch of other worlds with their own styles.

This is especially impressive considering that the directors of the first film did not return.
It helps that Phil Lord and Christopher Miller are the driving creative force behind both movies. I would imagine the job requirements for being a director on one of these movies is different than being the director of a live action movie, or even a Pixar movie. It's less about being the singular creative vision and more about bringing a particular type of expertise to the table.

For this one, Joaquim Dos Santos began as a character designer and storyboard artist before transitioning to directing episodes of animated television -- a pretty typical path for an animation director. Kemp Powers has a very different background; he started writing for live action and then leapt writing into directing with Pixar's Soul. Justin K. Thompson is an experienced background designer and conceptual artists. All of those skill sets would be essential for a production of this ambition and magnitude.

Do we know if these directors are back for Beyond the Spider-Verse? Or did they have Across and Beyond in production at the same time, with two different creative teams at the helm?

Okay, so I know every movie is art. 2001 is art. Jurassic Park is art. That movie you made with your friends in high school using your parents camcorder is art. It's all art.

But Across the Spider-Verse is art.
It definitely passes George Lucas's test of being a worthwhile experience even if you turn the sound off.

If you don't like the animation style the I doubt this one is going to change your mind, since the style is pretty well the same as the first one just from looking at the trailers and.clips that have been released.
The core animation style is the same, but every universe has a different style: Gwen's universe is all pastel and water colors, Spider-Man 2099's universe is all Syd Mead-style futurism, Spider-Man India's universe is reminiscent of the look of the comics Amar Chitra Katha published in the seventies, Spider-Punk's universe is all collage and frantic marker lines, and the Spot feels like an abstract oil painting covered in ink blots.

Is this an IMAX movie or can any large screen theater with Dolby Atmos be good enough?
I saw it in on a smallish screen at my local arthouse, and it still blew me away. It might have been better in IMAX, but it also might have been overwhelming in IMAX. I felt like the smaller screen helped me to take in the entire frame and process the explosion of visual information coming at me in a more efficient way.

$120.5m opening weekend. That’s about $85m higher than (and almost 3.5 times) the original’s opening weekend! Has to be close to a record increase between the original and a sequel?
The original came in under the radar and blew everybody away. This one's box office performance is benefiting from the enormous goodwill that the first movie generated. Whether it sustains that will depend on how much the cliffhanger ending alienates audiences who went in expecting a story with a complete beginning, middle, and end.
 

benbess

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This movie has some of the most creative animation I've ever seen, and the story is sometimes emotional. I really liked Gwen Stacy's character and story, as well as the continuation of the story of Miles. I am, however, tired of what seems to me the overuse of the multiverse idea, which has really worn out its welcome for me, even though they do it here better than in maybe all of the others. It also seems like half of the runtime of these movies involve hyperkinetic chases that for me become fatiguing. I feel a really good movie is one that I want to watch again, and then again in another few years. I'm not sure if I want to see this again, even though some elements of it are brilliant. My overall rating: B+
 

Edwin-S

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I'd.reallly like to see this, but I'm stuck waiting until I can sit in my preferred spot with no one sitting around me. I finally went GoTG3 and didn't have to.worry about someone sitting right beside me as there were only about 10.people in a 285 seat theatre. Although, someone thought it would be a good idea to bring a 3 or 4 year old to a 10:00 PM showing. 🤷
 

Joe Wong

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At my 2nd viewing this afternoon, the screen went blank with about 3 minutes of the film to go (ie. before the credits rolled). So it was a pretty critical moment! Fortunately it was fixed after 5 minutes.

Whether people were aware it was part 1 of a 2-parter or not (and hence the level of frustration), I will say the trailer for Beyond the Spiderverse will be quite anticipated as we get closer and closer to March 29, 2024. A close example would be for Avengers: Endgame.
 

DigniT@DigniT!

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I’ve now seen this film Twice. And am going again tomorrow…! It is densely layered and so visually and aurally compelling that I have left the theatre RHAPSODIC and THRILLED. And I was a huge fan of the first film as well. Something about the style and content (Sondheim says Content dictates form and that is true in every frame of this work) just speaks to me. Thrills and surprises abound, even with repeated viewings.
 

Jake Lipson

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I will say the trailer for Beyond the Spiderverse will be quite anticipated as we get closer and closer to March 29, 2024. A close example would be for Avengers: Endgame.

Honestly, this is kind of a problem to me. Especially on my second viewing, I realized how through the cliffhanger is. I know there will be a trailer and I know I will see it because I will be going to other films that will have it attached. It won't be possible for me to avoid it. But I'm not sure how the trailer can avoid spoiling the resolution to the cliffhanger. I'd honestly prefer if they just clip out the last few minutes or so of this movie and run it as a trailer for the next one in order to avoid revealing how Miles gets out of the situation he is in at the end of this film. The trailer that they do cut will probably show too much, because that's generally what trailers do. But I hope Sony is actually protective of the secrets here. I'd go to the third movie tomorrow with no trailer necessary if I could. Obviously, that's not how Hollywood marketing works. But I really hope they don't botch this.
 

Jake Lipson

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Do we know if these directors are back for Beyond the Spider-Verse?

Yes, they are. From what I understand, they were hired to make one sequel and then realized they had too much story to cover in one film. So the decision was made to cut it in half.

If I'd known going into it that it was only half the story, I still would have been irked but I wouldn't have felt as extorted as I did this afternoon.

It is interesting you said "extorted" because I never felt that. Yes, I'll have to pay for another ticket next year to see the end of this. But I was so entertained and moved by what I saw that I still feel like I got a tremendous amount of value from the price of my ticket. I didn't leave angry either time.

In my second viewing this afternoon, I was struck by how complete the character arcs feel. Even though the cliffhanger means that the main conflict is not resolved, both Miles and Gwen have a tremendous amount of personal growth over the course of this movie specifically. We leave them both with very different perspectives than they had at the beginning, and that is extremely satisfying.
 
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Adam Lenhardt

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The X-Ray Vision podcast has an interview with co-director Kemp Powers:


At 41:40, he shares that the Lego sequence originally wasn't in the movie. A 14-year-old kid Preston, who goes by LegoMe_TheOG, recreated the trailers online for this as Lego characters. So they hired him to animate the brief Lego sequence in the movie itself.

Honestly, this is kind of a problem to me. Especially on my second viewing, I realized how through the cliffhanger is. I know there will be a trailer and I know I will see it because I will be going to other films that will have it attached. It won't be possible for me to avoid it. But I'm not sure how the trailer can avoid spoiling the resolution to the cliffhanger.
The way I see it, they can take one of two approaches:
  1. Accept that the audience knows that Earth-42 Miles isn't actually going to kill our Miles, show Miles in the trailer, and just don't show anything from the series of events that gets him out of the predicament at the end of this movie.
  2. Go the Endgame route and only include characters in the trailer who are safe at the end of this movie, and actively try to get people speculating whether they're really going to kill off Miles, the main protagonist of this trilogy.
Yes, they are. From what I understand, they were hired to make one sequel and then realized they had too much story to cover in one film. So the decision was made to cut it in half.
That's good news. Even though I didn't like that this was Part 1 of 2, instead of the second complete story in a trilogy of three interconnected stories, the content itself was terrific.

In my second viewing this afternoon, I was struck by how complete the character arcs feel.
I disagree with you here a bit. While the characters definitely grow and change over the course of the movie, and in pretty radical ways when it comes to Gwen and Miles, the movie cuts off at the moment of apotheosis: Miles and Gwen have each come to a realization regarding the things that had left them conflicted, and armed with that new perspective are ready to face what comes next with newfound resolve.

But we'll have to wait another year to see what they do with that new perspective and resolve. There's still quite a bit of the hero's journey left to go for both of them.
 

Jake Lipson

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The way I see it, they can take one of two approaches

I think they will go with the latter approach you mentioned. I just don't see it being feasible to market the movie without Miles. That would have made about as much sense as trying to market Far From Home and pretending Peter was still dead because Endgame hadn't come out yet. However, it would be nice if they don't tell us HOW Miles escapes the Prowler so that we still have the mystery of how it will play out.

I never for a second believed that the victims of Thanos' snap were going to stay dead. They killed the wrong characters for that to be the case. So, for me, the cliffhanger in Infinity War wasn't about whether those people would actually come back. It was about how the remaining Avengers would go about trying to do that, and I was still surprised by the film. I think the same general idea applies to Miles here.

There's still quite a bit of the hero's journey left to go for both of them.

Of course there is. That's what the third chapter is for. But I feel like they each went on a full journey for this part of the story. Miles goes from wanting to be accepted by the other Spider-People to rejecting them and doing his own thing. He goes from being afraid to tell his parents about his identity as Spider-Man to being ready to do that, if only he had been in the correct universe. Gwen goes from quitting her band and doing her "solo act" to literally putting the Spider-Band back together to go save Miles because she values the group.

Those are big changes, so this particular movie does feel like it gave them a beginning point and an ending point. The overarching plot is not resolved, but they've both been serviced very well as characters for this particular chunk of the story.[/quote]

A 14-year-old kid Preston, who goes by LegoMe_TheOG, recreated the trailers online for this as Lego characters. So they hired him to animate the brief Lego sequence in the movie itself.

I was surprised that they were able to do that legally. Universal now owns the rights to make future Lego movies after the Lego brand's contract with Warner Bros. ended.
 

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I was surprised that they were able to do that legally. Universal now owns the rights to make future Lego movies after the Lego brand's contract with Warner Bros. ended.
It helps that Lord and Miller wrote and directed The Lego Movie, wrote the sequel, and produced all of the spinoffs. It's in everybody's interest to throw them a small bone to keep them happy.

Universal probably could have put the kibosh on this, but depending on the terms of their producing deal with the franchise Lord and Miller could probably also make things difficult for Universal. Why create bad blood over less than a minute of screen time?
 

Jake Lipson

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Also, we had been discussing earlier in this thread whether this could be considered part of the MCU because Doctor Strange was mentioned in the trailer. After seeing the film,
I have to admit that Sony is connecting this directly to all of their other films. The live-action cameos from Tobey Maguire, Andrew Garfield, Donald Glover and Peggy Lu, as well as J.K. Simmons' voice, prove that the No Way Home joke wasn't just a throwaway line of dialogue. I still don't think this counts as an official MCU film because it is not produced by Marvel Studios. But Sony is certainly trying to make it MCU-adjacent, as No Way Home retroactively did for their other movies which aren't part of the MCU either.

That certainly works for this movie, but the reason I find this problematic as a storytelling choice is because the multiverse rules in this franchise are contradictory to the multiverse rules that have been established in Disney's MCU. So I find it messy to reconcile that. I think having the animated Spider-Verse be totally separate from anything that the live-action side is doing actually creates more freedom for them than tying it all together does. For example, the concept of glitching when you're not in your own universe applies in these films. But none of the characters from Raimi and Webb films ever do that in No Way Home when they come into the main MCU timeline with Tom Holland. No one in Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness ever does that either. It's not an idea that applies to the MCU, but it works well for Spider-Verse.

In Loki, you have the Kang variant running the TVA (until Sylvie killed him) trying to prune other timelines. Here, you've got Miguel O'Hara essentially trying to keep multiple timelines intact. So tying together the various versions seems to create more sticky plot holes and inconsistencies than anything else. Sony isn't going to take direction from Disney on the projects like Spider-Verse which they own outright, nor would they have any reason to do that. (For the record, I this film is better than the majority of what the MCU has produced lately.). And yet they still want to bump up against the MCU. So for consistency's sake, this is kind of weird.

On another note: the scene where Gwen comes to see Miles in his bedroom is clearly supposed to be the same scene that we saw at the very end of the first film before credits. This film makes very clear that Miles and Gwen have not seen each other at all since the events of the first film and decides to declare that scene a year later retroactively. I really don't have a problem with that because the storytelling was so effective here. However, I started wondering today if Miles is wearing the same shirt in the new version of the scene in this movie as he was in the end of the previous film. I feel like he may not have been, but I can't find a screenshot to prove that and wonder if my mind is playing tricks on me or not. If they did change what he was wearing at the time, that would be an unnecessary and sloppy continuity error between both films.

Edit: Here's a TV spot with footage from that scene with Miles wearing a jersey. I think this is what he's wearing for this entire scene in the movie. This is probably as close as we'll get to an official clip until the movie is released digitally.



Here's a clip of the end of the first movie where he's wearing a plain T-shirt:



And here is the first look teaser from December 2021, in which he's wearing the same shirt as the first movie. So why did they change it to the jersey? If it's the same moment, and the movie makes clear that it has to be, then it should match exactly.



Also, note the "Part One" over the title at the end of this trailer. I'm not sure why they decided to drop this from the marketing, but it does make clear here that this was always intended as a two-parter. Personally, I like that the two films have separate titles instead of being Part One and Part Two. But I suppose Sony could have made it clearer in more recent marketing that this was the first half.
 
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