“Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” is a masterpiece of animation. Some elements of the screenplay bog the story down, but the late revelation about the status of Miles Morales (voice: Shameik Moore) is a brilliant piece de resistance. I was completely unprepared for the ending as well, but no spoilers here.

There are several story arcs that intertwine. In the Spider-Verse, as in the first movie, there are multiple Earths which each have their own unique version of a Spider-Person.

One tale involves Gwen Stacy (Hailee Steinfeld) on Earth-65. Her dad is a captain in the local police force and believes the media hype that Spider-Woman is up to no good. He incorrectly blames the superhero for the death of Earth-65’s Peter Parker.

A super-villain, Vulture, who is a Renaissance-based character, enters her universe illegally. Miguel O’Hara (Oscar Isaac) and Jessica Drew (Issa Rae) arrive to banish this “anomaly” from Gwen’s reality. Gwen is cornered by her father and reveals her identity to him. She is reluctantly allowed to join the Spider group that travels through the multiverse and hunts down anomalies.

This secret Spider society’s main purpose is to uphold the Spider Canon at all cost. The Canon becomes a key point in the subsequent unfolding story. The Canon is the same Spider story playing out in every Spider-Verse regardless of how the particular Spider-Person of that universe feels about their personal loss.

On Earth-1610, the story bogs down with Miles Morales not attending an important meeting regarding his college future with his parents. Why is he not there? He is fighting a super-villain, Spot (Jason Schwartzman), who can create wormholes in the fabric of reality. Miles still has not revealed his identity to his family.

The fight with Spot is quite amusing. But the intercutting to the parents making excuses at the meeting gets old. Spot becomes an important part of the ongoing story as he eventually becomes powerful enough to endanger the entire Spider-Verse.

Miles eventually gets to his meeting and chooses to go to Princeton. Even though it is not that far from Brooklyn, his parents have a hard time accepting that he would leave home. They also do not understand their son’s often strange absences.

Miles also misses Gwen from their encounters in the first movie. But he has come to accept that there is no way that he can cross the Spider-Verse to see her.

But, lo and behold, Gwen returns to Earth-1610 on a mission to keep her eye on Spot. She spies on Miles and they eventually reunite. When Gwen leaves via a portal, Miles turns invisible and follows her.

They all end up in Mumbattan on Earth-50101. There they hook up with Pavitr Prabhakar (Karan Soni) and Hobie Brown (Daniel Kaluuya) as they follow Spot to the Alchemax factory. All hell breaks loose. Miles does something that threatens the integrity of the Canon. Believe it or not, there is even a greater threat to the Canon than Miles’ action!

When the screenplay is focused on the Spider action, the story is engaging and exciting. We get to see a lot, and I mean a lot, of brief scenes of every imaginable Spider from many universes. My favorite is the Lego World.

On the other hand, when the story focuses on what I call Marvel Angst, i.e. the main character (in this case various Spiders) agonizing over their families and how to balance the superhero/normal person divide, it becomes tedious. In the case of Miles and Gwen, their individual family sagas are particularly predictable.

While I criticize the family scenes in terms of their content, this is not to say that the family members are not portrayed with respect and with as much depth as the story will allow.

But there are some killer plot points that spoilers do not let me reveal. One is so obvious that I am surprised that I didn’t realize it before. It completely changes the whole scope of what is happening in the Spider-Verse.

The animation is simply indescribable in its excellence. There are almost no adjectives that can capture the effort that was put into creating a series of animation styles that flow seamlessly into each other. One moment you may have split-screens and then a psychedelic panorama appears that was made for dropping acid to watch.

The cityscape of Mumbattan has so much detail and minutiae displayed that you realize how much time and effort went into its creation. It isn’t even on screen all that long to justify the level of intricacy displayed.

The color palette runs the gamut. There are some beautiful gray scenes that reminded me so much of comic-book frames. Then there is the other end of the spectrum where you have mind-blowing pastiches of vibrant color appearing on-screen.

The character creation in terms of design is marvelous. Again, there is just enough detail to make each one not only unique but also recognizable. Spot and his holes in reality allowed a great use of black and white in an otherwise colorful backdrop.

Sometimes the fight scenes are a little prolonged. These reminded me of fight scenes in martial-arts films in terms of their dynamics.

The sound design of the movie is also quite good. There are many songs scattered throughout the picture.

The violence does not seem too excessive for tweens and teens. Certainly there were plenty of children at my press screening. There are, though, some scary situations, especially at the end which might require parental discussion.

Yet this makes me wonder, is there a difference between animated/comic-book violence and real-life violence? When I think of the “Venom” live-action films, they are far too violent for children. Would that violence be less dramatic in an animated format?

I give “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” a 5 for its animation and its plot twists. It is bogged down by the family situations, though, so my overall rating is going to be four and a half out of 5 stars. This is a must-see movie for adults.

After reuniting with Gwen Stacy, Brooklyn’s full-time, friendly neighborhood Spider-Man is catapulted across the Multiverse, where he encounters the Spider Society, a team of Spider-People charged with protecting the Multiverse’s very existence. But when the heroes clash on how to handle a new threat, Miles finds himself pitted against the other Spiders and must set out on his own to save those he loves most. Anyone can wear the mask — it’s how you wear it that makes you a hero.

Cast: Shameik Moore, Hailee Steinfeld, Brian Tyree Henry, Luna Lauren Velez, Jake Johnson, Jason Schwartzman, Issa Rae, Karan Soni with Daniel Kaluuya and Oscar Isaac
Directed by: Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers, Justin K. Thompson
Written by: Phil Lord & Christopher Miller & David Callaham