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

This is a mind-boggling, untouchable achievement and a giant among animated sequels. It excels through its exhilarating blend of animation styles and deep character revelations.

This is absurdly brilliant popcorn entertainment delivered with pop art genius that reinvents what superhero movies can do. It pushes more visual boundaries than its predecessor with an anything-goes ethos.

The film is masterful and another instant classic, cranking every dial to 11 without collapsing. It singles out the eye-sizzling excellence of its animation and electrifying energy, with inventive use of colour, composition and texture to convey mood.

The critic calls it a spectacular achievement with no sophomore slump, evolving the first film's elements into a darker, edgier place through a stunning blend of artistic traditions like Abstract Expressionism and punk. It singles out the disruptive attitude, production design, music, and themes of self-determination versus canon adherence.

A supremely confident, ravishingly rendered follow-up that dazzles with wit, imagination and thrills. It singles out the refined and exponentially advanced living comic book aesthetic, with thrillingly dynamic and acrobatic action.

It's a visual feast with ambitious storytelling and new characters, but lacks some of the emotional heart of the first film and ends abruptly as a cliffhanger.

The film delights in exploring the limits of comic-book storytelling through its multiverse of Spider-people and postmodern style. Some elements like the villain and sequel setup feel derivative or crass.

The state-of-the-art animation is intoxicating but the film overdazzles with too many elements and overstays its welcome. It introduces new Spider-people effectively but feels excessive.

This stirring follow-up tops the original with stunning animation, dazzling set pieces and irreverent humour. It offers a darker, more ambitious tone while remaining one of the most vibrant and emotional superhero films in recent times.

The film delivers a dazzling visual experience that celebrates the craft of animation. It finds sparks of innovation through its polystylism and abstraction in a crowded field of multiverse stories.

Matches stylistic experimentation with multi-tiered narrative, grounded in human drama of romance and family struggles, achieving exhilarating spectacle and ambition.

The sequel is sublime and matches the first film's inventiveness with dazzling animation and new characters. It builds on themes of adolescence and belonging with heart and visual density.

The critic finds the sequel less limber than the original but still exciting, praising its visual feast and focus on Miles' identity while noting some backstory weighs it down.

The critic praises this charming sequel for expanding the multiverse concept and stakes while replicating the original's charms without overinflating or relying on shameless fan service. It highlights the impressive voice cast and the way the film handles alternate Spider-Man versions better than some live-action entries.

The film is a joyous spectacle with stunning animation that tells its story visually, thrilling as art and animation, making one want to visit all universes, despite the to-be-continued ending.

The critic praises the film's striking animation, deeper character connections, and how it elevates the series, calling it one of the best superhero films ever and cementing Miles Morales as the best on-screen Spider-Man. It singles out the ambitious multiverse storytelling, inventive visuals, and emotional core.

The critic praises the film as a visually stunning work of art with groundbreaking animation styles that captures the anxieties and ecstasies of adolescence and Spidey's power fantasy in a mature way. Minor issues noted with excessive easter eggs and a frustrating cliffhanger ending.

The critic calls it a multiversal masterpiece that is even more ambitious, adventurous, and visually spellbinding than its predecessor while remaining full of heart. It singles out the creative energy from the directors and writers, the evolving animation styles across universes, and the focus on Miles' coming-of-age story amid canon events.

The critic describes the film as visually stunning and philosophical, with a roller-coaster ride through alternate realities and a commitment to authenticity in its comic book style and animation. They note some plot convolution but praise its ambition, emotional core, and innovation as a step up from the predecessor.

The review calls the film a triumph of maximalist filmmaking that uses in-your-face techniques for a gigantically intimate story, transforming the Spider-Man formula into something with impressive heft around fate and chaos. It highlights the boundless possibilities of animation and varied artistic styles as a wonder to behold.