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

Director: Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers, Justin K. Thompson

Cast: Shameik Moore, Hailee Steinfeld, Brian Tyree Henry, Luna Lauren Vélez

Have I Seen it Before: Nope!

Did I Like It: These movies are making me feel quite foolish.

Years ago, when Sony announced that they were bringing their admittedly haphazard skills to an animated Spider-Man movie focusing Miles Morales (Moore), I was skeptical. Morales is a big part of the comics, but a pretty deep cut for the larger audience. Additionally, Sony Animation had appeared to go out of their way to avoid tapping into a breakthrough hit, unless one counted Hotel Transylvania (2012)—which I wouldn’t—or Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (2009–which I probably should, as Lord and Miller were also involved in that case.

Boy, was I wrong.

The original Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018)* is so good that the live-action Spider-movies have become tame (if still enjoyable) by comparison, to the point where Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021) had to reach for a bit of the—pun not intended, but resigned to—multiversal madness.

So, when the sequel came around, I was pretty sure I had it all figured out. The LEGO Movie (2014) was resplendent, but The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part (2019) was merely a passable animated film, and once again, Lord and Miller were involved there. There is no way that more time with Miles and company would measure up.

Boy, was I wrong.

Everything that was great about the first film here is expanded and made all the more poignant here. While multiple universes are performing a delicate dance/traffic jam around this movie, the theme of Miles and Gwen (Steinfeld) ongoing uncertainty about where they belong goes beyond the meet-cute of the first film. The film is just as, if not funnier than its predecessor, which is no small feat, as I could have easily been turned off by the fact that Spider-Ham and Spider-Man Noir—easily the two most demonstrably funny characters from the first film—are relegated to a silent cameo in the film’s final moments. Some might be turned off by the cliffhanger here, but I imagine anyone complaining about that at this point will be mollified when the entire picture of the trilogy is complete.

But next year’s Beyond the Spider-Verse couldn’t possibly be any good, right? How many trilogy cappers are truly satisfying?

*How could that have been nearly five years ago? Why is time becoming increasingly wild, with certain years flying by in a snap, and other years feeling like they are a decade long? Don’t answer that, I think I may know the answer.

Child's Play (2019)

Director: Lars Klevberg

Cast: Aubrey Plaza, Gabriel Bateman, Brian Tyree Henry, Mark Hamill

Have I Seen it Before: At the time of this writing, t’s a new release, so I think you know the answer to that one. Here’s the thing. I’m reasonably sure that I’ve seen the original Child’s Play (1988) at one point or another, but I can’t lay a claim to any particular memory of the film. Maybe I will have to try to watch or re-watch the original 

Did I Like It: I can’t think of much to say that won’t be damning with faint praise…

So let’s make with the damning, shall we?

There’s plenty of likable parts to this remake of Child’s Play*. At times, the film embraces its place in the universe and is content to be a gooey, unrelenting gore fest. Sadly, those moments don’t sustain and are few and far between. 

The film reaches for moments of what might be considered satire of modern life, but it would likely be too much to expect the film to really dig in for these moments when it is designed from top to bottom to be counter-programming to traditional summer fare.

Mark Hamill is a delight. He manages to completely eschew the role that made him a household name, Luke Skywalker. Anyone familiar with his career as a voice actor won’t be surprised by that assertion, but he also manages—aside from just a few menacing laughs—to eschew his iconic work as The Joker. We’re lucky to have Hamill, and we’re lucky he keeps picking weird things to do, even if the rest of the movie isn’t quite living up to him. This is the only uniformly great part of the film.

The rest never quite comes together. Aubrey Plaza looks bored. I mean, her whole thing is looking bored, but even here she seems bored with her boredom. The kids surrounding the film never seem to be really reacting to anything that is going on. They seem like the kids who didn’t quite get the roles of The Losers Club in IT: Chapter One (2017), which incidentally came from the same producing team.

All in all, it’s probably as good as the original Child’s Play. At least, I think it is.

*For that matter, is this the first series that has been rebooted while the original series/continuity is still a going concern? I suppose at this point you could make an argument for Ghostbusters, but when the 2016 film had come out, the idea of a traditional/legacy sequel to the original series wasn’t on the table. This is a truly strange case, with two different Chuckies competing for our dread.