SPIDER-MAN: ACROSS THE SPIDER-VERSE

Here's the case for going: this is a creative, exciting, genuinely funny superhero movie with real surprises, a clever subtext about the nature of storytelling, and — best of all — a heart aimed squarely at family reconciliation. Miles Morales and his parents, and Gwen Stacy and her father, both work through real hurt toward real love. A young superhero couple even gets a sweet, life-affirming scene with their newborn baby. And at the center of it all sits a simple, sturdy moral: saving a life is always the right thing to do.

Here's the cost: plenty of PG-level action violence (milder than most PG-13 superhero fare, but still frequent), eight obscenities, and one very brief "Protect Trans Kids" poster that flashes by quickly. The movie's whole multiverse premise also leans on a humanist framework that sidesteps the question of who created the universe in the first place.

None of that outweighs what the film gets right. Take older kids and enjoy it together.

Miles Morales is late for a college counseling meeting — again — because he's busy chasing a new supervillain called The Spot, whose spotted costume lets him punch holes straight through walls, vaults, and dimensions. Across another universe, Gwen Stacy is grieving a loss of her own and searching for a place to belong. When The Spot starts tearing through the multiverse itself, Miles crosses paths with a whole society of Spider-People sworn to protect it — and finds himself caught between what they demand of him and what the people he loves need most.

Four stars means this is Movieguide's top mark, and the film earns it. The animation is inventive, the jokes land, and the story holds several genuine surprises that reward the viewer's attention. A running subtext about what makes a story — and a hero — unique gives the movie unexpected depth for a superhero sequel.

The one real flaw is pacing: dialogue and plot developments fly by fast enough that a single viewing won't catch everything. That's clearly by design — this is a movie built for rewatching — but it means some inside jokes will sail past viewers on the first pass. Even so, the craft, humor, and emotional payoff make this one of the strongest entries in the genre.

This film's heart is in the right place. It cares more about repaired relationships than about spectacle — Miles and his parents, Gwen and her father, both find their way back to each other through honest, heartfelt scenes. An early image shows a family praying together before a meal. And the story's central moral test lands on something simple and true: a life is worth saving, whatever it costs you.

There are real worldview cautions to weigh alongside that. The multiverse concept the whole plot runs on comes from an atheistic, humanist attempt to explain away the universe's need for a Creator — though even a multiverse still needs an explanation for its own origin. A "Protect Trans Kids" poster flashes briefly in one shot; it's easy to miss, but it's there. And a Black Lives Matter pin on the hero's backpack is ambiguous enough that it most likely points to the pin's literal words rather than the organization behind them — worth a conversation either way, but not worth alarm.

The film also quietly affirms something Scripture takes seriously: even at fifteen, Miles remains under his parents' authority, and the story treats his secret-keeping as a real source of pain rather than a harmless plot device. Children are called to honor their parents at any age (Ephesians 6:1-3), and this film, whatever else it gets wrong, doesn't pretend that authority away.

This is Miles Morales at his best — funny, inventive, and surprisingly tender toward the families at its center. It's also a PG movie with real action violence, some rough language, and a worldview or two worth talking through afterward. Our answer stands: worth the trip — older children and up. Take the older kids, save the littlest ones for later, and talk about the moral dilemma at the heart of it on the drive home.