Film review: Spider-man: Across The Spider-verse 

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Multiverses have been knocking about in sci-fi novels for over a century and in comic books for decades, but it seems they have really revved up in the 21st century - driven by that burning sense of injustice at knowing that you are stuck in the worst of all possible universes.

Presently, three major studios are heavily invested in them. Disney Marvel has been spinning out their multiverse phases since Thanos got defeated; in two weeks Warners bring their DC multiverse to cinemas with The Flash, and here Sony presents the second instalment of its animated Spider-verse saga.

Spider-man Across The Spider-verse (Image: Sony Pictures)

The first one, Into, introduced Miles Morales (Moore) to the big screen, a black Hispanic teenager who became the Spider-Man in this dimension.

It was a zippy, irreverent but affectionate adventure, and successful enough to warrant another spidey spin. For this Sony has decided to go down The Matrix/ Back To The Future route of shooting back-to-back sequels – Beyond the Spider-verse is due next March.

This has all the frantic energy and wild invention of the first one. Early on, a Renaissance Italy version of the villain The Vulture appears in a Da Vinci-style flying suit.

The scatter-shot animation has a little bit of everything in it. It isn’t smooth and pristine, but it is bursting with life and demands constant attention. Apart from Sin City, no movie has more closely and effectively mimicked the feel and look of a comic book, and no other Spider-man film has better rendered the thrill and freedom of the powers bestowed upon you by the bite of radioactive spiders – swinging through the city and walking upside down.

With frantic energy and humour the film explores the Spider-verse (Image: Sony Pictures)

It's still funny, but certainly less fun. I wouldn't necessarily say darker, but there's more emotional weight to it. 140 mins is a fairly moderate running time for a contemporary superhero movie, but epic for an animation, and there's a certain frantic desperation to the pacing, a realisation that the energy cannot safely flag for even a moment.

In the week that the Internet Movie Database reported coordinated bot "review bombing" of the live-action Little Mermaid remake because of the black performer in the lead, it's remarkable how frictionless the introduction of Miles Morales has been to the big screen.

Sure, he's animated and two-dimensional, but still Black; you'd have thought someone would've felt compelled to throw their untouched, still-in-the-original-packaging toys out of their MAGA pram.

The film though isn't an inclusive vision. I like a bit of comic book action, but this is so knowing and self-referential, so eager to prove how authentic it is and corral the approval of nerds and geeks, that it felt a bit excluding.

Directed by Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers and Justin K. Thompson. Starring Shameik Moore, Hailee Steinfeld, Oscar Isaacs, Jake Johnson, Issa Rae, Daniel Kaluuya and Jason Schwartzman. In cinemas now. 140 mins.