Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse - 2/5

This movie is directed by a completely different team than the first film and it shows. There’s a noticeable ‘woke’ filter over everything, but even putting that aside the film has some huge flaws. It’s a 1.5 hour movie stretched out into 2.5 hours by sloppy, repetitive dialogue and a bloated script. The villain is pretty good in theory but overstays his welcome by the end, let alone anticipation for the sequel. The art styles in the first film were varied but each one was tight and well-crafted; here, most of the art styles are sloppy to the point of being unappealing and hard to read. The editing here also loses all finesse from the first film, layering audio and visual information on top of itself in a confusing, distracting mess. Some of the fights had a few good moments, though.

Closest comparison: It’s like Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse gone the way of Legend of Korra.

Setting: Super hero
Plot: Sci-fi
Tone: Comedy

Bumblebee - 4/5

I had disregarded the series after the second installment, but when I saw that this was not directed by Michael Bay I decided to watch it. This is what the Transformers movies always should have been. It’s fun and heartfelt, following a smaller story but with big action scenes. Sure, there’s too much “mean is funny” and some contrived character conflict, but it doesn’t detract too much from the movie as a whole. It all comes down to Bumblebee’s relationship with Hailee Steinfeld’s character, and they did that very well.

Closest Comparison: Transformers (2007), done better.

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse - 5/5

This movie is dripping with awesome style, but if it doesn’t appeal to you that will affect your enjoyment of the overall film. There’s still a lot to like beyond that with amazing cinematography, vivid characters, and both meaningful and hilarious dialogue. Seeing alternate universe interpretations of all the well-known Spider-Man canon is a blast. The interactions between Miles and his dad are insightful, and there’s unexpected depth to the interactions between the ‘Spider-People’. Funny, fun, and visually amazing, it doesn’t get much better than this.

Closest comparison: It’s like Spider-Man: Homecoming meets The Lego Movie.