This is a review of the September 2023 All Region 2 disc Blu-ray set, containing the 2018 and 2023 animated super-hero adventures, ‘Spider-man: Into the Spider-Verse’ and ‘Spider-man: Across the Spider-Verse’, from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. Both films play in 2.39:1, 1080p HD, with 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio. The quality is superb, in every respect, with a gorgeously clear, bright and intensely colourful picture, and vibrant sound. There are no extras, but this is a very reasonably priced set, with 2 films totalling 117 and 140 minutes. Great value!

My husband has been a Spider-Man aficionado, from back when he read the stories in Marvel Comics as a boy. So, when I discovered the super-hero in an animation, I immediately ordered the set. My husband was clearly unsure. Could an animation compete with the excellent live action films of recent times, particularly Sam Raimi’s versions from 1977 to 1981, with Tobey Maguire so iconic in the title role?

Well, within minutes of the start of the first film, all our reservations were blown away ~ and how! This is one of the most spectacular, utterly absorbing, animated films we have EVER seen. It takes the original Spider-man story and gives it a delicious new spin. It keeps Spider-man, but adds a new and totally delightful young hero, plus a supporting cast of superb companions, and deliciously evil and grotesque villains. The use of animation allows for incredible flights of fancy in creating non-human or semi-human friends and enemies, and the creators really let their imaginations run riot.

The story is terrific, and zooms along at pace. The background world ~ largely New York ~ and the scientific wizardry that is being dangerously misused, is gorgeous. The detail is breathtaking. The character actors are all good, with some well-known voices enhancing our enjoyment. Our considered view: an absolute delight, a riot of fun, action and excitement for all the family, a 100% 6 Star film to enjoy again and again.and again!

A couple of weeks later, we dug into the second film, and it does not disappoint. Again, we join a fast-paced adventure around a fabulously extravagant multi-verse, created with amazing detail and imagination. It fizzes with brilliantly exotic, colour-filled images, and there’s a kaleidoscope of interesting heroes and villains. We thrill to the adventure, furious, often chaotic, action, and jaw-droppingly delicious jeopardy.

This film is even more complex that the 2018 original. And at over 20 minutes longer, it packs in even more action. The first film prepares you, to some extent, but if I have a criticism, it is that you need to be very alert and wide-awake to really enjoy this adventure, let alone understand it. It is literally non-stop, there’s no respite, and every scene isn’t just fast-paced, it is also teeming, complex and multi-dimensional. Things are going on, not just in the centre of the screen, but all over it, and sometimes, these things are quite different. You need about five eyes, and at least two brains, to follow it all!

‘Across the Spider-verse’ is incredibly clever, incredibly beautifully presented and watchable, but perhaps a soupon too complex to be considered as brilliant as ‘Into the Spider-Verse’. I think this may be a case where less is more, and conversely, more is less! So, rather than my 100% 6 Star rating, this is merely a 5 Star offering, again to be watched again and againand again, but this time, to enable the viewer to try and understand what they have just seen!