Gotta stew on it a bit! Because if I'm honest, I am a little frustrated by the "half a movie" of it all. Not because it's literally a part 1, but because pacing-wise, much of it felt like stuff that would go in act 1 of a movie while you're waiting for the plot to get going and for them to go on the big adventure. And especially since the first Spider-Verse was such a clean and economical breeze of a plot, it's hard not to hold this up to that. That being said, while much of it is a stretched-out act 1, it's still the act 1 of a Spider-Verse movie! If we're talking animation alone, this thing is the flex of the century. It has more visual ideas and dynamic clever movement in its pinky finger than other big-name animation studios (cough cough) have had in the last decade. And the characters are so instantly lovable. It's hard to be upset at the stretched-out structure when much of this movie is the logical conclusion of watching a comfort film that makes you say "I just want to live in this movie." This is that!

Spider-Man just means so much to me man. The vibe of that is strong here, and it carries that spirit of Spider-Man that makes me want to be a better person. So I guess yeah it's half a movie, but it's also half of a great movie. I do gotta watch this one again though. And I can't wait to watch this one in conjunction with the next one that'll finish this one