THE GIDDY SPLENDOR OF 'SPIDER-MAN: ACROSS THE SPIDER-VERSE'

Let's get this upfront: "Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse" was the best comic-book film of the last decade.

With an animation blizzard blown straight in from the pages of comics, "Into the Spider-Verse" took a supercollider to all the conventions of the superhero movie. Solemnity was out. Gone, too, was the idea of a chosen one. Spider-Man could be anyone, including a graffiti-tagging kid from Brooklyn, including a pig named Spider-Ham. The possibilities of the comic book movie were suddenly limitless. With Post Malone and Swae Lee's "Sunflower" thumping, the vibes were, as they say, immaculate.

So a lot to live up to. Yet five years later, the Spider-verse is still expanding in thrilling ways. "Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse" is the rare sequel that dazzles as much as the original did. It's something to behold. Colors drip, invert and splatter in a shimmering pop-art swirl.

If "Into the Spider-Verse" reveled in the head-spinning collision of universes, "Across the Spider-Verse" turns the multiverse blender up a notch, or 10. Worlds bump into each other like shoppers in a crowded bodega. Spider-Men and Spider-Women tumble forth like unloaded clown cars. In this frenetic, freewheeling thing that dares you keep up with its web-slinging pace, the sheer muchness of what's in the frame can be almost overwhelming.

But despite all that's going on, "Across the SpiderVerse" is remarkably grounded as a coming-of-age tale. The masterful flair of writers-producers Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, who penned the script with David Callaham, lies in how they detonate convention and then assemble the leftover, splintered shards to build something deceptively sweet and simple.