In 1977, Star Wars came out and changed so much about the way that we not only watched, but thought of movies. We were thrilled by a great story (even if it was borrowed from an old Kurosawa movie) and by immediately intriguing characters. But the thing that truly dazzled us were the special effects. We saw things on screen that we never dreamed we would see in such a believable way. And, of course, it became the biggest movie of all time. Then, in 1980, The Empire Strikes Back came out. While the technical achievements were still breathtaking, what made Empire at least the equal of Star Wars, if not superior, was the emotional depth of the story. The deepening of Han and Luke’s friendship, the burgeoning relationship with Han and Leia, the show-stopping reveal of the relationship between Luke and Darth Vader–all of this gave us the same things we loved about the first movie, but raised emotional stakes that not only thrilled us, but touched us. And that’s what truly great second chapters in cinema stories do: they build on an incredible first act and take us deeper into that universe’s heart through the heart of its characters.

By this standard, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is a truly great second chapter of a cinema story. Like Star Wars, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse thrilled us on a previously unimagined technical level. While comic-book stories coming to life has been the lifeblood of the movie business for over a decade now, the feeling of actual comic books coming to life was just out of reach until Into the Spider-Verse re-established what animation could look like and feel like…at least on the visceral level. The Miles Morales as Spider-Man origin story–with numerous other Spideys along for the fight–instantaneously became one of the greatest animated films of all time. And then, by keeping the same creative flair but injecting a lot more emotional stakes, Across the Spider-Verse did what Empire did for Star Wars decades ago (or what The Godfather, Part II did a little earlier or what Terminator 2: Judgment Day did a little later): it made it even better.

(Fair warning: mild spoilers will follow).

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