100 Movies Every Catholic Should See

100 Movies Every Catholic Should See

Weekly Watches

Why We Didn’t Love the Spider-Verse’s Most Acclaimed Sequel

PLUS: A defense of Battleship and a descent into horrors of cyber-crime.

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Charles Scott, Joe Lollo, and Dean Robbins
Aug 19, 2026
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This is our 500th post! We are truly grateful for the generous support of all our readers who have made this venture possible. What a journey it has been, from beginning with our foundational list of 100 movies in April 2023, to expanding into multiple series, a podcast, and a YouTube channel, to launching our sister publication, 100 Movies Every Family Should See, in June of this year and hosting our first in-person event. We cannot wait to see what the future holds!

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (2023)

Directed by Justin K. Thompson, Kemp Powers and Joaquim Dos Santos.

By Charles Scott

The first critique that comes to mind on this is the one that Peter Griffin gives of The Godfather: “It insists on itself”. While I disagree with the sentiment of The Godfather and didn’t quite understand what he meant by it, after watching Across the Spider-Verse, I finally get it.

The film “insists” on its mind-numbing and sometimes incomprehensible style. The continuous flashing lights and colors mixed with never-consistent animation changes left me feeling like I was watching a Gaspar Noe film (which he prides himself on being nauseating). Sometimes styles would change multiple times within the same scene for no apparent reason other than to keep whatever would-be disruptive 6-year-old in their seat and staring at their screen longer. There would be no need for a child to watch Subway Surfers alongside this film because Across the Spider-Verse is about as overstimulating as a dubstep concert from 2010.

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A guest post by
Joe Lollo
Educator writing about my passions for inclusive learning, design, and popular culture (and preferably all of the above together).
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A guest post by
Dean Robbins
Dean Robbins is a media critic currently residing in Pittsburgh, PA. In 2023, he ran the Substack publication DC Culture Review while a student in the city.
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