ONCE THE SEEDS OF DOUBT ARE planted inside of you, it takes a monumental amount of effort to overcome them. I had to deal with it for most of my young life. The first seeds that were planted inside of me were the ones associated with my weight. I cannot tell you how many times I heard from classmates and neighborhood kids I could not do something because I was big, as in excessive weight. There were not many kids that were overweight as far as I can remember, which I find odd in itself. One episode that came to mind was watching my friends climb something, like a tree or fence. I can still see me standing there, too afraid to attempt such an activity because I was afraid my girth would break the tree branch, or my arms and legs were not strong enough to lift my weight up. While my friends would climb a tree, I would sit in the grass and watch while shouting out encouragement. Another area where I receded and tried to fade into the background was sports activities. Being told I could not throw or hit a ball far was enough for me to avoid sports games. While neighborhood kids were deep into the action of a baseball game, I was standing off to the side, tossing a rubber ball against a flat surface, trying to get it to bounce directly back at me.      THE NEXT MAJOR EPISODE THAT BECAME life changing for me was during seventh grade. I may have mentioned this some time ago, about the teacher who asked each of us what we wanted to do when we graduated high school. When it came to my turn and I said I wanted to be a writer, the teacher looked up at me and stated I would never amount to anything. I believed her and as a result, turned my focus strictly to science-based classes. I kept it up through the rest of high school and halfway through my college years. When I finally built up the courage to take a writing class in college, I went overboard with every assignment. I needed to prove to myself and everyone else (whether they believed it or not) that I belonged in class and the only way I knew how was to produce volumes of work. So many individuals do not realize an offhanded remark or comment can leave a deep impression on a young person’s mind. Believe me, it takes a strong amount of work to break free of those damaging thoughts once doubt takes root in one’s mind. It was quite evident to see the effort needed by the main character in this animated, action-adventure sequel.      THERE WAS LITTE TIME TO TAKE in the multiverse with all the different Spider-Men protecting each universe for Miles Morales/Spider-Man, voiced by Shameik Moore (Let it Snow, The Pretenders). There was a villain like no other that needed to be stopped and if Miles wanted to help, he would have to redefine who he was and his place in the universe. With Hailee Steinfeld (Bumblebee, The Edge of Seventeen) voicing Gwen Stacy, Brian Tyree Henry (Bullet Train, If Beale Street Could Talk) voicing Jeff Morales, Luna Lauren Velez (Windows of the World, The First Purge) voicing Rio Morales and Jake Johnson (Safety Not Guaranteed, New Girl-TV) voicing Peter B. Parker; this movie continued the high standards of the previous one’s animation and humor. I found the idea of the story creative and felt the writers did a wonderful job of mixing drama with sadness and humor. If one is not familiar with this budding franchise, then I feel they would be lost at times. During the last half of the film, I started feeling as if I was overloaded and scenes seemed to blur into repetition. Not knowing this installment was part one of two, bothered me because I am not a fan of cliffhangers that do not get resolved for months at a time.                            

3 stars