Jacob Juenger’s review published on Letterboxd:
It should speak volumes that even my superhero-hating self was impressed by Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse twice. I emphasized in my review of Morbius that I'm not versed in the intricacies of any version of the hero, except through the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which this decidedly isn't, nor do I want to know them. That this movie was able to make me giddy at all speaks to the combination of the cleverness of the script and the nature of its animation.
Indeed, the folks at Sony Pictures Animation manage to make a version of New York that at times has a broken in feel to it, giving it a detailed sheen between the brownstones and the graffiti, while the required action, when such sequences inevitably come, seems like something out of an acid trip between the heavy use of bright colors and the randomness of objects used during the climax.
The movie takes for granted that anyone seeing it, even someone like me, knows the origin story of the title hero, so it opts to breeze through those of each version of it. This allows the Spider-Man at the center of this adventure, Miles Morales (voiced by Shameik Moore), room to develop. We witness him trying to cope with a new, exclusive high school, one in which his working class background and rebellious streak (Did I mention the graffiti?) stick out. It's during one of these streaks that he encounters the radioactive spider and gains his abilities.
It's during this bit that he encounters Peter Parker (Chris Pine) fighting Kingpin (Liev Schreiber) in an attempt to stop a particle accelerator that could destroy New York. This proves to be fatal to this Peter, but aside from Miles attempting to don the persona, it brings other versions of the character to his backyard: Peter B. Parker (Jake Johnson), a fatter, older, trainwreck version of Spidey; Spider-Gwen (Hailee Steinfeld), who has been posing as Miles's classmate for a week prior; Spider-Man Noir, a black-and-white version that sounds like the makers just recorded random Nicolas Cage conversations and just rolled with it; Peni Parker (Kimiko Glenn), a futuristic, anime girl with a big robot for fighting; and Peter "Spider-Ham" Porker (John Mulvaney), one that I shouldn't have to explain.
All of the alternate Spideys face the same problem: find a way to get back home through the particle accelerator or essentially zap to death. Miles faces a different one: proving that he's worthy to be among this group while also trying to gain acceptance from his cop father (Brian Tyree Henry), a guy that I really wish they had given any name other than Jefferson Davis.
Even for those of us in the thick of superhero fatigue, there's more than enough excitement here to sustain the attention of its audience. If nothing else, this should be seen, alongside Everything Everywhere All At Once, as an example of how to do a multiverse movie right. Maybe Kevin Feige should have taken notes.
