Going full animated for Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse was a brave production choice. Perhaps this choice was possible because the Miles Morales story is somewhat lesser known to the vast majority of movie-goers who know who Spider-Man is but don’t necessarily keep up on the comics. If the idea doesn’t work out, they haven’t broken the franchise.
There is no sign at all from this new trailer that they are breaking the franchise. This trailer is adventurous in every sense. After getting origin stories done and redone and redone yet again, we actually get a new origin story we have not seen on film before. The portrayal of Morales as a kid about Peter Parker’s age when he first gets bitten, and the way he finds out he’s got superpowers, and even a hint at some of the extra powers Morales has that Parker doesn’t.
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Your eyes don’t deceive you, that’s the real Spider-Man in the foreground, from our universe, and that’s Miles Morales in a Halloween costume behind him. In Miles Morales’ universe, Spider-Man is a comic book character. He never expects to meet the real thing, but Peter somehow is in his universe and plans to teach him everything he needs to know to be his world’s Spider-Man. The animation is a stylish blend of traditional 2d animation, 3d animation, and even some live action inserts here and there. The result is seamless and fresh. We have never seen Spider-Man quite in this way before.
The subtitle of the film is “Into the Spider-verse”, which is rich in its implication. It suggests that if this one works out, there might be more Miles Morales movies. The subtitle also suggests that there are some surprises in store, and they’re not holding them back. Watch all the way to the end for a surprise character introduction.
The film is written by Phil Lord, one of the two writers for The Lego Movie. It stars Shameik Moore in the title role, Jake Johnson as Peter Parker, and releases December 14, 2018.
This is gonna rock.
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