Another MCM Comic Con is done and in the books. One of my favourite moments during the Con was watching the first thirty-eight minutes of the Into the Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse Sony animated movie. I was blown away by what I saw and am thoroughly looking forward to seeing the entire film. The sneak peek ended up to the point where the scene starts at the end of the Venom movie. So it is safe to say I have now seen the 1st 43 minutes of the film. I am going to talk about this experience without spoiling anything for all of you that are waiting to enjoy this movie just as I am. The movie appears to be influenced by the Ultimate Spider-Man comics from Brian Bendis and Spiderverse comics by Dan Slott. Let’s get into the visual look of the film. When I first saw the trailer for the film I was blown away with the style of the animation. It has this comic book feel to it that is bold, new and fresh.
From the beginning I think the film does a great job of establishing the set of Brooklyn which is where Miles Morales lives. The 1st thirty-five minutes is a great indication that the film will live up to its expectations of just beautiful animation with great storytelling and voice acting. The beauty of this film is that we will be able to experience Miles receiving his powers and his struggles through Miles point of view. It appears that Sony has got it right and isn’t going to mess this one up. But in all fairness this was in the hands of the creators and directors. They never told Sony how bold of a visual approach they were taking for the film until it was too late for them to change anything about it. Thank you for that. At the end of the sneak peek I think the entire audience just wanted to see the full movie.
There was a Q&A at the end of the screening where the directors, Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey, Rodney Rothman and voice of Miles Morales, Shameik Moore, talked about the film. Shameik whom I loved in Dope and The Get Down actually wrote down in his journal he wanted to play Miles after he found out he was black. The Directors noted that they knew he was the right cast for Miles after seeing his performance in Dope. Here’s what they had to say:
He talked about how his cast mate in Dope gave him a journal to write in and it had stuck with him after seeing Miles Morales previously as a black Spider-man. He wrote in his journal that he is Miles Morales. The directors said they made Shameik their first choice after seeing him in Dope and loved his voice. The directors said they looked for an actor with an openness and innocence that would allow the audience to connect with Miles. They wanted the look of the movie to be distinctive and the story to be distinctive and the movie to be different from any animated film that has come before it.
Shameik stated that this new animation was like seeing Toy Story for the first time. When Toy Story came to the big screen he was blown away as a kid and he thinks you will get that same feeling after watching this film. The directors really wanted this movie to be an homage to comic books which is how they derived at the look of the animation. Shameik also expressed how important it is to have Miles represent minorities and how much he identifies with the character. Shameik talked about how he relates to Miles and how the film has surpassed his expectations. He talked about how cool Miles is and also mentioned that not to say that Peter Parker isn’t cool but Miles just has a coolness to him that Peter doesn’t.
After the panel Spider-Verse cosplayers were called up to the stage and when one of the directors saw me and my bro Michael dressed as Miles from the film he smiled and he tapped Shameik and then pointed to us. Shameik smiled, told us we looked awesome, dapped us up, took selfies and briefly talked with us. It means a lot to us to see the story of another black hero being told as I related to Mile’s character.
The directors talked about more Spider-Verse characters that will be in the film that have not been shown yet in trailers. We can only wonder which will be there. If I could say one thing about this film is that it is not being over-hyped. I think this film will be a classic that allows fans to get many more movies with more spidey characters with endless possibilities. The cast looks amazing also. The film will feature Shameik Moore, Nicholas Cage, Hailee Steinfeld, Mahershala Ali, Jake Johnson and Juan Mulaney to name a few. When asked about future movies the directors said it depended on the response to the film. Into the Spider-Verse should have a green light on all future projects with what I saw today and I think after seeing the full movie audiences will be thirsty for more. I would love to see Shameik brought into the MCU as Miles someday. One can only hope. The movie is set to hit theaters December 14th. Miles Morales is coming to the big screen and I can’t wait.
