On August 24th, I wrote “December 21st - The Clash of Movies!” about the scheduling of several movies on the same day at the end of the year. The edges to that battle were Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and Mortal Engines on December 14th and Mary Poppins Returns on December 19th. The teaser trailer for the Spider-Man animated film was dropped at the 2017 Comic Con Experience at Sao Paulo, then went online. We got a hint of the energetic, comic book-style of animation and the reveal of Miles Morales (voiced by Shameik Moore). Then, the trailer for it appeared this June. It had the training of Miles by Peter Parker (Jake Johnson), his police officer father (Brian Tyree Henry) embarrassing Miles, and then the introduction of Spider-Gwen (Hailee Steinfeld)! The Spider-Verse was unleashed with the second trailer in October with the Looney Tunes-like Spider-Ham (John Mulaney), Peter Parker bringing back the Sam Raimi Spider-Man films, and all of the Spider-Verse heroes together. Mortal Engines should move, it will be crushed on all sides by the blockbusters. March of this year was the release of the teaser trailer for Mary Poppins Returns. In September was the release of the official trailer. This one featured singing by Emily Blunt, at her appearance at D23 Expo there wasn’t a hint of her singing ability, even though she was the Baker’s Wife in Rob Marshall’s Into the Woods (2014). Then, there was the animation in the trailer and Dick Van Dyke dancing that made clear that the magic was back!
The first to fall from the December 21st release date was Alita: Battle Angel which retreated to February 14, 2019. This film is troubled shifting back and forth with release dates from July 20th of this year to December 21st and then to February. Controversy seems to follow director Robert Rodriguez with a lawsuit filed in August for $20 million in cost overruns for Sin City: A Dame to Kill For (2014). This leads to Aquaman which of course is spinning out of Justice League (2017) which financially was a disappointment. The first trailer finally made its debut at 2018’s Comic Con. I liked the background of Arthur Curry growing up, the vision of Atlantis is interesting, but not the aquarium scene and the dry for wet shots, hanging actors on wires with wind blowing to pretend to be underwater. The second trailer released this month was stunning. The training by Vulko (Willem Dafoe), the quest for the trident to unite the undersea kingdoms and the surface world, Black Manta (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) firing his beam, the spinning shot of the manta ray-like ship, and of course the reveal of Aquaman (Jason Mamoa) in his classic armor. Then, there was the announcement that Aquaman would have an early screening on December 15th for Amazon Prime members through Atom Tickets. The site announced that advance tickets were outselling Avengers: Infinity War, but not any sales figures. Fandango reports that tickets for opening day for Aquaman outsold Venom and Mission: Impossible - Fallout. They offer five free digital comic books, I would like actual comic books handed out. Again, this does not indicate a box office success, but does show audience interest in the film.
Then, there is Bumblebee which is a part of the Transformers franchise, the last film was Transformers: The Last Knight (2017). It features direction by Travis Knight who previously directed Laika’s Kubo and the Two Strings (2016). The teaser trailer was released in June with narration about the driver and the car by Bernie Mac’s car dealer character Bobby Bolivia in the first Transformers (2007). We see Hailee Steinfeld’s Charlie Watson inspect the underside of her new VW Bug that transforms! Then, there is Charlie loading the Rick Astley song to play to Bumblebee and he fires it off into the garage! There is some action balanced with the bond between Charlie and Bumblebee. A second trailer dropped in October. This introduces Charlie Watson getting her first car, her friend Memo (Jorge Lendeborg Jr.), and the triple-changing Decepticons; Shatter (voiced by Angela Bassett), and Dropkick (voiced by Justin Theroux) hunting Bumblebee to stop the war from spreading to Earth. We have a strong role of John Cena as Burns, dealing with the Transformers for Sector 7, and then the voice of Optimus Prime (Peter Cullen)! Trailer 3 was also released which has Bumblebee forced by the vicious Blitzwing (David Sobolov) to take the form of the VW bug. Charlie trying to help Bumblebee, Shatter getting Burns to find Bumblebee, and Optimus Prime calls him B-127. It was recently announced that Bumblebee will get the jump on the Christmas season with an Early-Access Screening on December 8th. Movie goers will also get a Transformers: Tiny Turbo Chargers toy. It will be interesting to see how the sneak previews will impact the opening box office of the holiday films. We will see how it all sorts out soon!
#SpiderManIntotheSpiderVerse, #MaryPoppinsReturns, #Aquaman, #BumblebeeMovie
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