The Amazing Spider-Man Trailer #2
This is the Spider-Man trailer that the fanboy inside of me was waiting to see. The teaser trailer left much to be desired. It seemed like a remake of a movie that was made not even 10 years ago. We know Spider-Man. We love Spider-Man. Are you really going to try sell his origin story to us once again?
I understand that the stakes are entirely different. Sam Raimi is gone. Tobey Maguire is gone. Kirsten Dunst is gone. Instead, we get Marc Webb. I was a huge fan of his music video work and (500) Days of Summer, but to have him tackle Spider-Man? Really? But at the same time, how weird was it to have the guy behind Evil Dead and Army of Darkness bring Spidey to the screen in a BIG way?
The major difference between Amazing Spider-Man and Raimi’s first Spider-flick, is that we get to see a bit of Peter’s backstory. We all know that he was raised by his Aunt May and Uncle Ben, but also get to see HOW he ended up with them. Nerds in the know don’t have to speculate what happened to Peter’s parents or who was behind it (for those of you that are confused…let’s just say that Hugo Weaving from Captain America is to blame), so I’m excited to see how they handle that in this film interpretation.
But before I get to much into what I’m looking forward to, let me talk about what I saw and what I liked. Most notably, Andrew Garfield as Peter/Spider-Man. I really liked the guy in The Social Network. When I heard that he landed the part, I had no qualms with it whatsoever. I liked Tobey Maguire (in the first two films of the trilogy, at least), but I believe that Andrew is more appropriate for the role.
What I liked the most about his performance in the trailer is that he not only do we get Spider-Man’s trademark humor, but he NAILS it. It doesn’t come off as snarky. It’s not too light (liked in tended to be Maguire). It’s present and strong.
Though the trailer is amazing, the movie seems far from perfect, though. I was bothered by a few things. First of all, Spider-Man’s web-swinging, probably the most visually-dynamic and iconic aspect that his character possesses, looks not-so-different than the way that it did in the Raimi series. The teaser trailer presented us with an interesting Spidey-perspective first-person-view sequence which, I believe, was a smart card to play to generate buzz. Any glimpse of the much talked about first-person-view is briefly recycled from the first trailer. We do get to see him swing in this new trailer but it looks very familiar to the web-swinging that we saw on the big screen for five years.
It hasn’t been uncommon to link Spider-Man’s villains to his parent’s life’s work. They’re doing that this time around and throwing Dr. Curt Connors into the mix. Connors was only mentioned in one of the Raimi movies and appeared in one scene of another. It was a nod to nerds in the know and they knew him better as The Lizard.
They didn’t do a bad job of making Connors’ alter-ego very lizard-like, however, like most fanboys, I hate the fact that he’s missing his trademark snout. To make matters worse, there weren’t any shots of him wearing his labcoat remnants from transforming (like the Hulk does). He was just naked. And to make matters even worse, his large body and his small snout-less head makes him look like one of the Goombas from the much-hated Mario Brothers movie. So…the Lizard is a naked Goomba?
Weird-looking CG aside, I am excited about Emma Stone portraying Gwen Stacy. Though Mary Jane Watson may be more well-known and popular, Peter actually dated Gwen before Mary Jane. She continued to play an important role in Peter’s life until…uh…she couldn’t anymore. Nerds in the know will understand my trepidation. I’m just not sure how faithful to the comics this story will be, so I don’t want to spoil a potentially major event. Nevertheless, I am looking forward to see Emma as Gwen as she struggles between her relationship with her superhero boyfriend and her police captain father.
While the teaser trailer tried its best to set itself apart from the first film in Raimi’s series, this second trailer (for the most part) continues to do so. Since we already were introduced to the new take on Spidey’s origin, it was great to see him in action and to see some of the odds that he’s up against. This trailer completely changed my mind about the movie. I used to believe that it was going to be an extraneous cash grab on Sony’s behalf but this trailer has opened my eyes to the reality that it will surely be something worth checking out.
