Trailer Analysis 2: The Amazing Spider-Man
A new trailer of the reboot to the Spiderman franchise was attached to the release of Marvel Studios, The Avengers, and with it comes even more hype. Like I said in my previous Spiderman article, I was hesitant to think this could be a good movie. However, after the second trailer I had hope, and with this trailer it busted down the door of doubt. The writers and director Marc Webb have taken this new concept and have made it fresher. Spiderman was already a big draw, but now by making it set in a darker world it could draw in more people. Andrew Garfield also looks to be a terrific Peter Parker/Spiderman. His delivery of lines is impressive and his growth as an actor should be commended. Now granted this is just a trailer, but you can see just by the trailer that he is very comfortable in the role away from his more serious and reserved role as Eduardo Saverin from the Social Network.
A surprising element of the trailer was the fact that Gwen Stacy (Emma Stone) seems to know of Peter Parker's alter-ego. With their choice to avoid the awkward romantic tension of Peter hiding Spiderman from his life interest, it allows the writers to advance the story line faster. That is an important issue considering how we already saw that melodramatic story line unfold between Peter and Mary Jane in Sam Raimi's trilogy. It is also nice seeing the inclusion of Flash Thompson in this series. Comic book fans alike will know that Flash does become the villain known as Venom. If this series can give fans the Venom that they want and deserve, it will be very well received by fans. Most (and even I), have compared the film's tone to Batman Begins. With the second Batman film they went with his biggest villain, with The Amazing Spiderman 2 already in production does that mean that we could be seeing Venom as the main villain in it? I doubt it, it seems more likely that they would go with Green Goblin, but I would expect to see Venom at some point. With Gwen knowing who Peter is, it will also create tension between her and her father who is searching out the vigilante known as Spiderman. The stakes will be constantly high for Spiderman as he will have to watch his back due to the police bearing down on him, but also watching out for the main villain, the Lizard.
Most fans are elated to see the Lizard finally get the big screen treatment that he deserves and it looks pretty good. I was a little skeptical of the crew casting Rhys Ifans as Doctor Curt Connors, but I will continue to reserve my judgement until I see the film. My problem as of now with the casting is that I still associate Ifans as a comedic actor from films such as The Replacements and Little Nicky. Connors was a friend of Peter Parker, but like Peter, Connors had a alter ego. His alter ego wasn't friendly like Spiderman, but instead it was a vicious creature. The Curt Connors we see in the trailer seems much different from the "Jekyll and Hyde" version that we are normally accustomed to. In this film, it seems as if Connors has it out for the world and decides to attack it with science. You can see some giant blue beam come out of a building after seeing Connors followed by him as the Lizard on the street releasing a green gas. In the comics, the character did attempt to rule by releasing a gas that turned everyone into his own personally mindless zombies, so they could be going in that direction. Either way, it will be interesting to see and I am really interested to see what else they intend to do to make this film stand out from Raimi's original Spiderman film. It can be a daunting task considering the success the previous installment had, but as of now, I am a fan of the darker tone.
