The film's star Andrew Garfield (Peter Parker / Spider-Man) attended here in New York, Emma Stone (Gwen Stacy) in Rio de Janeiro, director Marc Webb was in Los Angeles, and Rhys Ifans (Dr. Curt Connors / The Lizard) held fort in London.
Hosted in downtown NYC by MTV's Josh Horowitz, the film's new 2½-minute trailer was presented in all its glory in a stunning 3-D presentation. While the 3-D market is seemingly becoming over saturated by every big budget release in sight, The Amazing Spider-Man will easily be on the list as one that is not to be missed with the added dimension. As of now I only whole heartedly stand by Avatar, Hugo, and Transformers: Dark Of The Moon as "must see's" in theatrical 3-D as far as the trend goes in shooting and presenting in that format.
Director Marc Webb has his cameras swinging and swooping alongside the wall crawler in spectacular action shots in addition to adding depth to simple conversation scenes between characters. Even footage not yet converted in time for today still exhibited an extraordinary sense of depth. The film was shot entirely in 3-D with the RED Epic cameras, also currently being used by Peter Jackson on The Hobbit.
The trailer was followed by a Q&A for the film's stars and filmmakers from fans across the world. Andrew Garfield remained in awe of playing the iconic Marvel superhero, and was humbled by being the fortunate one behind the iconic mask right now, just as Tobey Maguire was before him. The young Brit was visibly moved by standing before the New York fans and their enthusiastic approval of the presentation. He even laughed off a joke when one brazen attendee offered up a round of applause for star "Daniel Radcliffe."
Following the brief Q&A, Marc Webb rolled out an extended seven minute sneak peek of the film. The movie promises to present a new darker take on Spider-Man, and as the new tag line "The Untold Story" suggests, delves into unexplored aspects regarding his origins. Webb noted the film will address story elements dealing with Peter Parker's parents, whom until now were never mentioned in the Sam Raimi films.
This Peter Parker is a brooding outsider, who gets bullied and subsequently beaten by high school classmate Flash Thompson. He is also a lab genius, and like in the comics, invents his own mechanical wrist web shooters (they were re-imagined as organic powers in the previous films). They even have a beam glow and electronic pulse sound effect when they fire. The new redesigned costume boasts dark hues of blue and red, and the eyes are reflective mirrors. Many of the scenes presented took place at night, dare to assume that is because Peter Parker should be attending school during the day.
Scenes with Uncle Ben and Aunt May play out well with the necessary weight (Martin Sheen and Sally Field taking on the roles). Denis Leary plays a gruff Captain George Stacy (Gwen's father), an NYPD officer who is not at all pleased with Spider-Man's vigilante actions and places a capture order on the superhero. Since there was no sign of The Daily Bugle's editor J. Jonah Jameson in the preview, whose goal was to turn the public opinion against Spider-Man, Stacy has taken on that task in this narrative.
Yes, The Amazing Spider-Man will be a re-telling of the familiar origin story. There were fun scenes of Peter testing his new abilities and various early versions of the costume are seen. Dr. Curt Connors, who was a colleague of Peter's long lost father, runs the Oscorp research lab where Peter Parker is bitten by the radioactive spider that gives him his powers.
Connors is missing an arm, and his medical quest to deal with (and undue) his situation leads to his transformation into the Lizard. We saw hints via animatics and unfinished shots of epic battles taking place on a bridge and skyscraper. And from what little was seen of the reptilian villain, the Lizard is large, vicious, and capable of turning over cars and ripping into and through them.
While we are revisiting many elements we saw previously played out on the big screen in 2002's Spider-Man, it is skillfully done in such a way that it feels completely fresh. I am a huge fan of the Sam Raimi films starring Tobey Maguire, but it is easy to tell that this entry will not be in the same vein. I hate to simplify it by saying they are going all Chris Nolan with this reboot, but yes, this is a darker, moodier, angst ridden take on the teenage Marvel character.
While the new trailer for Marvel's The Avengers made a big splash during last night's Super Bowl broadcast and online today, the Spider-Man footage left much more to be surprised by. The Avengers is a literal continuation of the Marvel Studios films that take place before it within the same big screen continuity, so you do know pretty much what you will be getting come May 4th (plus all that Joss Whedon will make worth seeing).
But I really think there are many amazing surprises awaiting new and old fans alike on July 3rd when this swings onto the big screen in 3-D, RealD 3D, and IMAX 3D.
The new trailer for The Amazing Spider-Man can be seen here.
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