Taken on its own merits, this is a pretty solid trailer. The visual effects look decent, there seems to be plenty and varied web-slinging action, and Marc Webb's reboot does possess a different, more real-world look compared to Raimi's cotton-candy New York City. But the idea that this film is 'darker' because it's visually darker and rains a bit more, for the moment, silly. For all the bright colors and gee-whiz action, Sam Raimi's initial Spider-Man was an awfully morose and depressing affair, with pretty much every major character (Peter, Mary Jane, Harry, Norman, etc) in a state of mental duress for 90% of the picture. How gloomy is the picture? It ends at a funeral... for the villain! And the idea that this film differs by creating a student/mentor relationship between Peter Parker and Dr. Conners completely ignores the father/son relationship between Peter and Norman Osbourne in Spider-Man and the student/mentor relationship (truncated as it was) between Peter and Dr. Octavius in Spider-Man 2.
And for all the talk about how this film would have more practical web-slinging, you certainly don't see it here. There is certainly some high-quality CGI aerial work and one great moment (just like the trailer for Raimi's original) where Peter has to be aggressively violent while fighting without his mask, but again, we've seen this stuff before. But the biggest problem in the footage, quite frankly, is the seemingly obnoxious overacting from Dennis Leary (!) as Captain Stacy. His every line in the trailer is overwrought and forced, leaving the possibility of the film suffering from a pretty bad performance in a central dramatic role. We really don't see much of the supporting cast on an acting level. Rhys Ifans looks solid as the would-be Lizard, even if he (like Dafoe and Molina, respectively) will probably be more engaging in his 'normal human persona' than as a costumed or CGI-enhanced super-villain. Emma Stone gets very little real dialogue, although I appreciate that she isn't overly sexed-up as Gwen Stacey.
Overall the trailer looks solid, and the final film seems to be a mix of Ultimate Spider-Man and the terrific 2008 cartoon Spectacular Spider-Man. The world may not need another Spider-Man film franchise, especially one that feels the need to once again spell out the origin. But, apart from the disturbing implications for the industry at-large, The Amazing Spider-Man looks like a solid bit of comic book drama. It opens July 3rd. As always, we'll see.
Scott Mendelson
Scott Mendelson
