'Spider-Man' film series returns as 'Amazing Spider-Man': Is it too soon for a reboot?

There’s been a fair amount of talk about The Amazing Spider-Man of late, between Sony’s Comic-Con panel and general reactions to the footage glimpsed in the Amazing Spider-Man teaser trailer.

Today, we have some thoughts from the reboot’s aptly-named director, Marc Webb, concerning a (touchy?) issue for fans of the webslinger: how Peter Parker will be wielding his own, home-made artificial web-shooters in the reboot. There are also new high-resolution versions of official images from Amazing Spider-Man available, which offer a clearer look at Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone as the new incarnations of Peter and his gal pal, Gwen Stacy, respectively.

Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy deviated from its comic book source material in many respects, including Peter’s newfound ability to create and shoot webbing, as a result of his mutation. With Amazing Spider-Man, however, Webb ultimately decided to drop that particular idea.

In an interview with Hero Complex, Webb offered the following insight on the matter:

”I had a meeting with Stan Lee and we talked about the web-shooters. I was curious about the incarnation of them [because] of course in the previous films [they went away from them] and we wanted to reestablish ourselves. That was one thing but the other thing was the fact that the web-shooters were able to dramatize Peter’s intellect and I thought that was really cool. … It was in the comics and we have a different design but it’s a cool element to have. It’s not something we over-use or over-exploit. To me, it’s something I remember from when I was a kid and thinking ‘It would be cool if I could build those.’”

That decision on Webb’s part seems all the more fitting, given the more realistic tone that he is aiming for with Amazing Spider-Man. It also won’t allow for those jokes about Peter’s ability to “perform” (re: shoot web) that worked okay in Raimi’s more cartoony spider-universe – but would feel out of place in a “gritty” Spider-Man movie.

The suit devised by Tobey Maguire’s Peter Parker in Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy was by and large loyal to the look and design of the hero’s outfit in the comic book continuity. It was also (intentionally?) stylized in such a manner that it almost looked computer-generated at times, which allowed for scenes of Maguire (and his stunt double) in costume to often mesh together well with the CGI version of the character. Webb and his production team went a similar route with Garfield’s red-and-blue duds, but still deviated noticeably from the look of Maguire’s outfit.

For more, read Webb’s comments on the matter below.

“We paid attention to the question of ‘How would a kid make it?’ And obviously we took some license with it. We also wanted a design that would make the body longer and more lithe, more of an acrobat, someone incredibly agile, and the legs of the spider [symbol on the chest] were something we used to emphasize that. We made a bunch of different suits for different lighting conditions. I wanted something that worked in the night a little better. We paid attention to that and also made the webbing [on the costume] a little bit darker. With the costume and the web-shooters we wanted to emphasize that these are things that Peter Parker made and that he is special himself even if he feels like he’s an outsider.”

To get a taste of what Webb means, check out this photo gallery of previously-released Amazing Spider-Man images – now, in hi-res and without the Entertainment Weekly watermark – which offers another look at Garfield in costume, among other things:

See the photos HERE.

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As was discussed in the Amazing Spider-Man trailer breakdown, Webb’s film really seems like it will either (pardon the pun) fly high or fall flat on its face. Going off early footage, the 3D elements and cinematography looks promising, as does the cast as a whole. Whether the movie will really feel like a more nuanced and complicated examination of the Peter Parker origin story – or come off as a poor man’s Batman Begins – is something we’ll just have to wait and find out.

The Amazing Spider-Man will swing into 2D, 3D, and IMAX 3D theaters around the U.S. on July 3rd, 2012.

Source: Hero Complex, Columbia Pictures

Sandy Schaefer blogs at Screen Rant

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