Tag Archives: Spider Man

Elisabeth Banks Was “Too Old” To Play Tobey Maguire’s Girlfriend In Spider-Man At 28

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Elizabeth_BankstoooldtoplaytobymaguiresgilfriendIn an interview with the ever-amazing Glamour Magazine, Elizabeth Banks has revealed that she was deemed “too old” too play Toby Maguire’s Girlfriend in Spider Man, despite being close in age.

Now 42, Banks had a screen test with Tobey Maguire for the film that was released in 2002. She was rejected for the role because of her age, even though she is just 16 months older than Maguire.

“I screen-tested for the role of Mary-Jane Watson in the first Spider-Man movie, opposite Tobey Maguire,” she told Glamour magazine. “Tobey and I are basically the same age and I was told I was too old to play her. I’m like, ‘Oh, okay, that’s what I’ve signed up for’.”

Kirsten Dunst, who is six years younger than Maguire -34 to his 40- ended up playing the part. Banks played a minor role in the movie. As the Daily Bugle secretary Betty Brant.

The actress, director and producer recently directed Pitch Perfect 2, which grossed $285 million worldwide. She won’t be directing the sequel as she wants to spend more time with her family. “The new schedule butts up against my parental responsibilities in a way I’m not really comfortable with,” she said.

 

If you are an actor then check out How To Be a Successful Actor: Becoming an Actorpreneur. It is available in print and in all eBook formats on both Smashwords and Amazon.

 

 

Captain America: Civil War Film Review

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_1453319820Based on the 2006 Marvel Comics crossover storyline Civil War is perhaps one of most adventurous pieces of comic book fare to be brought to the big screen. Based one year after the last Avengers movie; Age of Ultron and the colossal damages that occurred within all the previous cities the United Nations is preparing to pass the Sokovia Accords; an international governing body to monitor and police the rapidly growing superhuman population. The team is divided; Tony Stark supports oversight because he feels responsible for creating Ultron and for the destruction the android brought to Sokovia, while Rogers is distrustful of any government having control over them and wishes the Avengers to remain free to act of their own accord. When the Winter Solider reappears accused of another assassination Iron Man leads the charge forcing Captain America to choose a side. This leads to Civil War; a war within.

Featuring almost every Avenger (with the exception of Thor and Hulk) in addition to new characters like Spider-Man and returning supporting characters like General Ross this film should perhaps be re-named Avengers 2.5. It seems like this year when it comes to comic book adaptions it is all about the showdown between big superheroes and sprawling cataclysmic battles. No doubt comparisons will be eagerly made between this and the previously released Superman Versus Batman with fanboys clamouring either side to say which one is best. Civil War has been released with far less fanfare than its DC counterpart, but like the good old Captain America quiet confidence is perhaps what makes it so great. I’ll settle the scrap now; in my humble opinion Civil War is a better film.

There are a number of advantages that Civil War has over its Dawn of Justice rival. First is the fact that Marvel has spent numerous movies developing each and every character in the build up to this showdown and most of the characters have had their own films (or significant pieces within) to develop. In the run up to seeing the film, my friends and I were enthusiastically discussing which Marvel films we liked the most; some liked Iron Man, some liked Captain America, some liked Thor. Although film-wise there have been a couple of misses, what is undeniable is that Marvel has been successful in creating movie comic book characters that are semi-independent of each other, films that have their own valid personality and structure. Indeed, you can almost be divided over the movies like you could be the comic books. How that translates into Civil War is that less time needs to be dedicated showing their back stories (parents murdered or motivating tragedies) and secondly we have already come to know the characters as multi-faceted beings through their own movies which makes the ultimate show down far more complex than simply choosing a side. Tony Stark; the narcissistic billionaire but an individual always touched by the plight of the weak and defenceless versus Captain America a soldier who fights for freedom but has increasingly become disillusioned by the corruption he has witnessed. In Civil War the fights are gruelling but not gratuitous, no one wants to hurt each other but they will for what they believe in and ultimately they do.

Sadly, Civil War does suffer from a long build up, yes there is action but like Dawn of Justice it spends a long time getting you to see the story from both sides and introducing you to the new characters. But what a line up it is, in addition to Robert Downey Junior’s incredible Iron Man (let’s face it; there could only ever be one Iron Man) and Chris Evan’s one and only Captain America, we have Chadwick Boseman making his debut as an impressive Black Panther, Paul Rudd’s Ant-Man and the all new Spider-Man, played by Tom Holland.  I have to say I was a bit worried about the new wall crawler’s debut (I think we are on its third iteration within ten years) but with all honesty I think he was one of the many highlights and what he brought to the film was a much needed comedic boost to alleviate the movie’s more serious themes of lost friendship and broken trust. With Spider-Man a part of this film the credibility was seriously boosted in a way that perhaps only Wolverine could to a Hulk film. Overall then if you are a fan of Marvel, this film will excite and meet many if not all of your expectations. But we warned the ending is not a happy one. Last but not least there are two post credit scenes so stay until the very end.

O.k so my verdict:

Easily a 4 out of 5.

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 {Film Review}

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* WARNING! Does contain spoilers *

It has been exactly ten years since Sam Raimi released the first sequel to his 2002 hit, Spider-Man 2. I remember the movie being incredibly fun but also can see and feel the passion behind it. Now it is Marc Webb’s turn with his The Amazing Spider-Man series that we got our first glimpse in 2012 (which resulted to mixed reactions).

 

Andrew Garfield returns as Peter Parker/Spider-Man, continuing his duty help New York City being crime free. While also struggling to keep a promise from Gwen Stacy’s (Emma Stone) father to stay from harm’s way. It’s nice to see him doing more than catching thieves, like stopping a bunch of bullies and walking bullied kid back home. The chemistry between Garfield and Stone are cute and affectionate but all feel contrived to have Peter have another conflict on his plate. The scenes between Peter and Aunt May (Sally Field) are humorous to some level but, again, all feel superfluous (I mean, she seriously can’t tell there isn’t anything going on with Peter from having a dirty face and having the excuse “I was cleaning the chimney”, she catches that by saying “we don’t have a chimney” and he acts flabbergasted?) Star Trek and Transformers writers Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci were brought in to redraft the script, thus does comes across the movie having way too many cooks. The movie is unfocused with what it really should be and that’s giving a different take of the story but it is more interested on what it is setting up (i.e. the Sinister Six for the most part). More evidence the movie was unfocused was when they shot scenes with Shailene Woodley as Mary Jane Watson but cut them out as they felt it was overstuffed (definitely can tell when watching the final cut).

 

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The villains in this movie is quite embarrassing, trying to give dramatic weight but it all comes flat. Max Dillon / Electro (Jamie Foxx) is basically another fan of the main protagonist but feels betrayed and becomes the villain (similar to Batman Forever and Iron Man 3). Paul Giamatti as Aleksei Sytsevich (though everyone will just remember him as The Rhino) is wasted as he just shouts his lines in a hammy Russian accent and only becomes his alter-ego in the last 5-10 minutes of the movies. Dane De Haan as Harry Osborn is a character that would’ve been beneficial if introduced in the previous movie but felt forced into the movie as if he was put in at the last second (like Venom in Spider-Man 3). Having both Peter and Harry talk about their backstory on their childhood memories all felt forced and empty. All these villains have one purpose; world building and setting up for Sony’s planned sequels and spin-offs. That may be all well and good but doesn’t give us time to care about the story and characters if they’re not fully developed enough. Also Martin Csokas as Dr. Ashley Kafka seemed he came out from auditioning as titular character in Dr. Strangelove but needed a moustache to twirl as he was comically villainous (both Giamatti and Csokas really do feel out of place from its grounded setting and tone).

 

The action sequences are well choreographed and probably the best Spider-Man swinging sequences since Spider-Man 2. The Green Goblin character in particular may have made Dane DeHaan look creepy but the design looked lazy and plain compared the look in the comic books. Electro was probably the most interesting looking villain in the series, which I give credit to the visual effects team at Sony Imageworks. Hans Zimmer scores another comic book blockbuster and it is relatively creative (the idea of using dubstep style music for Electro felt cringe-worthy but it fitted the character). Though one particular set-piece that had similar affect in Spider-Man 3 was Spider-Man and Green Goblin fight and felt it wasn’t given a lot of thought. The only reason this was included so we would have the famous Gwen Stacy death scene that Spider-Man/comic book fans are very familiar with. It comes off the filmmakers felt they were obligated to include this scene (same way audiences would expect Breaking the Bat scene in The Dark Knight Rises). It should’ve come across being shocking but it was predictable and makes this emotional scene fail on all aspects.

 

Overall; this movie is just a product so Sony can keep the rights to Spider-Man rather than revert it back to Marvel. The leads may be charismatic and production value is all there but the movie feels empty underneath its shiny surface (not since Iron Man 2).

 

2 out of 5

The Amazing Spider-man Movie Review

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The Amazing Spider-man catapults onto movie screens with a direction, new actors, a re-buffed script, and some would say darker story-telling than its predecessor, but do these facets make the film more of worthwhile return to the franchise or does this reboot deserve a boot to the chops?

Critics can be forgiven for thinking that this is an ‘all too soon’ reboot for perhaps one of the best loved comic book superheroes of a recent generation. On one hand you had the excellent depiction of Spider-man by Sam Raimi with Tobey Maguire providing perhaps an over innocent and goofy Peter Parker / Spider-man. On the other hand though one could argue that the last series of movies became stale, that there were missed opportunities and that it had definitely run its course. However, Marvel was not ready to throw in the towel and who could blame them; Spider-man had made a lot of money for the studio and undoubtedly put them back on the map. Whatever you may say about reboots it is fast becomingHollywood’s tool-of-choice, especially where successful franchises are perhaps on the way out. For the creators, it’s a handy shortcut and for audiences it is an opportunity to see a new vision of a beloved character. Let’s just hope Harry Potter doesn’t have a reboot any time soon.

I wouldn’t have liked to have been in the head office of Marvel Studios when they came up with the plan to do this reboot. Approaching this movie was going to be a one shot gun; they knew they were either going to re-energise the title or kill it. Restore the hope to millions of spidey fans, or destroy it. They were going to have to throw nothing less than the kitchen sink at it and it shows. Fortunately end result is a film that manages to tread a fine line between being respectful to the original source material and Sam Raimi’s creation whilst bringing something new to the table and, at the same time is genuinely fun and exciting to watch.

Andrew Garfield, steps into the role of Peter Parker / Spider-man. This iteration no longer goofy, hapless or over exaggerated; this Peter Parker is actually smart, stands up to bullies even before he gains his super powers and typical of the ‘Twilight generation’ is always brooding and staring into space. His central love interest here isn’t girl-next-door Mary Jane Watson, but the equally intelligent Gwen Stacy (played by the gorgeous Emma Stone). New to this film is the working on Parker’s history with his parents. Although we are introduced to them only briefly it is their abandonment of Peter which creates a deeper shading of the character not previously seen in the previous carnations.

It’s worth saying at this point that the dynamics between Emma Stone’s character and Andrew Garfield work really, really well. They somehow manage to take the awkwardness of high-school love and make it fun and intense. Sometimes it’s not even what they say it’s what they don’t say. An unforgettable moment involves Peter and Gwen on the top of a roof with Peter trying to explain what has happened to him. ‘I’ve been bitten,’ he stammers. She leans in close with her slow husky whisper: ‘So have I’. Peter grins like a cat that has just got the cream. Now ask yourself what more do I need to say than that?

Everyone should know the plot of Spider-man by now and if you don’t, go and see a Doctor and find out where you have been for the past 10 years. Peter Parker gets bitten by a spider and whilst not gaining the extra 6 hairy legs, finds he embodies all of the positives of spider traits such as sticking to walls having extra perception (spider sense) and increased strength amongst other things.

The problem here is that Sam Raimi really did the bite and the transformation well. After the bite, we get the usual scenes of Peter’s realising he has extra powers, and events transpire that inevitably transform him into your friendly neighbourhood wall-crawler. Director Marc Webb does his best to make these sequences fresh and come at it from a new angle but try as he might you know that you have seen it before. Whilst there are some genuinely original and comic book moments, it’s hard not to fold your arms and sigh as you wait for the movie to get on with things. I also found that this version just seemed to lack that excitement that Peter had actually unlocked something special that was going to change his life or that his life actually needed to change.

Raimi’s creation had webbing ‘secrete’ from Parker’s wrists, however in this much more realistic and truer to the comic book version you see Parker develop the web shooters himself through trial and error. This version of Spider-man is also a lot grittier; every now and then he does something unpredictable which errs on the mentally serious side and you find yourself harking back to Maguire’s goofy jokey Spider-man and you are glad that you are watching this. Far from Raimi’s ideas of super quick healing, this Peter Parker goes home black and blue from bruising; when he gets cut he bleeds and even gets injured to the point where he has to rely on fellow citizens to help.  There are some nice nods towards Raimi’s creation here and there as well, such as the wrestling ring which makes an appearance.

For every hero there is a villain, this new plot concerns the development of Dr. Curt Connors (Rhys Ifans), experimenting with a serum that eventually turns him into The Lizard. It’s hardly different, in concept or execution, from Willem Dafoe as The Green Goblin complete with him hearing voices. Rhys Ifans does a terrific job with what he has, there just needed to be more in the script for him to do and say. It might also have been worth choosing a different villain to start with owing to the similarities that were bound to be drawn with the Green Goblin.

Despite the various differences, there are some solid key performances Sally Field does a really good job as Parker’s Aunt May and Martin Sheen deserves some credit because, even though I’ve read people accuse him of overacting, he does do a marvellous job as Ben Parker even when the script is thin. Somehow he manages to squeeze more emotional resonance than he has had previously.  Stan Lee appears too in a library scene that will be talked about for a while as one of his best cameos. Dennis Leary though has a character which barely touches on the surface.

When the red and blue costume make an appearance you feel like you are on familiar ground. The new suit which I have never liked has well and truly grown on me. The special effects are fantastic, perhaps never looking so good in 3D and well worth every penny of the extra price to get in. Whereas with the Avengers and Green Lantern movies you got the occasional scene in 3D here, Director Marc Webb treats you to long sweeping vistas of web swinging action. Explosions, debris, webs, it’s got the most 3D I have seen in a superhero movie so far with effects that actually work. When spider-man flies though the air in 3D you take a deep breath, when the camera does switch to 1st person perspective you go ‘wow’ these scenes are shorter than those seen in the trailer which is a shame but they still pack a punch for the eyes.

There are allusions to other characters in the Spider-man universe here as well which give the movie a larger sense of scale for example, you hear Norman Osborne mentioned and it will be interesting to see how he will factor into future movies. The story flows well throughout the entire movie but I found it was weighted kind of oddly with all the action seemingly occurring in the last half of the movie after Peter develops his skills. It is a great deal choppier than Raimi’s creation. However, here we have a Spider-man that’s more human than before and is perhaps just as flawed as the rest of us.  Watching this I didn’t feel like I was looking at a superhero, but a kid in a skin-tight suit that has no idea what the hell he is doing and is making it up as he goes along. It is the moments when there is nothing happening such as when Parker is dangling on a web playing a game on his mobile, or on a statue above the city when he takes a call from Aunt May and agrees to pick up some eggs that give insight to the character. This is what many people love about Spider-man; he is after all just a kid granted special powers and underneath the suit is someone still learning to fit in as well as grow with what he has.

My Verdict

I think Garfield’s work as Peter Parker and Spider-man is the glue that holds this film together. I know I am going to upset Maguire fans but Garfieldis a much better fit for this type of role. His portrayal of Peter is much more angst driven and is still growing and evolving even by the story’s conclusion. The film doesn’t even close with him working at the Daily Bugle he is still at school; therefore you just know there is more to come. I would not say that this film is a new Batman Begins or could even compare to that masterpiece. However, this Spider-man reboot feels like a fresh start; an origin story that can stand on its own or be the start of something even better.  It’s not perfect; weak script, choppy editing, flaws and moments that feel almost staged and even artificial.  But it is an optimistic start, a new direction and new promise. One last word to the wise – stay until after the initial credits…

8 / 10

The Amazing Spider-man Game Review

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Whilst The Amazing Spider-man Video Game may lack the all out ‘spit and polish’ of some premium titles it does bring something new to movie-game tie-ins of late; it is genuinely fun and exciting to play, is full of features and successfully regenerates the Spider-man franchise under software developer Beenox.

Excuse the pun but Spider-Man’s web franchise has been a bit of a sticky web in terms of quality and variety over the past number of years. When it has been good it has been great, but let’s face it when it has been bad, it has been crap. Beenox have been in-charge of the franchise since the highly acclaimed Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions, a game that really showed what could be achieved when game’s developers who love the material actually put their minds into bringing the concept to life and who are willing to put in blood, sweat and tears so that new ideas become reality and that these ideas work well. It was for these reasons amongst others that Shattered Dimensions was so well received. Tragically though, the follow up – Edge of Time saw Beenox dropping the ball somewhat almost spectacularly by condemning our beloved wall crawler to confined spaces, changing the control system so that it was tricky to play and having a ho-hum storyline that did little to engage players.

Listening to the critics of Edge of Time and looking at the efforts put into what some would say the ‘all too soon’ reboot of the Spider-man franchise Beenox knew they had to up their game. Mentality wise, they had to approach this just like Marvel Studios were going to approach the movie – it was going to be a one shot gun; they knew they were either going to re-energise the title or kill it. Restore the hope to millions of spidey fans, or destroy it.

Games that successfully manage to re-create the magic of comic books and movies is no mean feat; superhero games especially have a hard time translating the mass of abilities with ease of control. With the exception of Rocksteady and their Batman franchise there are few others that actually do it well. Thankfully though, Beenox fulfilled what some would say is a tall order The Amazing Spiderman plays very well indeed, in places it is incredibly cinematic and having it linked so closely to a movie which is heavily anticipated does it no harm at all.

The story in The Amazing Spider-Man the video game takes place some months after where the movie ended. After the Dr. Connors’ incident, Oscorp Industries went on to create an army of robots that maintain peace inNew York, scanning and attacking infected life forms. Unfortunately Oscorp also continued Connors’ research into cross-species and in one of the opening stages these potentially walking infectious diseases attack and infect Parker’s high school sweetheart: Gwen Stacey and escape intoManhattan, infecting innocents on the way. This leaves Spider-Man with no choice but to break Connors out of prison and work together with him to come up with an antidote to cure the infection in the city and save his girlfriend Gwen.

Set in a free-roaming open-world you will protect innocents of the city, battle with the infected, come across and battle super villains, tackle muggers and other perps of criminal activity all with the ability to explore and swing to your heart’s content.

The mechanic feels great and both looks and works tremendously well. Out in the city whilst you are web-slinging the camera moves in nice and close, and there is this immense feeling of motion, propulsion, gravity, speed and not to mention impressive grace. Swinging through the city you can swing really low between traffic like the movie, you can also free fall and swing at the last second. If you have seen any of the previous Spider-Man movies, you’ll experience that same feeling Peter Parker did the first time he mastered his new abilities. Sometimes in the game you even hear the character whoop with excitement as he enjoys the rush of flying through the air. This helps bring the game to life and I thought a nice touch by the developers who obviously had the master of movement as one of their core angles for this title. It is something perhaps I might not get tired of for a while and in my view makes up for any lack of online multi-play which could have further benefitted this game.

Combat wise this title doesn’t disappoint either. Spidey can confront enemies head on or attack from the shadows. Much has been borrowed from the control method of the Arkham series of Batman games; a single button to initiate and carry out a combo which builds your combo meter with every successful hit, and when the spider-sense goes off around Spider-Man’s head, you know someone is about to attack you so you tap the reversal button to stylishly take them out.

I’ve heard some reviewers complain that it is ‘too borrowed’ from Batman (including the degradable suit) but how can you realistically complain when a formula works so well. It makes it easy to look like a superhero when you skillfully drop down above an unsuspecting enemy, web them into a cocoon and propel them to the ceiling. If you don’t fancy going down the stealth route then you can take them on one by one or in a group with webs and signature moves galore which can be upgraded. Very nice indeed.

New to this Spider-man game is the inclusion of Web Rush. By holding a shoulder button, time slows down and you go into Spider-man’s ‘eyes’ where you can look at and select locations you desire to zip-line to, interact with or attack. It’s an elegant way to get Spider-Man around quickly and in a room full of enemies it allows you to quickly see objects you can use to your advantage.

Of course, there are some areas in which this title falls short of the mark and whilst they are not in my opinion deal breakers (because they are common issues found in most open world games) they do detract from what would otherwise be a quality title. Firstly, whilst the model for Spider-Man is exceptional, there are ten times as many average looking character models in the game. So many people just look the same bar a few palette changes here and there and many sound the same or say the same things. This equally goes for many of the adventures you have around the city. The first time you stop a robbery and hear Spidey deliver a cool line like ‘Stay frosty’ you are going to be excited and the second time and the third but by the time you take out your 15th armed robber who looks or sounds the same or has stolen exactly the same car, stopping robberies wont be high on your agenda. There’s a lot to do in the life of Spider-man but be prepared to repeat these missions over and over again; you’ll hear the same one-liners from Spidey and help the same police officer over and over again. That’s one of the things I think LA Noire got right; each of the side missions were individual crimes in their own right. This is an area for improvement for any future titles. Secondly, Spider-man falls foul of another typical issue of open world titles which is of graphical dexterity. Some of the surfaces especially those which are indoor just lack that spit and polish and look gaudy up close. I found this more noticeable on the Xbox version than on the PlayStation 3 but really, should it be there at all? There are also some niggling camera issues especially when you are in combat or adopting a stealth approach to attacking enemies. Sometimes you’ll find yourself backed into a corner that brings almost certain death and inevitably, some frustration.

On the PlayStation 3 you can play with the PlayStation Move. Now before you get images of two motion controllers in your hands flicking your webs acrossManhattan, think again. You hold a navigation controller or regular controller in your left hand and then the PlayStation Move controller in the right.

Basically, the Move puts a cursor on the screen and gives you a more accurate way to Web Rush or fire webbing. That is, rather than cycling through your options with the right analogue stick you can now just point. Flicking the Move also does an immediate Web Retreat. Whilst it works o.k. and has some novelty value I found it by no means a necessity. I played through the game with normal controls and never actually felt like more precise aiming would greatly help me or make the game any easier; in fact using the move controller just made my arm tired for all the wrong reasons.

The Verdict

With stunning visuals, decent enough storyline and lets not forget incredible web-slinging, Spider-man might not be the best game but is probably one of the best movie tie-ins of late. Fair play some of the missions get repetitive and some of the graphics are rough around the edges but The Amazing Spider-Man is still fun to play and gets me really excited when I think about the movie release next week.

8.5 / 10

The Amazing Spider-Man New Trailer Revealed

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The much anticipated new trailer for Sony’s The Amazing Spider-Man has just been released to intense acclaim.

Hot on the heels of Marvel’s Avengers Assembled movie it seems there will be no let up to Marvel’s success this year.

I have personally seen the trailer and all I can say is wow. The first trailer looked intriguing, the second one…well it was just more of the same but this one seems to go a long way to perhaps showing what is in store for Spider-man and Marvel fans.

The film stars Andrew Garfield as Peter Parker / Spider-man with supporting turns coming from Emma Stone, Rhys Ifans, Denis Leary, Martin Sheen and Sally Field.

The Amazing Spider-Man will hit 2D and 3D theatres from July 3rd, 2012 and is a fully-fledged reboot of the web-slinging franchise which promises a new story to be told from the previous Sam Raimi trilogy.

The film is directed by Marc Webb from a screenplay written by James Vanderbilt, based on the Marvel Comic Book by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko. Laura Ziskin, Avi Arad, and Matt Tolmach are producing the film in association with Marvel Entertainment for Columbia Pictures, which will open in theatres everywhere in 3D.

For those of you who don’t know – The Amazing Spider-Man is the story of Peter Parker (Garfield), an outcast high schooler who was abandoned by his parents as a boy, leaving him to be raised by his Uncle Ben (Sheen) and Aunt May (Field). Like most teenagers, Peter is trying to figure out who he is and how he got to be the person he is today and is troubled by all those angst’s that young people face.

Peter is also dealing with his first high school crush, Gwen Stacy (Stone), and together, they struggle with love, commitment, and secrets. As Peter discovers a mysterious briefcase that belonged to his father, he begins a quest to understand his parents’ disappearance – leading him directly to Oscorp and the lab of Dr. Curt Connors (Ifans), his father’s former partner. An elusive spider bite sets Peter on a different path exposing abilities he never knew he had and as he becomes a hero in the alter-ego of Spider-Man he is set on a collision course with Connors’ alter-ego, The Lizard, Peter will make life-altering choices to use his powers and shape his destiny to become a hero.

Fans have already commented on the fact that this iteration of their comic book hero has the fabled web-shooters as opposed to ‘organic’ webbing that used to secrete from the wrists of Sam Rami’s creation. Indicating that the Peter Parker of this generation is perhaps more  of a genius in the making. Personally I prefer the web-shooters to..erm anything organic and the suit looks better now too.

The Amazing Spider-Man will hit 2D and 3D theatres from July 3rd, 2012.

Have a look at the trailer below and don’t forget to give us your comments.

Second Trailer for The Amazing Spider-Man Movie Hits the Web

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Yes indeed, the second trailer for The Amazing Spider-Man movie has hit the web and seems to have got the whole world in a spin.

Whilst there have been many skeptics (and who could blame them; after all a reboot of Spider-man is about as much needed as a reboot of Harry Potter)  Andrew Garfield’s portrayal of Spiderman / Peter Parker in Marc Webb’s version (in the trailer at least) looks much more serious, determined and full of all those angst that teenagers have had to endure over the…erm, centuries.

So what are the changes? Well for a start there’s a whole different dynamic between Parker and the object of his affections, Emma Stone’s Gwen Stacy, it could be a real love triangle – or web.

Then there’s the fact that in this reboot Peter Parker has man-made rather than organic web-shooters. This allows the film-makers to play up the teenager’s status as something of a budding scientific genius, rather than just a talented student. This in turn ties into the key plotline within The Amazing Spider-Man which revolves around Parker’s relationship with scientist Dr Curt Connors (Rhys Ifans).  For those of you not up to date with the comic book, Connors once worked with Parker’s late father, adding an extra layer of intrigue when his dodgy experiments transform him into the Lizard. Director Marc Webb, speaking in LA, said his film would examine “the emotional consequence of what it means to be an orphan.” He added: “We wanted to treat Peter Parker in a more realistic, naturalistic way. There are a lot of things from the Spider-Man canon: this starts off with Peter Parker and his parents.” Interesting eh? I thought so.

Lastly the production has been shot entirely in stereoscopic 3D. which can only be a coop for Sony who are looking to push their ideas of creating 3D within the home.

Might just be my opinion but the new trailer looks awesome. I am still not so sure about that suit but one thing is for sure is that there is action, tons of it and most importantly, although trailers tend to just show the best bits it looks like they are holding nothing back. It seems as if Spider-man is about to come of age.

The Amazing Spider-man is due for release July 4th – Check out the trailer below

Kirsten Dunst Not Ready To Be 30.

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Kirsten Dunst has revealed that she has the same fears as all the other women reaching the big 3-0, finding someone to have kids with.

Dunst turns 30 next year and says she is terrified she will not find a man to have kids with.

The Spider-Man star told Lucky magazine she want to settle down, but fears that she won’t find the right man in time. Proving that even the rich and famous are slaves to their biological clock.

Dunst said: ‘I thought when I reached 30 I’d have a lot more figured out. Until you have a kid, you’re just looking for your partner. And guys have a Peter Pan vibe. They’re 35 and they act like they’re 25.’

‘That’s what scares me about being in my 30s – not finding someone to have kids with. I can’t wait to re-live life in a little kid’s way,’

‘I’m so ready for that lifestyle – get a little place upstate and have them go to school up there.’ She told Lucky.