The Amazing Spider-Man Trailer Breakdown

The Big Apple again

Like The Avengers before it, The Amazing Spider-Man trailer opens with a shot of a city-scape.

And for good reason - the Spider-Man mythos is as tied to New York City as Batman is to Gotham.

Until Stan Lee came along, comic-book heroes grew up in imaginary metropolises - but Lee's creations are New Yorkers born and bred, and Parker's Forest Hills home is as much a part of his origin story as webbing and spider-bites.

It also ties the franchise neatly with The Avenger s trailer, which also opened with a shot of the New York skyline. We might not get a Spidey cameo in the first Avengers film , but we'd love one in a future sequel.

Intimidation Game

"Your door-man's intimidating."

Parker's first line, and it's is totally in sync with the character we all grew up on.

Peter's such a nerd that Gwen would believe he'd climb 20 stories to avoid a confrontation with a doorman.

And, like all great Spider-Man lines, it's an in-joke for the audience - in the film this line probably lands after Spider-Man's kicked some criminal ass, so we know full-well that a scary door-man would be no match for our hero, and he's climbed in through Gwen's window presumably because it's more fun than walking in through the front door.

So far, so good, but what comes next is even more revealing in terms of how The Amazing Spider-Man is treating the Peter Parker character...

Web head

This quick shot will be incredibly exciting for Spider-fans.

We'd already heard that Parker would make his own webbing - sticking closely to the comics, and a major departure from Sam Raimi's trilogy - and here we see it in awesome action.

It's such an important aspect of the character it was absolutely baffling that Raimi chose to go with organic web shooters for his version of the mythology.

Not only does home-made webbing highlight that, first and foremost, Peter Parker is a science-geek, it provides essential dramatic tension in the comics; Spider-Man can run out of webbing and when he does, he has to rely on his agility to get him out of scrapes.

We fully expect to see Spidey run out of webbing capsules in this version of the mythology.

Ultimate Spider-Man

Our first look at Captain Stacy (with a much bigger family than his comic counterpart), and our first clue that The Amazing Spider-Man will be following story-arcs from Marvel's Ultimate Spider-Man relaunch in the early noughties.

Actually, that series is a pretty good metaphor for what Sony's doing with the Amazing reboot.

Whereas Raimi's films stuck to the classic '60s iteration of the character, the Ultimate rebranding was more youthful, more jokey, less bogged-down in adult issues and - significantly - more interested in Peter's parents than any previous comic-book Spider series.

The Parker of the Ultimate line was a modern version of the youthful character an entire generation had missed out on (remember, the comic-book Spider-Man was middle-aged and married by this point).

It feels like Garfield is playing THAT Spider-Man, which is very different to the version Maguire played.

Spider-graffiti

And here is that youthful, edgier Parker, looking up at a Spider-Man graffiti tag, with his hood up and rebellion in his eyes.

Just to understate for a moment, this is a slightly more favorable method of introducing edge to the character than the last time we saw Parker being edgy on the big screen - doing a weird swing-dance number with a hipster haircut and a permo-scowl.

Marc Webb seems to have a slightly better idea of what the kids want.

One-liners

"You seriously think I'm a cop in a skin-tight red and blue suit."

It might not look like much on the page, but Garfield's delivery turns this simple one-liner into a trailer-worthy zinger.

Again, this pithy Spider-Man who throws out trash-talk more often than he does webbing might not be familiar to fans of the Raimi Spider-films, but it was a key aspect of the comic-book character.

The lack of Spider-quips was a key criticism of Raimi's Spider-Man from fans; it was a technique the brainy Parker used to make his brawny enemies act rashly and lash out. We have no idea why Sam removed that essential element.

We're really glad it appears to be back.

Spidey's LED

You might have missed this on first watch, but look closer at Spider-Man's web shooters - they flash red every time he uses his webbing.

This is a definite departure from the comic-books.

We're not sure why it's been included - possibly because film is a perpetually moving visual medium, possibly because flashing lights are fun, possibly to shift toys, or, there's always the vague chance it's integral to the narrative.

Whatever, it looks cool. Whoever came up with the idea, fill their fridge with flies as a bonus.

Shooters shot

Here's a better look at those web shooters.

We love the clockwork elements, mixed with the digital read-out.

It's a completely different take on the traditional look of Spider-Man's web shooters, but it works for us.

Oh, and what are those green-blocks?

They look like a battery bar to us - when those green bars are gone, so is Spidey's webbing.

Blue flash

Here's one of the trailer's money-shots - Spider-Man unmasked by the police.

But ignore the possible spoilerific implications of this scene appearing in the trailer, and look closely at Spider-Man's eye in this shot - it flashes blue, just before he releases himself and jumps around acrobatically.

Is this something that happens every time Parker uses his powers? Or is this the way Webb has chosen to represents Peter's trademark Spider-sense?

If so, despite the fact we'd always prefer to see Spider-sense represented by wavy lines emanating from Spider-Man's head, this is a pretty cool way to go - and, again, we think the fast-pace of this fight scene is far better suited to the character than Raimi's tendency to use slow-mo to show Spider-Man's spider-sense / agility.

Versus The Lizard

After a few quick brief flashes of The Lizard - confirming that those Pez dispensers really did give us a great first look at Rhys Ifans' in CGI mode - this is the Lizard's big trailer moment.

He's still in shadow, so we don't get a clear look at Spidey's first foe - possibly because the Amazing effects-team are still fine-tuning - but we get a sense of the size and scope of the Lizard's threat.

And it's major - he's twice Parker's size, but it appears that, unlike the Hulk, the Lizard retains his intelligence when he goes green: is that a bomb in his claw?