Amazing Spider-man unleashes The Lizard

Another day another high profile superhero movie trailer. Ok I’m a little late on this one, but you get my drift. This time it’s the rebooted Amazing Spider-Man with Andrew Garfield replacing Tobey Maguire in the lead role.

And despite my initial misgivings I have to say that the trailer looks good (although I still can’t get on with the movie suit). The effects are impressive, Denis Leary chews the scenery perfectly as Captain George Stacy, Emma Stone is a convincing Gwen Stacy and Garfield seems a good choice for Peter Parker. The plot explores the history of Peter’s parents which is an interesting change from what went before. But I still can’t shake the feeling that even if we don’t see the spider bite this time we’ve already seen early Spider-man and not very long ago.

What actually got me most excited about the trailer was the appearance of The Lizard. And not just because they’ve cast Rhys Ifans, although I think that’s a great move. As much as I enjoyed the Sam Raimi movies the villains never felt quite right (Darkman is still his best film in the genre for me). Dr Octopus, Green Goblin and definitley Venom weren’t quite how I saw the characters despite some good performances from the actors involved. The closest to how I envisaged a Spidey villain was probably Sandman but he got lost in the in the third movie when it all quickly descended into chaos. I get the feeling that this will feel like the Curt Connors I know, but to be fair Sandman and The Lizard are the kind of villains I associate with Spider-Man anyway mainly because they were in the first books I read. And I’d be just as happy if the villain in question was The Rhino, The Vulture or even The Wrecking Crew, Absorbing Man and Titania.

But the more I think about it there is one Marvel villain I’d really love to see done well on screen, given the same level of care and attention as Loki or Magneto. For me Dr Doom is definitely the most interesting and important villain within the Marvel Universe, he’s the Darth Vader of the 616. Such a shame he was depicted as such a pale imitation of what he should have been in the decidedly average Fantastic Four films. Of course if Marvel studios owned all the characters Wolverine and Spider-Man would be in Avengers 2 with Doom as the villain. Well they would if I had anything to do with it anyway. In the meantime I’ll still be heading to the cinema in July when The Amazing Spider-man is released and The Lizard is unleashed.