Spider-Man's Most Amazing Movie Moments

The Amazing Spider-Man swings into cinemas this week, taking a classic superhero franchise back to basics and consigning the Sam Raimi canon to the cinematic archive. While it's not a revolutionary reboot by any means, it's the perfect excuse to take in all four Spider-Men and do what we internet people so love to do: rank the most memorable scenes in ascending order of merit. Just beware of spoilers ahead, especially if you haven't yet caught Spidey's latest adventure...

25. Spider-sense (As seen in: Spider-Man)

Spider-man's pre-cognitive ability isn't easy to translate to film, but Sam Raimi nails it early on in his first movie. As jock Flash Thompson (True Blood's Joe Manganiello) prepares to mash Peter Parker into his locker, Pete clocks the incoming attack and time slows down – a paper plane swoops gently overhead, a spitball glides gracefully towards its target and a fly leisurely flaps its wings. Sadly, Flash gets his ass handed to him on a plate in real-time.

24. Peter vs New Goblin (Spider-Man 3)

It's the most effects-heavy action sequence in the entire trilogy and one that starts Spider-Man 3 at a breathless pace it couldn't hope to keep up. Parker is sucker-punched by an enraged Harry Osborn, now airborne as New Goblin and determined to get revenge for his father's death. Together, Peter and Harry clatter through New York's narrows, exchanging blows and defying gravity, and all the while Peter does his best Frodo impression, desperately clinging to his precious ring throughout the rough and tumble.

23. Previously, on Spider-Man... (Spider-Man 2)

The illustrated opening credits of Spider-Man 2 are the perfect way to bring newcomers up to speed with the Spidey saga without having to crowbar awkward expository dialogue into the opening scene ("Hey Harry, I'm sure sorry your father died!" etc). Drawn by esteemed comic-book artist Alex Ross, the artwork – together with Danny Elfman's stirring score – is the perfect way to kick off one of the best superhero movies ever: fact.

22. Norman Osborn's mirror scene (Spider-Man)

Late in 2002, a CG character called Gollum would mesmerise audiences by having an extremely heated argument with himself. In Spider-Man some months earlier, Willem Dafoe did largely the same thing and was arguably more animated. Norman Osborn, suffering from an attack of the Jekyll & Hydes, succumbs to his dark side when his Green Goblin alter-ego addresses him from his mirror, whispering devilish promises in his own ear. Dafoe, hamminess turned up to 'thickly sliced', utterly convinces as a total screwjob.

21. J. Jonah Jameson IS Spider-Man (Spider-Man 2.1)

A scene cut from the theatrical edit of Spider-Man turned out to be one of its funniest, and most revealing. Anyone who watched the extended Spider-Man 2.1 version on DVD would have seen a short sequence of The Daily Bugle's editor J. Jonah Jameson dressed in Spider-Man's discarded costume, thwipping about his own office making web noises while his own staff peek through a window. It certainly explains Jameson's obsession with the webbed wonder – who knew jealousy was the cause?

20. The Lizard's arm grows back (The Amazing Spider-Man)

Though Rhys Ifans' scaly villain may have been one of the few remaining well-known bad guys still left to be picked on the playground, alter-ego Dr Curt Connors does get a great character beat before he's reduced to a raging reptile. The one-armed doc uses himself as a guinea pig to test a potentially life-altering serum that replicates regenerative lizard DNA in humans, waking up in a funk to find he's not as arm-less as he once was. Ifans is marvellous in the scene: a literal fleshing out of a villain before it all goes a bit CG.

19. Going down (Spider-Man 2)

A great example of Sam Raimi's dry sense of humour, the lift scene in Spider-Man 2 gets perhaps the biggest laugh of the movie, as a web-less wallcrawler is forced to share a lift with a member of the public. "Cool Spidey outfit, where'd you get it?" says the citizen, before enquiring on its comfort. "Yeah, it's kind of itchy," Spidey replies in a moment of candour. "Rides up in the crotch a little bit, too." Well, at least now you know.

18. The birth of Venom (Spider-Man 3)

Driven to despair by the depths the alien symbiote has plunged him into, Spider-Man finally manages to part with the black suit by clanging the church bells and causing it to flee. Meanwhile, down below, a distraught, jobless, hopeless Eddie Brock prays to God for just one thing: "Please kill Peter Parker!" The symbiote catches Brock at his darkest moment and, latching on to his physical form, creates one of Spidey's most vicious foes. Venom gets shortchanged on the whole, but at least he gets his money shot in first.

17. Green Goblin vs Aunt May (Spider-Man)

One accusation levelled at Willem Dafoe's Green Goblin was that, with his plastic action figure helmet and all, he just wasn't scary enough. Tell that to Aunt May, who had the entire wall of her bedroom ripped off by a cackling masked madman while she was praying to a God that had no intention of answering. "D-d-deliver us..." whimpers May. "FINISH IT!" yells Gobby. "From... EVILLL!" she cries, staring into the laughing yellow eyes of the devil. You tell us that's not completely bloody terrifying.

16. The Twin Towers trailer (Spider-Man)

It's cheating really, as the scene never appeared in any cuts of the movie, but the first teaser for Spider-Man, released in 2001, showed criminals fleeing via helicopter from a bank heist, only to find themselves trapped in a giant web spun between the Twin Towers. Naturally, the events of 9/11 forced Raimi to remove the scene, but it remains on YouTube as a clever example of Spider-Man's symbiotic relationship with the city of New York.

15. Flaming car sequence (The Amazing Spider-Man)

Curiously, this action set-piece takes place around halfway through the movie but is probably the high point of The Amazing Spider-Man in terms of excitement. As The Lizard tosses cars off a bridge with wreckless abandon, Spidey can only hang them from webs like wet laundry out a window. When one of the cars catches fire – and worse, there's still a kid inside – we see the human side of our friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man; comforting the distraught kiddywink in the flaming vehicle by removing his mask and telling him "Look... I'm just a guy!" before rescuing him with seconds to spare. Phew.

14. Crane accident (Spider-Man 3)

There's little at stake in this Spider-Man 3 set-piece, but it's certainly indicative of the kind of budget Sam Raimi had to play with – lesser movies would save spectacular sequences like this for the final reel. As an out-of-control crane swings a giant girder into a skyscraper, decimating two whole floors, Spidey is on hand to rescue damsel in distress Gwen Stacy via some vertical heroics. At this point, Spider-Man is barely breaking a sweat, but the sheer scale of the scene takes some beating.

13. The death of Otto Octavius (Spider-Man 2)

As his cold fusion reactor threatens to engulf the city, the scientist formerly known as Otto Octavius finally understands the chaos he's caused and lays his life on the line to put things right. Training his mechanical tentacles on the machine's giant metal struts, Doc Ock's last act is one of martyrdom, pulling the reactor into the water, exclaiming "I will not die a monster!" With the doomsday machine extinguished, the last glimpse we see of Octavius is a silent, ghostly shot of his lifeless body underwater, with redemption perhaps waiting in the afterlife. Although if you believe the Daily Bugle, he's not quite dead...

12. Harry unmasks Spider-Man (Spider-Man 2)

Credit to James Franco: he had to wait for two whole movies for his proper dramatic pay-off – the moment he pulls off a prone Spider-Man's mask to find the face of his best friend, Peter Parker, staring back at him. Knife in hand and ready for vengeance, Harry Osborn is physically taken aback at the revelation and Franco plays it perfectly, conveying a mixture of emotions – anger, confusion, betrayal – and setting up his eventual transformation into his father's son: Green Goblin Jr.

11. Death of Green Goblin (Spider-Man)

Spidey doesn't kill bad guys – bad guys kill bad guys. So it is in the finale of Spider-Man, as Green Goblin dies at the razor-sharp tip of his own pointy glider, our web-slinger athletically jumping out of the way at the last moment. The death isn't particularly gruesome or loaded with deeper meaning, but Osborn's touching last words reveal there was still a man behind the monster: "Don't tell Harry." Those three little words echo throughout the entire trilogy.

10. Meet J. Jonah Jameson (Spider-Man)

Perhaps the character who retains the most of his comic-book sensibilities, Daily Bugle editor-in-chief J. Jonah Jameson is pure motor-mouthed comic-relief – a hate-slinging hack who loathes Spider-Man almost as much as he loves himself. The first time we meet him, Jameson is dismissing Peter Parker's stellar photos of Spidey as "crap... crap... mega-crap" before paying him a paltry sum and promising to tip him well: "Meat. I'll buy you a nice box of Christmas meat." To be honest, we could have filled this entire list with J. Jonah Jameson quotes if we wanted.

9. Stan Lee's best cameo (The Amazing Spider-Man)

Comic-book legend Stan Lee shows his face in almost every Marvel movie, but his cameo in The Amazing Spider-Man is his best yet. As Spider-Man and The Lizard demolish the school library in the background, an oblivious Lee stands in the foreground with huge headphones on, listening to music and completely unaware of the giant mutant reptile fighting the costumed man-spider just a few feet away. One of many neat comic touches in Marc Webb's movie, it's a welcome laugh during some heightened tension.

8. "Go get 'em, tiger!" (Spider-Man 2)

Ah, sweet Mary Jane – the cause of, and solution to all of Spider-Man's problems. Peter's relationship with MJ finally comes to a head at the end of Spider-Man 2, when the ginger minx discovers Spidey's true identity is the man she always knew she loved. Fully aware that going steady with Peter will put her in harm's way, MJ turns the tables: "Isn't it about time someone saved your life?" (We prefer this declaration to the slightly stalkerish: "I've always been standing in your doorway"). Inevitably, Spidey is called into action, but MJ gives him her blessing with a note-perfect "Go get 'em tiger!" and a bittersweet stare out of his window. Just perfect.

7. A real swinger (Spider-Man)

Capturing the sheer vertiginous nature of Spider-Man was crucial to making the character work on film, but Raimi – and his effects team – were more than up to the task of making Spidey swing like a winner. The movie's heart-stopping final shot sees ol' webhead flinging himself around New York like a champ, swooping through the city streets like a bird who's just taught himself how to fly. He ends up perched on a flagpole, with the Stars and Stripes billowing behind him: fitting, as American cinema had just found a new hero.

6.
Bruce Campbell's collective snootiness (Spider-Man I-III)

Again, another cheat as we've amassed three scenes in one entry, but who among you could choose from Bruce Campbell's three superb cameos? Whether he's a snooty wrestling announcer (who calls The Human Spider by the wrong name), a snooty usher (who denies Peter Parker access to MJ's play) or a snooty restaurant captain (who frequently fumbles Parker's engagement announcement), Bruce Campbell is the perennial thorn in Spider-Man's side – perhaps more so than any supervillain.

5. Octopus comes alive (Spider-Man 2)

With the Spider-Man movies being relatively bright and breezy, it was easy to forget that director Sam Raimi got his start in horror – or at least, it would have been until Doctor Octopus unleashed hell from his hospital bed. As Otto Octavius lays face down and unconscious, the robotic tentacles fused to his spine become malicious and systematically take down every last doctor in the room in a vicious manner befitting very few family-friendly films. Among the screams and the madness, you'll catch a glimpse of a few nods towards The Evil Dead, most notably the 'tentacle cam' racing across the floor towards its victim.

4. Enter Sandman (Spider-Man 3)

Never before has one scene so effectively summed up a villain's raison d'etre – the birth of the Sandman is so stunningly animated it makes the character's subsequent narrative journey pale in comparison. Escaped convict Flint Marko picked the wrong hole to fall into and finds himself de-atomised by a particle accelerator, only to be reborn as a human sandcastle. The heartbreaking shot of Sandman trying and failing to pick up his sick daughter's locket is just about reason enough to include the character in the film – he can't add a whole lot more that compares to this fantastic formative scene.

3. The Death of Uncle Ben (Spider-Man)

Nothing less than the emotional core of the character and subsequently the entire Spider-Man trilogy. Mere minutes before, Peter's Uncle Ben utters the words that would go on to define a hero: "With great power comes great responsibility." Tragically, a carjacker puts a bullet in him, leaving Peter to pick up the shattered pieces of his life. Cliff Robertson gives good dead – there's no time for further moralising, just some gasping for air and a desperate call to his beloved nephew to be with him as he passes. Truly heartbreaking and the crux for everything that Spider-Man represents.

2. Upside-down kiss (Spider-Man)

Every superhero needs an iconic scene – Spider-Man's just happened to be a bit sexier than most. It should have been cheesy as hell: having just saved MJ's life, an upside-down Spider-Man spins down to check up on her, only to have the bottom half of his mask removed and his face snogged off for his troubles. It's a shot that caters for both sexes and probably went a long way to selling Spider-Man to audiences other than teenage boys i.e. girls who wanted a bit of storybook romance in their lives. The fact that the scene took place in the rain and Kirsten Dunst was wearing a flimsy vest is neither here nor there.

1. The train sequence (Spider-Man 2)

The train sequence is everything action cinema should be: fast, fluid, thrilling, inventive and pulsing with a very real sense of danger. Spider-Man and Doc Ock find themselves fighting above, beneath, in and on an overground New York subway train in an extended set-piece that whitens the knuckles. The cherry on top is Spidey's ultimate sacrifice: his identity. As Ock puts the passengers in harm's way by knocking out the brakes, Spider-Man is forced to web up and slow the speeding train to a halt, almost killing himself in the process. Drained but still alive, the grateful commuters carry Spidey's unmasked body aloft, before placing him down and remarking: "He's... just a kid!" He sure is, New Yorkers – and that's the essence of Spider-Man distilled in one remarkable, unforgettable scene.

Source : ign[dot]com

What Spider-Man and the Lizard Almost Looked Like

And the Amazing Spider-Man news just keeps coming… First up: It sounds like Sony is positioning the reboot as the first part of a trilogy. Or their marketing department is anyway.

The film's official Facebook page posted the following on Monday: "The Amazing Spider-Man is the first installment in a movie trilogy that will explore how our fave hero's journey was shaped by the disappearance of his parents." That messaging is then followed by a call to buy tickets, so while it might sound like a confirmation that there will be two more films in the series, it strikes me as more of a left-corporate-hand not knowing what the right-corporate-hand is doing kind of thing. Time will tell.

Of more interest, though, is the appearance online today of some concept art for the film that reveals what Spider-Man and the Lizard could've looked like. First up, via Movies.com, some alternate designs from The Aaron Sims Company:

This next one is based on actor Chris Cooper (for some reason):

And here's an interesting take on Spidey which feels much more tied into the original Sam Raimi costume:

Meanwhile, io9 uncovered some concepts from artist Eddie Yang and George Hull. Check out the very 2099 web-cape on that one Spidey below:

Follow Movies Editor Scott Collura on Twitter at @ScottIGN, on IGN, and subscribe to his Facebook updates.

Source : ign[dot]com

Spider-Man Has an Amazing Holiday Turnout

The results are in, and Sony's The Amazing Spider-Man is definitely on the upswing. Box office reports show that Marc Webb's new 3D tentpole has pulled in a stellar $59.3 million domestically in its first two days.

The Hollywood Reporter notes that Wednesday's $23.4 million gross was the second-best 4th of July showing of all time after Transformers, which earned $29.1 million that same day in 2007. Additionally, the film is on track to make $125 million to $140 million by the end of its six-day debut.

With a budget of $220 million, Spider-Man is mainly being fueled by positive word-of-mouth. Despite its familiar storyline, the fans are turning out in droves to see Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone in the updated roles of Peter Parker and Gwen Stacy. IMAX ticket sales have also given the film a nice leg up over the competition.

Max Nicholson is a writer for IGN, and he desperately seeks your approval. Show him some love on Twitter and IGN.

Source : ign[dot]com

Making Sense of Amazing Spider-Man's After Credits End Scene

SCROLL TO THE BOTTOM OF THE PAGE FOR AN UPDATE TO THIS STORY.

SPOILERS FOLLOW FOR THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN.

DO NOT READ ANY FURTHER IF YOU DO NOT WANT TO BE SPOILED ON THE FILM.

The Amazing Spider-Man, Sony's reboot of the wallcrawler, just hit theaters today, but some fans are already buzzing about the planned sequel to the film. Amazing Spider-Man 2 is already being written by Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci (Transformers, Star Trek), so it would seem logical that the studio would want to tease that follow-up in some way to the many, many fans who are seeing the film this summer.

The Amazing Spider-Man Movie Review

Additionally, Chronicle director Josh Trank has been rumored to be up for a Venom solo movie. So clearly Sony wants to mine the Spider-Man universe. And let's assume they've at least taken notice -- as has the rest of the world -- of the very successful Marvel Studios movies, and in particular the resounding success of The Avengers. An Easter egg or after-credits scene of course makes sense for Amazing Spider-Man -- and we in fact do get one in the middle of the end credits of the new film. But what does it mean exactly?

Does whatever a spider can

The brief scene features Dr. Curt Connors, the once and future Lizard, who has now been imprisoned. As he sits in his cell, a shadowy figure appears from out of nowhere -- did he teleport into the cell? -- and a brief exchange takes place between the two regarding Peter Parker's father. The mysterious character asks Connors if he told Peter about his father, and then shortly thereafter he seemingly disappears once again. Actually, you can catch a glimpse of this scene in the third Spider-Man trailer:

Scrub to 1.24 to see Dr. Connors' mysterious pal.

Who is this guy? Is he Connors' boss, lurking in the dark corners of the film, but actually the real villain of the piece? We know that Connors works for Oscorp, and we know who runs Oscorp, don't we? Norman Osborn, of course! A.k.a the Green Goblin -- or at least, the guy who will become the Green Goblin one day -- Osborn is one of the big bads of the Marvel universe. He's Spidey's arch foe much as the Joker is Batman's, and let's not forget that Chris Nolan decided to save the Joker for his second Batman movie. And of course, Osborn is named-dropped throughout Amazing Spider-Man... though doesn't it seem a bit too obvious for it to actually be him?

Dr. Connors, a.k.a. the Lizard

Another possibility, though perhaps more of a long shot than Osborn, is -- wait for it -- Peter Parker's dad himself, Richard Parker! Played by Campbell Scott in flashback (along with Embeth Davidtz as Pete's mom Mary), Richard is said to be dead during this film, having been killed when Peter was still a boy -- in the grand Spider-Man tradition. But it also is clear that Richard Parker's dealings with Dr. Connors and Oscorp, of which he was also an employee before his death, tie directly into Peter's origin as Spider-Man in this film. And reportedly, the plan is to continue to flesh out this story arc in future movies. Loyal Marvel zombies will also recall that Spidey's folks did return from the dead in the comics at one point -- kinda sorta. Actually, they turned out to be Life Model Decoys. Ask Tony Stark what that is if you don't know.

One other suggestion -- and this is total fanboyism at work -- is this is a Venom tie-in. The character -- sometimes a villain, sometimes an antihero, and sometimes a hero -- remains very popular. His current incarnation in the comics is as Flash Thompson, Peter Parker's longtime frenemy, and Flash is in fact in the new movie (played by Chris Zylka). And again, Sony is still pushing for a Venom movie… So, yeah. Not sure how that shadowy guy could tie-in to Venom, but that's what retconning is for!

Fans have suggested the Easter egg character might be Electro (flash of light!) or Mysterio (magic tricks!) or any number of other Spidey villains, while others are whispering that it's Inglourious Basterds' Christoph Waltz playing the role. And the bottom line is, unlike The Avengers Thanos Easter egg, the Spidey ending is vague enough that it really could wind up being any of the above when Amazing Spider-Man 2 hits a couple of years from now.

Who do you think the shadowy figure at the end of Amazing Spider-Man is? Discuss below!

Update #1: This story has been updated since it first ran in May, with specific details from the film added.

Update #2: Ain't It Cool spoke to Rhys Ifans, who plays Dr. Connors in the film, and he said that the mystery character is not Norman Osborn. "A representative from OsCorp appears miraculously in the room," he tells the site. "How he gets in there and how he leaves, we don’t know. Maybe we will find out. But it’s not Norman Osborn. ... But it is someone who is in the employ of Norman Osborn without question."

The site followed up by asking, "[It's] someone we're familiar with, who we don’t know is employed by Osborn?" And Ifans replied, "Yeah."

So if it's not Osborn, then who the heck could it be?

Talk to Movies Editor Scott Collura on Twitter at @ScottIGN, on IGN, and on Facebook.

Source : ign[dot]com

Ultimate Comics Spider-Man #12 Review

Whether on purpose or not, Ultimate Comics Spider-Man celebrates Independence Day with an explosive issue that shows the tension between Miles Morales and his Uncle Aaron finally come to a head. Brian Michael Bendis has been brewing this conflict ever since Aaron figured out his nephew was the new Spider-Man and saw it as an opportunity to escalate his criminal career. Like the best fights, this one carries great personal weight that makes each blow as impactful as the dialog spoken throughout. Miles has been unsure of a lot of things since becoming Spider-Man, but here he fully understands what what kind of man his uncle is and what it will take to stand up to him.

David Marquez continues to deliver more superb imagery for this series. Many panels highlight subtle moments in lieu of dialog: Aaron’s lip curling in anger and Miles’s eyes expressing inner turmoil while embracing his mother, not to mention the phenomenal closing page that brings the entire issue home in a big way. Marquez not only makes this the best looking Ultimate Comics title, but one of the best looking titles being put out at Marvel.

With such excellent character moments throughout this issue, it is a shame Bendis again does not come through with action that matches their high quality. Like Miles’s encounter with Scorpion, this battle suffers from repetition and lack of creativity. Aaron has proven to be a Jack of All Trades with his plethora of stolen super villain gear, so when he uses such straightforward tactics to combat Miles it makes him lose all the cred he built up. That said, the emotional beats in the issue were so strong that it doesn’t hurt the issue too much. If anything, it puts the stakes of the fight above the fisticuffs, and isn’t that what we’re always asking for in comics these days?

Joshua is a writer for IGN. Follow him on Twitter or IGN, where he is hell-bent on making sure you know his opinion about comic books.

Source : ign[dot]com

The Amazing Spider-Man 3DS Game Review

Spider-Man's been called Spectacular. Sensational. Astonishing. But in The Amazing Spider-Man for Nintendo's 3DS, he's not quite worthy of such impressive adjectives. Good? Certainly. Fun? No question. But "Amazing" would be a bit too generous.

The game picks up where this summer's new film leaves off, meaning anyone too concerned about story spoilers will want to wait until after the movie actually opens in theaters to bring this one home – you can get along just fine without any connection to the flick, though, as the basics are the same as always. You're Spider-Man, you've got super-strength, can crawl on walls and have tons of webs to throw around, and you've got a whole lot of thugs, robots and would-be super-villains to knock across the screen.

Previous adaptations bringing Spidey into video game form have emphasized different aspects of his character, particularly the freedom of his webslinging around New York City. Beenox's latest interpretation here pulls back on that go-anywhere approach, though, and instead more commonly boxes our hero into a series of contained interior environments. It's concerning at first – Spider-Man without huge, open spaces to zip around at your whim seems like a limited idea – but the claustrophobia ends up working in the game's favor by highlighting the hero's considerable combat variety.

Say you're entering a room filled with gun-toting security guards – a common scenario. You can choose to dash straight in on foot, hammering the Y Button to punch-and-combo the enemies into submission. Or, alternatively, you could crawl in on the wall and target the same foes from a distance with web attacks – "Web Rushing," as it's now called – to fly straight at a target, kick him in the head, then just as quickly retreat back to the safe position you started from to be out of range of retaliation.

Then, beyond those approaches, you can also pick to play most missions in full-on stealth mode – hanging out on the ceiling, targeting enemies from above, and dropping straight down to encase them in web cocoons that you then lift straight back up and attach to the ceiling. The other enemies in the area look around, confused, wondering where their friend just disappeared to. And then you rinse and repeat the process, until the whole room in cleared of goons and decorated with suffocating, web-wrapped bodies up above.

This is when The Amazing Spider-Man is at its best. Having so many different options at your disposal for dealing with the same groups of enemies opens back up that sense of freedom that you might have feared would be lost by the game's lack of wide-open spaces to websling across.

It's when that feeling of freedom is compromised, though, that this experience feels less than Amazing.

Some sequences feel far too scripted. "Web Rushing," which works by slowing down time to represent Peter's Spider-Sense, is relied upon too often – there are boss battles in particular where it feels like all you're doing is activated the slow-time mode, looking around to find the next highlighted target and zipping along almost on auto-pilot. These sequences are cinematic and look great, but aren't as much fun as when you're allowed to choose your own approach in dealing with a situation.

The game also drops the ball on navigation from time to time, breaking the flow of a mission – you'll effortlessly jump from one situation and battle to the next, then occasionally get stuck in a room with no good clue of which way "forward" is supposed to be. And, speaking of getting turned around, the angles the camera swings between to keep track of a hero who can literally turn any interior surface into "the floor" can become dizzying – especially in 3D.

The 3DS system's signature visual effect adds depth and definition to Spider-Man's environments when you're progressing at a slow enough pace, but the webhead moves so quickly and the camera whips around so wildly to showcase his animations that it's hard to imagine most players will keep the 3D turned on long in this one.

Other unique aspects of Nintendo's handheld are utilized too, but none really enhance the experience – simple touch-screen mini-games are peppered throughout many missions in traditional DS system style, and the 3DS gyroscopes briefly come into play when this version of Peter Parker picks up a camera partway into the adventure.



Source : ign[dot]com

The Amazing Spider-Man Review

The Amazing Spider-Man isn't a great game. Its villains are b-listers, its side missions are repetitive, and its combat/reversal/stealth system is pulled from Arkham City but without the sharp, fluid animations. But here's the most important thing: The Amazing Spider-Man is a fun game.

Set as an epilogue to the movie with the same name, The Amazing Spider-Man game will begin ruining plot points for the unreleased film pretty much as soon as you start it up. You find out which main characters lived and died, and a tale centered around the virus that made Curt Connors the Lizard getting released in New York takes off.

“ The Amazing Spider-Man isn't a great game, but it can be a great time.

Through more than 20 missions involving Rhino and the Iguana, you web and wail on bad guys. The movie's actors didn't lend their voices to this game, but the cast that is here is solid and actually delivers some cool moments for fans. Sadly, most of the plot points are ho-hum -- with the exception of a truly fascinating run-in with Felicia Hardy -- and it's all about the action, which rewards you with XP for spider-upgrades.

Much like the Arkham series of Batman games, Spidey can confront enemies head on or attack from the shadows. Engaging in some acrobatic fisticuffs raises your combo meter, and when the spider-sense goes off around Spider-Man's noggin, you know to tap the reversal button and stylishly take out the attacker.

The formula makes it easy to look like a superhero and take out a roomful of baddies with webs and signature moves for flair. If you're more inclined to crawl on the ceiling unnoticed, Spider-Man can execute stealth takedowns where he puts villains in web cocoons and brings them back to the ceiling (theoretically to leave there until they starve or the web dissolves and they plummet back to the floor breaking all their bones).

Spidey's suit takes damage as you stink up the game.

The camera can wig out when Spidey's on the ceiling and the action just doesn't look that hot as the animations and graphics aren't extremely polished (overall, the game doesn't look like a high-end HD title). But neither of those things kept me from slinking around and beating up bad guys over and over again. There's something intoxicating about zipping in, punching a sniper in the chest, and webbing his friends before kicking a dumpster into all of them. The fact that Spider-Man can "Web Retreat" whenever he's discovered and go back to being hidden even in a brightly lit room makes the stealth stuff a bit too easy, but it didn't stop me from enjoying the takedowns.

“ The Amazing Spider-Man speaks to that OCD tendency to get every last mission off the checklist -- to have a clean quest log.

But these thrills are the same thing over and over again, and the same can be said for life outside the storyline. Spider-Man once again exists in an open world version of Manhattan. You're free to web-swing from one end of the borough to the other and tackle the random crimes and activities you come across. From stopping robberies to rescuing infected civilians to participating in races for an extreme sports promoter, there’s a lot to do in The Amazing Spider-Man. But, be prepared to repeat these missions over and over again; you’ll hear the same one-liners from Spidey and the police you're helping over and over again. The first time you return an escaped mental patient to the police is going to be identical to the last time you do it.

Without a doubt, this diminishes the "Oh my god, I'm Spider-Man" feel the game is going for, but it doesn't make performing the actions any less fun. Like farming experience points in your favorite RPG, I dug swinging around New York City and knocking off the icons on my map. The Amazing Spider-Man speaks to that OCD tendency to get every last mission off the checklist -- to have a clean quest log.

That's one of the reasons the comic pages are so annoying/brilliant in The Amazing Spider-Man. See, there are collectable comic pages hidden all over the city that unlock real comic books for you to read in the extras menu. Trouble is, there are 700 pages to collect, and the locations are never added to your in-game map. I have more than 400, and now that they're getting harder to find, I discover my dedication to collecting them waning. Even if I had a list of where they all were, would I want to double back and check off the 300 ones I already have?

That said, I keep on collecting the comics because doing so is connected to the game's best aspect -- web-slinging. Once again, just getting out and moving between the skyscrapers of New York is exciting. Developer Beenox has created a Spider-Man that twists and turns through the air while the camera is anchored really close to his back. It is by far the most impressive visual aspect of the game.

Even better is the addition of Web Rush. By holding a shoulder button, time slows and you can see all the cool locations you can send Spider-Man to -- the top of a flagpole, the side of a building, etc. It's an elegant way to get Spider-Man around quickly in a way that isn't a disorienting mess, which the camera can still be reduced to indoors.

PlayStation Moving

If you're playing on the PlayStation 3, you can play with the PlayStation Move. Now, before you get images of two wands in your hands and you flicking your webbin' way across New York, dial it back. You hold a navigation controller or regular controller in your left hand and then the PlayStation Move wand 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 on where to zip, you can now just point. Flicking the Move does an immediate Web Retreat. It's a fine system, but I played through the game with normal controls on the hardest difficulty and never felt like more precise aiming would greatly help me.



Source : ign[dot]com

The A-Z of The Dark Knight Saga

Spider-man? Nearly. X-Men? Nope. Superman? Fail. No superhero series has ever delivered the perfect movie trilogy – the third movie often proving the fatal stumbling block. Still, you’d fancy Christopher Nolan’s chances of delivering his Bat-finale with the sort of epic, IMAX-sized storytelling and action that made The Dark Knight, Inception and Memento into essential cinematic experiences. In anticipation of The Dark Knight Rises July 20 release, here’s our A-Z of Nolan’s Bat-verse…

A is for Applied Sciences

The Siberia of Wayne Enterprises: it’s where good gadgets go to die. The ideal place then for nocturnal spelunking base-jumping enthusiasts to cherry-pick rejected military grade tech such as the Tumbler, The Batpod and a certain Bat-like flying contraption. And as a bonus, it all comes in black. Having said that, given that Coleman Reece rumbled Bruce through trawling the archives, and modded Tumblers have been spotted in Bane’s arsenal, maybe the AS Division's next project should focus on internal security.

B is for Bane

“Let the games begin.” From the pits of hell, this scarred scourge has come to finish what the League Of Shadows started, and turn Gotham and its delusions of civilization into an expensive landfill. Team Nolan have refined Bane from his gimmicky comic book origins – a drug-fuelled monster of brains and brawn specifically dreamt up (a la Doomsday) to break the Bat – to a credible cinematic nemesis: a ruthless general, a relentless warrior. Although surely that mask – feeding him life-saving (and battle-enhancing) painkillers rather than Venom – couldn’t prove to be a fatal flaw?

C is for Commissioner Jim Gordon

“Commmm-ishion-errrr” Gordon is the lone good cop on an utterly-corrupt force who became a 'wartime' hero, and now finds himself about to be cut adrift in the Harvey Dent-inspired peacetime. The role of the world-weary Gordon also marked a sea change for Gary Oldman, who’d started to OD on OTT villain roles – although Gordon’s gleeful delight about piloting the Tumbler looks about as genuine as can be.

D is for Rachel Dawes

Or, to give Dawes her full and correct name, RAAAAACHEEEELLLL! Bruce Wayne’s sole friend and soul mate also turns out to be catnip to a series of doomed DAs, before undergoing an unexpected cremation care of Joker’s cruel ol’ switcheroo trick. Maggie Gyllenhaal was gifted the role in the sequel when Katie Holmes declined to reprise it in favour of starring opposite Queen Latifah in crime-caper Mad Money. Which kind of writes its own punchline.

E is for Escalation

Batman: cure or curse? One of Team Nolan’s deftest touches is to ask pertinent questions about the wisdom in having a semi-licensed vigilante in Gotham’s battle against the mob – especially when he seems to bring all the crazies out to play while justifying every angry jackass with a sporting goods discount card who wants to get padded up and get some time on that particular pitch themselves.

F is for Fox, Lucius

He’s risen from his basement exile to the CEO of Wayne Enterprises, but the cunning silver Fox still keeps a special side-interest in the Applied Sciences division. Morgan Freeman dishes up the tech porn with a mischievous twinkle in his eyebrows, but Fox is also a vital point on Bruce’s moral compass, throwing his expensive toys out of the pram when he feels his boss has tripped over the ethical line. Well, if you’ve got sage advice to offer, Morgan Freeman’s got the voice to deliver it.

G is for Gotham

Having stepped back from the brink of social collapse, the world’s greatest city – with London, Chicago, LA, and a huge Shepperton set doing sterling double-duty – is once again a thriving, bustling centre of civilization… for those on the right side of the economic divide anyway. The Bat reboot has created a real sense of Gotham’s geography – especially if you got sucked into The Dark Knight’s innovative virals – tracing routes from the Narrows to the waterfront, and from Arkham to Wayne Tower. Expect to see property prices crash come July 20. Actually, just expect properties to crash.

H is for Harvey Dent

“You either die a hero or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain.” In the end, the internal affairs agent turned dashing DA turned semi-charbroiled murderer didn’t get much say in the matter. With Batsy and Gordon covering up Dent’s coin-flipping murder boner, the tragic Two-Face has been cast as Gotham’s White Knight – a Kennedy-esque inspiration for Gotham’s citizen’s to sweep away the last of the mob and usher in the good times. Gotham City believes in Harvey Dent. For now.

I is for IMAX

Treating the rule book like Bane treats spinal columns, Nolan was the first feature director to shoot action sequences in proper IMAX – including TDK’s bank heist opening and truck-flipping pursuit – with Rises now expected to have over an hour of 15/70 footage. After The Dark Knight’s success, studio heads stopped treating IMAX as a naff gimmick and proceeded to leap aboard the bandwagon like it contained free Facebook shares. Yeah, of course Wrath Of The Titans needed to be seen in IMAX…

J is for Joker

Having teased us at the end of Begins, Team Nolan delivered the goods for The Dark Knight – conjuring up a shifting, complex take on the gasoline-fuelled fiend, with the match being struck by the late Heath Ledger’s Oscar-winning performance. Inspired by the psychologically-slippery tracks laid down in Arkham Asylum and The Killing Joke – with a dash of Clockwork Orange punk thrown in for good measure – they created the perfect psychopathic foil to the ‘incorruptible’ Bat.

K is for Kyle, Selina

The purrfect princess of petty pilfering, Kyle is the feline femme fatale for whom robbing the rich is merely righteous repossession, while ethics is where David Beckham comes from. Nolan, Goyer and actress Anne Hathaway’s Catwoman is a tough-headed, tough-kicking survivor – especially with her blade-heeled boots – whose allegiances are as slippery as her outfit. But will the pretty kitty grow a conscience before her claws are clipped?

L is for League of Shadows

“We restore the balance,” insists the LOS’s chief recruiting officer and *ahem* dual-passport holder Henri Ducard, whose brutal-if-theatrical methods of combat spark a few ideas in unsuitable applicant Bruce Wayne. Dating back thousands of years, the LOS have been there to help yank the chain whenever a civilisation required a courtesy flush – Rome, medieval London and now, finally, Gotham. We respectfully suggest Mr Ra’s Al Ghul points his ’tashe in the direction of Jersey Shore.

M is for Masks

“Your real face is the one that criminals now fear,” Rachel explains to Bruce at the end of Begins, as he faces up to a lifetime of having to pretend to be a feckless billionaire (oh, the misery…). Masks and appearances have been central to Nolan’s Batman: Bruce, Scarecrow and Bane all need them for practical reasons; Two-Face’s twisted psyche is scarred into his face for all to see while the mysteriously scarred Joker wears a clown mask only to reveal that underneath lies… another clown mask. Freud would have a field day, once he’d finished with the latent daddy issues.

N is for Nolans, The

Epic emotional drama? Complex narrative trickery? A knack for an astonishing visual? The ambition to pull it all off? As Memento, The Prestige and Inception demonstrate, the Bat-flicks aren’t flukes. Even if the Dark Knight Rises is half as good as its predecessor, Chris and his writer-brother Jonathan – together with indispensable co-screenwriter David Goyer - will have pulled off a unique cinematic first: the great superhero trilogy. It’s no coincidence that the triple-headed Bat-beast is overseeing The Man Of Steel reboot.

O is for Occupy Wall Street

Of all the people making a stand at Wall Street late last year, perhaps Batman and the Gotham Police Department were the strangest: Nolan shot the climactic dust up between Bane’s army and the countering cops – featuring over 1,000 extras – on the steps of the world’s financial centre. The coincidental timing couldn’t have been more ironic given that economic injustice is one of Rises’ underlying themes – with the 99% coming for their due.

P is for Pennyworth, Alfred

A cockney butler? That’s just not good form, old chap. But if Lucius is Bruce’s brain and Rachel his conscience, then Alfred is his heart. As played by Chris Nolan’s good-luck charm Michael Caine, he’s the ex-soldier who understands what it means to make tough decisions – fresh from burning down Burmese forests hunting for a thief – but knows his ward even better: his secret burning of Rachel’s Dear John being the only tender salve for a heartbroken Bruce.

Q is for Q&A

“You... complete me.” The Dark Knight’s real centerpiece is the interrogation room, with the two opposing ideologies finally colliding in a dramatic face-off to rival Heat – a masterpiece of boiling tension and dramatic switches as Batman and the newly promoted Gordon soon discover that Joker holds all the aces, despite his captivity. As they lose control of the situation, the Commissioner’s faith in his vigilante buddy comes crashing down around him, alongside his one-sided mirror.

R is for Ra’s al Ghul

This false father figure offers Bruce an alternative path, one that offers brutal justice of a more homicidal sort. The Demon’s Head’s mass-murderous musings look to have had more of an impact on one of his other errant apprentices: Bane. But is Ra's al Ghul really immortal? Rumours of the Lazarus Pit making an appearance in some form – and the return of Liam Neeson – have been circling ever since Rises began production. Birth of the Demon anyone?

S is for Scarecrow

There’s nothing to fear but fear himself. With Bruce's personal terrors – and plans to creating some pant-streaking new ones for his enemies – at the heart of Begins, it made perfect sense for Nolan and Goyer to book an appointment with Dr Crane; the maggot-masked physician’s hallucinogens providing Begins with its most unsettling moments. Cillian Murphy’s brief cameo in The Dark Knight further helped give Gotham the feel of a cohesive universe; could he be making more unprofessional diagnosis in Rises?

T is for Tumbler

“It’s a black… tank.” Avoiding the subtle flashing neon-wang designs favoured by Burton and Schumacher, the mainstay motor of the Nolan Bat-flicks reflects the practical nature of rebooted Dark Knight: a rejected military bridging vehicle able to perform ramp-free jumps. Petrol-heads will be delighted to know that working models of the vehicle were created, capable of reaching 0-60 in 5.6 seconds – that is if you’ve got a spare $250,000. “I’ve got to get me one of those,” Gordon marvels. Not on those wages, mate.

U is for Underground

Effectively born in the bat-filled caves and secret caverns under Wayne Manor, Batman makes them his home, overseeing some rather specific interior decoration in the rebuilt Wayne Manor. Rises however sees him meet his equal in underground décor: Bane is using the Gotham tunnel networks as a discreet base from which to transport his terror, before rising to introduce himself to his new neighbours in truly explosive fashion. A bottle of wine would have been fine.

V is for Voice

One of the most divisive aspects of the Nolan reboot is Christian Bale’s Bat-rasp – a throat-shredding 120-a-day growl that screamed ‘virus’ but went viral instead. To compound the vocal vagueness, cinemagoers watching the first Rises trailer came out complaining that Tom Hardy’s sub-Caribbean bur – or blur? – was inaudible thanks to Bane’s mask. We’re eagerly awaiting the pair’s on-screen dialogue. Maybe it’ll be subtitled.

W is for Wayne, Bruce

Team Nolan’s masterstroke has been to put the focus heavily on Wayne rather than his pointy eared, sore-throated alter ego: Christian Bale is credited as playing only Bruce Wayne – the Batman is merely an extension of the billionaire philanthropist’s battle against injustice. The role finally put Christian Bale on the A-list, after years of poking around the lower reaches of the alphabet, and gave him the perfect outlet for his complex, angst-filled charisma and occasional OTT tendencies. And if Nolan really wanted to get him riled up for a scene, he could just have someone walk through his eyeline.

X is for X-Rated

The only guarantee in Hollywood is that with great success comes a not-so-great porno parody. Axel Braun’s ‘mega-budget’ parodies are one of the few ways that old-guard grot-flicks can distinguish themselves from their amateur on-line cousins (which none of us writing or reading this have ever seen, obviously). His Dark Knight XXX – following on from the cunningly titled Avengers XXX – not only features Bane, Joker and Catwoman, but chucks in John Constantine and Zatanna for good measure. Actually, that Bat costume’s pretty good.

Y is for Year One

Following the neon-nippled nightmare that was Joel Schumacher’s Batman & Robin, Warner Bros spent five years trying to get the franchise back off the ground before hiring Chris Nolan and David Goyer in 2003. Other proposals included a straight fifth sequel revolving around the Scarecrow and Man-Bat, a live-action Batman Beyond and a Batman Vs Superman flick to relaunch both. The most interesting possibility though was Requiem For A Dream’s Darren Aronofsky directing a doubtlessly intense and blood-splattered adaptation of Batman: Year One starring… Christian Bale.

Z is for Zimmer, Hans

The German synth maestro – along side composer James Newton Howard – created a masterpiece in restrained heroics to perfectly match the subdued complexity of Nolan’s hero, later creating a jarringly atonal suite for the Joker by scraping a razorblade along the instruments’ strings to conjure those unsettling sounds. It’s up there with his other personal highlights, the theme tune for Going For Gold.

Source : ign[dot]com

E3 2012: The Amazing Spider-Man Game Tied to the Symbiote, Doc Ock

IGN brought you a deep dive and exclusive trailer for The Amazing Spider-Man earlier today, but we also updated our Spidey Wiki with a Scorpion bio from Activision. It's pretty normal stuff talking about his tail and claw, but the character's origin is fascinating.

"...Oscorp physicist Dr. Otto Octavius dug into Curt Connors’ research as quickly as it became available to him. Not satisfied with simply infusing human DNA into a highly venomous black fat-tailed scorpion, Octavius also threw in a touch of a mysterious, organic “black goo” of unknown origin, which Oscorp had recently retrieved from one of the company’s fallen satellites in secret. The result was Scorpion..."

Not only does Doc Ock exist in this universe, but so does this "black goo," which has to be the symbiote that goes on to become Venom in common Spider-Man lore. What makes this so interesting is that Amazing Spider-Man Producer Doug Heder talked extensively on Up at Noon about how Marvel and the movie folks had to approve everything in the game and that the game had to stay away from villains Sony Pictures might have plans for. So even though the Activision bio reads "This bio is intended only as back story. Neither Dr. Otto Octavius nor the “black goo” appear in the film The Amazing Spider-Man or its videogame," it's establishing a world. It's canon

Basically, the game could be establishing the fiction for the sequel to The Amazing Spider-Man movie, and that fiction now includes Doc Ock and the symbiote in some fashion.

Source : http://www.ign.com/articles/2012/06/04/e3-2012-the-amazing-spider-man-game-tied-to-the-symbiote-doc-ock

E3 2012: The New Spider-Man Game Looks Amazing

I've been burned by Spider-Man games before, but The Amazing Spider-Man game Beenox is working on looks, well, amazing. And is all starts with web-slinging. The camera's tighter on Spidey as he swings through the open world New York so you really feel the buildings zoom by, the costume bursts with color, and the way he twirls and tumbles through the air is a stage show in itself.

I have no idea what the overarching story will be for The Amazing Spider-Man, but I don't care. I just want to swing.

Now, this is a movie tie-in game, but so was Spider-Man 2 and everyone loved that title. Rather than retell the flick, The Amazing Spider-Man picks up days after the end of the movie and gives Peter Parker a run for his money with villains such as Rhino and Scorpion (revealed in the exclusive trailer embedded in Up at Noon above). As this is occurring in the movie universe, Beenox is trying to ground the characters in reality and give them outfits that fit the world (hence why Black Cat looks like a real cat burglar in the trailer).

But I'm getting off track. Playing The Amazing Spider-Man is where it really shines. People flipped when Beenox’s Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions and Spider-Man: Edge of Time didn't feature an open world. This time Beenox is unleashing Spider-Man, giving the developer a chance to have Spider-Man swing around New York -- and like I said, it's awesome, but there's more to it than that.

The camera puts you right on Spidey's back, but the moves at your disposal also make you a smarter Spider-Man. You know how in these games you take Spider-Man to the top of the Empire State building and then try to get on the tip of the antenna but inevitably Spider-Man wigs out on the way up or the camera shifts and you start walking the wrong way? How Spider-Man looks like a bumbling idiot trying to get to the tip of a flagpole? Web Rush does away with that.

With Web Rush, time slows down and we get to see possible points Mr. Parker can zoom to -- traffic lights, water reservoirs and more all light up on the screen. You just pick one and Spider-Man shoots over to it. It's an elegant solution to navigating New York like the superhero we all know.

 

And there's a lot of ground to cover in NYC. Comic book collectables are all over the place, and Peter's smartphone acts as the navigation system and calls out the side missions such as police chases and helicopters in need of assistance. Story missions pop up here, too, but the only one I saw was a fight with Rhino. You dodge him when your Spider-Sense goes off. It's not that different from every other Rhino fight in a Spider-Man game except it looks cooler.

However, Spider-Sense isn't the same old thing -- at least in hand-to-hand combat. This time around, it's a lot like the Dark Knight's reversal system in Batman: Arkham Asylum and Arkham City. When an enemy is about to attack, the sense goes off and Spider-Man has the chance to reverse the move. Just like the Arkham games, it's intuitive and made me feel like a badass.

Swinger.

The one combat red flag? Guns. I know Spider-Man shouldn't be running headlong into gun fights, but after I got the feel of combat, that's what I ended up doing and getting decimated. It was frustrating, but I'm pretty sure it's user error. I didn't get a real tutorial for this part, so I was trying to apply the same ideas to a different situation. I'm giving Beenox the benefit of the doubt that -- just like Batman: Arkham Asylum's combat -- I should've been attacking from the shadows or an elevated position.

So, yeah, The Amazing Spider-Man is slick. There could be a bit more detail in some of the environments, it's a bummer the movie cast isn't doing the voices, and who knows about the quality of the story, but I'm still really excited. Tentatively excited. I remember Spider-Man: Edge of Time.

Source : http://www.ign.com/articles/2012/06/04/e3-2012-the-new-spider-man-game-looks-amazing

The Amazing Spider-man Looks... Amazing

IGN saw exclusive preview of footage from one of this summer's most anticipated blockbusters, The Amazing Spider-Man, at Kapow Comic-con in London.

Sony Entertainment introduced the sneak peek at the new Spider-Man movie as an exclusive look at 'some of the best 3D' it had ever seen, and they weren't far wrong judging by the four minutes we saw. The action takes pace in sewers, across skylines and is focused heavily around a bridge.

But there is also plenty of humour to back up the action. A cute scene involves Gwen Stacy (Emma Stone) and Peter Parker's (Andrew Garfield) encounter by the school lockers, set to a Coldplay soundtrack, in which he flirts with her with excruciating shyness. The love interest arc should be convincing as this is from the director that brought us the 'anti-rom-com' 500 Days of Summer - the aptly named Marc Webb. But the best humour comes from Spidey's sheer delight at his new found powers as he takes on a tooled-up thief - "oh no - is that a knife? Please say that isn't a knife!" - pulling some nifty moves with his web-shooters as he 'snots' out webbing, mimes some baseball pitching moves and then adds some cowboy finesse to his arsenal.

Rhys Ifans looks politely menacing as Dr Curt Connors who, when given Parker's scientific formula turns himself into The Lizard: "I created him!" says Peter to a distraught Gwen who pleads with him not to leave her. The Lizard, although big and stocky compared to the lithe Spider-man, can still chase our hero across a ceiling or two.

By all accounts 2012's Spider-man is very promising, and with sharp writing, a hugely talented lead (we'd take Garfield over Maguire any day), top notch 3D, and a convincing romance, this is definitely a summer blockbuster you will want to 'catch'.

Source : http://www.ign.com/articles/2012/05/20/the-amazing-spider-man-looks-amazing