The Internet is good for many things. Great feats of nerdom is one of them. Also movie spoilers.
In response to the U.S. release of The Amazing Spider-man next week, somebody has taken all of the clips that Sony has released and has put them together chronologically. Apparently in total, Sony released 25 minutes of the film, which is a huge chunk of its 136-minute running time.
Besides the fact that whoever did this spends way too much time on the Internet, it also did a pretty good job. It’s so complete that it’s almost like I don’t need to dish out $12 to see it in theaters.
Note that this video does contain spoilers for the film.
This abridged version of the film has gone so viral that Sony has now been scrambling to take down the footage that they released. I guess they realized their mistake about a few months too late.
I understand certain movie studios releasing tons of footage. Some films could actually use all of that padding to get people into the theaters. Many people have been skeptical about The Amazing Spider-man since it was announced back in 2010 as a reboot of the franchise built by Sam Raimi. The Internet said that it was unnecessary, and it would probably be terrible, especially after coming off of the vomit-inducing disaster that was Spider-Man 3. Sony probably wanted to release a bunch of footage in order to prove itself to both casual movie-goers and fans of the comics.
As part of the latter, I was definitely wary. I liked the cast, and I love the Lizard, and most important, I hated the original trilogy.
Tobey Maguire was not Peter Parker or Spider-Man, and Venom… oh god Venom… Excuse me for a minute. I need to rage.
However, the new film looked more brooding and angst-driven, probably trying to cash-in on teen audiences. It didn’t look that much better than Spider-Man 3- I mean that other movie that should not be named.
Sony can put fears to rest by releasing specific clips. “Oh look how cool the Lizard looks,” they’d say. Or what about “Here’s a clip of Spider-Man actually being snarky. That’s what you wanted, right? A sarcastic, Spider-Man?” Actually yes, Sony.
This isn’t a new practice, especially in a world that does not like being surprised. The Internet is filled with leaks, spoilers, and rumors for a reason, and the movie studios have to cater to that audience.
The reviews are already coming in for the film, but we’ll have to wait to see if it can live up to the 25-minute version, or rather, if it’ll be any good at all.