You can take home the latest “Spidey” movie. Kidzworld gives you the deets on The Amazing Spider Man Blu-ray and DVD!
By: Lynn Barker
What does a cute high school science nerd guy do when bitten by a genetically-engineered spider? Go after the bad guys and land the girl of his dreams of course!
Story Goes: In this reimagining of the Spider-Man legend, after feeling abandoned by his scientist parents as a kid, Peter Parker (Andrew Garfield) has grown up with kindly Uncle Ben (Martin Sheen) and Aunt May (Sally Field). Ever curious about his father’s work, when Peter finds dad’s old briefcase full of secret papers, he’s led to the Oscorp research lab of Dr. Curt Connors (Rhys Ifans) who is working on a project to re-grow limbs (since he is one-armed, it’s kinda personal for him).
Andrew's ceiling stunt
Peter gets bitten by a weird test spider and gains his spidey powers all while Doc Connors tries his formula on himself and ends up a giant lizard threatening NYC! It’s up to Peter and his equally-smart science hottie girlfriend Gwen Stacy (Andrew’s real-life galpal Emma Stone) to stop the Connors/lizard before the whole city is transformed into lizard central!
Special Features: Wow! Lots of good ones!
On Disc One we get:
“Audio Commentary” with Director Marc Webb and Producers Avi Arad and Matt Tolmach who talk Spidey origin and what makes him tick as well as how the actors brought the characters to life. They also talk cut scenes, re-booting the series with a new actor etc. More interesting than most of these.
“Second Screen Experience / What is The Amazing Spider-Man Second Screen Experience?” This is an App for i-Pads and Sony tablets that lets you interact with the film while it’s on. Your Blu-ray player has to have a wireless connection to the tablet. I think many of the same production notes, effects shot breakdowns, computer models etc. are available elsewhere in this set but if you like this sort of thing.. go for it!
Andrew and Emma get cozy
Disc Two contains:
“Rite of Passage: The Amazing Spider-Man Reborn” is a pretty awesome, seven-part making-of documentary. The sections are discussed below:
“The Drawing Board: Development and Direction” features actors and filmmakers talking about re-thinking the Spidey legend from the old comics and moving on from the Sam Raimi/Tobey Maguire films to introduce Spidey to a new generation. Andrew Garfield is very serious about paying homage to his fave comic book hero.
“Friends and Enemies: Casting” features the cast and crew on assembling the very cool group of actors for the film including comments from Andrew Garfield (who thought he didn’t have a chance to get the role), Rhys Ifans, Emma Stone, Dennis Leary, Sally Field, and Martin Sheen. There are some clips of the actors’ rehearsing as well. Cool but more would be nice.
“Second Skins: Spidey Suit and The Lizard” is super great if you are into costuming and spfx make-up! We see how cool actor Rhys Ifans got turned into the Lizard. You see Andrew on his first day in the suit as a more lean and sporty Spidey! Prop-wise, we see the mechanical web slinging shooters. Emma talks about how excited she was to see Andrew in the suit.. (I’ll bet!)
The Lizard finds Gwen!
“Spidey Goes West: Production in Los Angeles” shows the first day of production when Peter Parker falls through the ceiling onto a wrestling ring. Lots about stunts and we see Andrew Garfield doing his own dangerous stunts along with the stuntmen. Emma Stone gets thrown out a window. Pretty cool to watch.
“Safe Haven: Production - Sony Studios” continues the action stuff with the Lizard on the bridge scene and Spidey rescues the kid in the car. More stuff in the Oscorp labs etc. Again we see that Andrew did a lot of the stunts. Cool behind-the-scenes on set stuff!
“Bright Tights, Big City: Production - New York” is kind of a “selling” feature about how cool it is to shoot in New York.
“The Greatest Responsibility - Post Production and Release” wraps it all up with editing the movie and getting it ready for release including James Horner’s cool music getting recorded and a lot on the CGI digital effects from the Lizard to Spidey swinging from cranes. I really liked this featurette since effects and music had so much to do with making the film work. Andrew says he hopes Spider-Man can be happier in the next movie.
“Deleted Scenes” are actually worth watching. Several scenes with Dr. Connors let us see him more human before turning into Lizard. Very well done. We even learn that Connors had a young son.. whose scene was just cut out! Peter and Gwen go on a cool date as well.
Andrew and Emma on set
“Pre-Visualization” contains great storyboards both drawn and animated for some of the major scenes. All with music.
“The Oscorp Archives Production Art Gallery” lets you thumb through some pretty impressive artwork on Spidey, his suit and tools, The Lizard and some production design.
“Image Progression Reels” are fun to watch if you are into doing effects on computer. We see how a scene is built step by step.
“Stunt Rehearsals” is pretty funny as we see the stuntmen blocking out several fights. They are wearing sweats etc. Cool to see the choreography.
Classic Spidey pose
Wrapping Up:
The Amazing Spider-Man is a very entertaining movie. It’s got romance (the lead actors really fell in love and it shows), tons of cool action, a good story and great actors! This Blu-ray/DVD/Ultraviolet set is the way to go. You can interact on your tablet or online as well as be entertained by a ton of detailed behind-the-scenes features with actors and filmmakers. This is one of the best home entertainment sets we’ve seen on a movie in a while. It gets 5 stars.
The Amazing Spider-Man cover art
The Amazing Spider-Man Blu-ray + DVD:
