We're in the home stretch now, with only a few weeks left until "The Amazing Spider-Man" arrives in theaters.

The film screened late last week for people doing interviews at the New York press day, and I assume we'll see it here in LA in the very near future.  I'm looking forward to it, and to make sure I don't carry the Raimi movies into the theater with me, I've made sure not to re-watch them or refer to them at all.  The last time I saw any of them was when "Spider-Man 3" was released, and at this point, I've got my general impressions of them, but that's about it.  Whatever Marc Webb and his cast and crew have done here, I'm going to judge it as its own film.

This is, of course, a key moment for Sony Pictures.  They've got a lot riding on this film.  In order to remain in the Spider-Man business, they need to keep producing films at a certain pace, and they are gambling big here by rebooting.  They had a proven creative team and a well-liked cast in place, so scrubbing all of that and starting over is about as risky as making a Spider-Man movie can be at this point.  Sure, the character is well-known around the world, and ultimately, the character is what they're selling, but if this is going to work, all the moving pieces have to come together.

For example, the chemistry between Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone is crucial.  This first clip that we've got for you today is all about the interplay and the tension between them, and I'd say there's a spark there…
 

 

I've said before that for me, the thing that this version of the character could do that would distinguish it clearly from the Raimi films is finally giving us the motormouth version of Peter Parker, the one who uses jokes to mask his own fear in fights and also to distract bad guys.  Bendis did a great job writing that version of Spidey in the "Ultimate Spider-Man" comics, and based on this next clip. they're definitely trying to do that with this film.  I'm guessing this scene comes early on as he's still learning how to deal with his powers just based on the fairly rough web-swinging that's going on:


 

And, finally, what's a superhero film without a great bad guy?  People were eager to see Dylan Baker's version of Curt Connors eventually become the Lizard, and this time, they're starting out with him.  I've seen so little footage of him as The Lizard that it's hard to judge the performance or even the visual design.  Based on this last scene, though, it's obvious that they're tying to make him scary:
 

Sony has spared no expense on this film, and we'll see if that all pays off when "The Amazing Spider-Man" arrives in theaters everywhere on July 3, 2012.