Amazing Spider-Man trailers scale new heights

Columbia Pictures has released two new videos depicting Rhys Ifans in his role as Curt Connors in The Amazing Spider-Man.

These are a follow-up to the video’s released earlier this month, and continue the in-canon story presented there.

Curt Connors, in the comics and in this film, is the scientist who turns himself into a man-sized reptile – called ‘The Lizard’ – while attempting to use reptile DNA to grow back his lost arm. In the comics, Spider-Man fights him on several occasions, where he appears as a brute, mindless fighter in scales and a tattered lab coat. In some versions, his transformation is temporary but addictive, like a Jekyll and Hyde situation.

Here he’s clearly already used the drug on himself, and is feeling some serious side-effects:

I’m still hoping this will lead us to a closer look at The Lizard character in dialogue, something which has been strangely absent from all of the teasers and trailers and promos thus far. Perhaps it’s just that Connors doesn’t say anything while in Lizard form, but that seems unlikely, chatting with the villains sarcastically during the fight is a big part of Spider-Man’s schtick, so it would be weird to have a non-speaking villain. We haven’t even really gotten a good look at him transformed at all, as everything we’ve watched thus far was shot from the rear or in the shadows.

Here’s the theatrical trailer for the film:

and the official synopsis:

The Amazing Spider-Man is the story of Peter Parker (Andrew Garfield), an outcast high schooler who was abandoned by his parents as a boy, leaving him to be raised by his Uncle Ben (Martin Sheen) and Aunt May (Sally Field). Like most teenagers, Peter is trying to figure out who he is and how he got to be the person he is today. Peter is also finding his way with his first high school crush, Gwen Stacy (Emma Stone), and together, they struggle with love, commitment, and secrets. As Peter discovers a mysterious briefcase that belonged to his father, he begins a quest to understand his parents’ disappearance – leading him directly to Oscorp and the lab of Dr. Curt Connors (Rhys Ifans), his father’s former partner. As Spider-Man is set on a collision course with Connors’ alter-ego, The Lizard, Peter will make life-altering choices to use his powers and shape his destiny to become a hero.

The Amazing Spider-Man hits theaters July 3rd, 2012.