I got an early peek at “The Amazing Spider-Man” today, thanks to a preview event organized by the studio. Along with showing off the trailer that debuts tonight (I got to see it in 3D, and it actually looked pretty good), the studio also brought out a sizzle reel of some still-in-progress footage from the film.

Oh, and Peter Parker himself (Andrew Garfield) dropped by for a little while. So yeah, that happened…

I covered the event for IFC this time around, and here’s an excerpt from my report:

As for the trailer itself, we get to see some great scenes of Peter Parker (both as Spider-Man and out of costume) swinging around New York City and interacting with Gwen Stacy (Emma Stone), as well as some shots of Peter in a makeshift laboratory of sorts, working on his web shooters. This was one of the major reveals of the trailer, with very clear confirmation that Spider-Man will be using mechanical web-shooters of his own design. The shooters feature a glowing, red, circular symbol in their center, and appear to “charge up” as he delivers webbing.

During the trailer, we see Peter working on the web-shooters in his lab, and there are a number of shots in which the red glow of the shooters is visible during action scenes. Near the end of the trailer, there’s a close-up shot of the shooters being “charged” before Spider-Man swings into view.

You can read the rest of the report at IFC.com…

Oh, and keep an eye out for more coverage, as I have a few cool lists rolling out soon that break down more of the highlights of the event.

If you’ve been following my work over the past few months, you might remember that I did a fun piece on Inside the Hammer Vault, a hardcover book that offers a look at some of the cool stuff in the Hammer Films archives and a great little history lesson about the legendary studio. As part of IFC’s coverage of “The Woman in Black,” I also wrote up a list of the five Hammer Films movies that are must-see material for anyone who wants to know what all the fuss is about when it comes to Hammer Films.

Here’s an excerpt from the list:

“The Plague of the Zombies” (1966)

Several years before George Romero put his stamp on zombie cinema, Hammer Films released this bizarre film that clearly influenced the work of Romero and many subsequent undead-friendly filmmakers. Rather than present the zombies as barely moving, minimal threats, “The Plague of Zombies” had them chasing down victims and wreaking some serious havoc on the living. While the notion of brain-munching hadn’t entered the zombie scene yet, director John Gilling took big steps in this film toward making the cinematic version of zombies closer to what it is today.

You can read the rest of the list at IFC.com…

Oh, and just in case you missed it, make sure to check out my review of “The Woman in Black.”

Here’s an excerpt from my review:

As for Radcliffe, the 22-year-old actor has clearly come a long way from his boy-wizard days, though modern audiences might have trouble believing him in the three-part role as father, widower, and attorney. Of course, in the late 19th century when the film is set, both Radcliffe and his character would’ve likely been far along in building both their family and careers at that age.

As Kipps, Radcliffe delivers a safe (though not especially memorable) performance, moving through each stage of the mystery at the proper pace and reacting to both natural and supernatural elements with the sort of skill that one develops from doing eight effects-heavy projects like the Harry Potter films in a ten-year span. If there’s a complaint to be made about Radcliffe’s part in The Woman In Black, it’s that Kipps is almost too comfortable with the events transpiring around him, and rarely seems to register the sort of shock and abject terror that you’d expect under the circumstances.

You can read the rest of the review at Digital Trends…

“Chronicle” arrives in theaters this weekend, and though I’m still working on my review (which will be posted here), I did have time to write up this list for IFC. The idea for the list came from the countless times I’ve had to tell people that certain movies were not in fact based on comic books.

Here’s an excerpt from the article, in which I discuss one of my favorite superhero movies that wasn’t adapted from a comic:

“Unbreakable” (2006)

Director M. Night Shyamalan’s criminally under-appreciated 2000 film was years ahead of the “dark superhero movie” trend, and told the story of a man named David Dunn (played by Bruce Willis) who discovers that he is, well… unbreakable. A modern-day superhero who doesn’t quite know what to do with his power, he sets out to do good, but finds that doing so is more difficult than the comics make it seem. Assisted by his comics-loving son and shop owner Elijah Price (Samuel L. Jackson), David begins the path toward superhero status — but as anyone who knows comics will tell you, every hero has an arch enemy.

You can read the full article at IFC.com…