In a conversation with USA Today, in anticipation of the world premiere of the film’s teaser tomorrow, the men behind The Amazing Spider-Man 2 talked up both Peter Parker’s psyche in the new film and Electro. In an acknowledgement of the first film’s sort of dark, somber tone, director Marc Webb said we can expect something a bit different this time. Webb wants us to savor the more fun aspects of being Peter Parker.

“That’s going to be a side of him you’ll want to relish. This time, there’s a jollity we’ve really embraced.“

When the conversation turns to the film’s “big bad,” both Webb and star Andrew Garfield, shared some insight on the character’s portrayal. “Electro is a god in terms of the power that he wields. To be faced with that creates a whole host of problems, obstacles and drama,” says Garfield. Webb talked a bit about the scope of character and what he means to the story when he said, “We wanted some theatricality for this villain. What makes him interesting is the really ironic evolution of the character. He starts off as Spider-Man’s biggest fan and ends up being Spider-Man’s biggest foe.” (MFR’s Two Cents: Jesus, he really is Edward Nygma from Batman Forever.)

The director continued, “I wanted to create something operatic, something huge. And if anything, this film is about the greatest battle Spider-Man’s ever had to face. You’ll understand and feel the intensity and the overwhelming nature of the obstacles in Spider-Man’s path.“

On the character’s interesting, “electrified” look, Webb explained how they want about creating it: “We shot his exterior and then created a glowing light source that is buried deep within his core that exudes and generates electric light. If you look at a cloud when a thunderstorm is coming and the lightning is within that cloud, we use that as a natural inspiration for the character.“

Garfield opened up a bit about one of the big thematic elements in the movie. “Our story deals a lot in choice. The power that you attain as a human being, it is your choice about what to do with it. And what’s great about Spider-Man is he went from having no power, and the idea that absolute power corrupts absolutely, that is an incredibly rich idea to explore,” said the British actor.

It’s clear that there are high ambitions for this movie, and the men behind it are very excited about the project. Will their excitement and big ideas be enough to win over fans that are worried about how campy and- to borrow a word from Webb himself- “operatic” the movie has looked so far?

SOURCE: USA Today