Mark of the Spider-Man: New York City

UPDATE: The MTV video is out, and my interview is in it! Woo!

Okay guys, I just went to one of the most exciting things I've ever been a part of! I managed to make it down to NYC for the mission this weekend, and I gotta say, it was worth it!

Firstly, we met at a toy shop specified in a phone call to that cell phone I mentioned in my last post. It was also specified that we wear the hoodies. Once there, we were assigned roles in the mission to come, that mission being to spread the word of Spider-Man by spreading the mark, as seen on the hoodies, and at this point, around New York.

So we all piled into a van, which brought us to 4 different locations. At each one, we used a stencil to spraypaint a giant spider symbol onto the wall, while other people handed out little cards with a QR code that points to Mark of the Spider-Man

The people running the event were really awesome, making sure we got the job done and took tons of pictures and whatnot. Everyone who showed up was really nice, and we all had a fun time posting for pictures and yelling about Spider-Man.

An online journalist (Josh Wigler) for the MTV Splash Page got a lot of footage, including interviews with a few of us.

At the end, we all got t-shirts with the same logo as the hoodies, and little painted things signed by Mark Webb, the director of Amazing Spider-Man.

I know I'm hanging that on my wall when I get home.

At any rate, I know I had fun, and if there's any further viral marketing type things with this movie, I'd be very likely to be a part of it again. I mean, really, they made me doing a bunch of work for them seem like a fun rebellious time. If any videos pop up, I'll be sure to post them here. So until next time, this is the W Defender!

Amazing Spider-Man ARG Campaign

Well guys, the ARG-type thing for the new Amazing Spider-Man, called Mark of the Spider-Man, is in high gear. First a site was released, then a twitter, which sent people to coordinates of hidden backpacks full of goodies.

Now each major city has a twitter feed, sending out the locations of different packages, that must be retrieved with a password.  My sister got herself one of the 5 packages in NYC, so let's see what's inside.

First we have the backpack itself, which really doesn't have much to it.

Inside were two Spider-Man hoodies, inside one of which was a secret message, giving further instructions.

And last but not least, a phone, which also seems pretty low key, but it's probably the most important part of them all, because that's how one can get instructions as to the operation at hand.

This whole thing is really exciting, and I'm glad to at least have a spectator seat in the proceedings! I'll update my twitter, to the left over there with any important updates. Keeping you posted, this is the W Defender!

Amazing Spider-Man: New Trailer

Holy shit guys I just saw the newest Amazing Spider-Man trailer.



It looks amazing. And I mean that sincerely. Let's look at it play-by-play.

0:22-0:24; Yes, that is a mechanical webshooter. YES A MECHANICAL WEBSHOOTER!! Things are looking up already.

0:33-0:40; This is probably the brightest spot in the trailer for me. He quips! He actually quips! I mean, there's no evidence that he keeps this up for the rest of the movie, but dammit, I want to believe! That's the only way to keep this movie from being too Grimdark.

After that, we get general clips of his parents and something hidden from him, which looks to me to be Ultimate influenced. Honestly, I'm all for that, as long as it doesn't bog the movie down too much and it's still about Peter. You can see Curt Conners and his transformation into the Lizard, from what looks like Peter's contribution to the formula. This will really help the "Responsibility" theme that's sure to be present, since Peter actually will be, in a sense, responsible.

Then we cut to scenes of cops trying to take down Spider-Man. This, although it might seem like too dark a turn, I am actually for. Again, it's Ultimate influenced, but as far back as the Stan Lee written stuff, the cops have been trying to arrest Spider-Man. The situation can be dire like that, as long as Peter still has a light at the end of that tunnel. I wrote about this earlier in my Spider-Man tribute post, that it's not about how dark things get around him, it's how he doesn't succumb to it. If the filmmakers had that in mind, then this storyline is sure to pay off well.

What I really like is that we see physical evidence of Peter being smart. In the other movies, it was really just implied that he was smart, what with the college and all. In this one though, we've got the webshooters he actually creates, and that cliche big chalkboard scene. This is indicative of his character, I hope, and assuages some fears I had from earlier trailers. Before, it looked like he was just a loser skateboarder, instead of a loser nerd. Now, from this we can see he's not the stereotypical pocket-protector nerd, but he's still got intelligence that actually helps him as he goes into superheroics.

Also, though this is more technical than story-oriented, the film is in 3D, but they filmed it in 3D, so we won't get the usual washed out colors you get with films that were post-translated into 3D. Compare: Cameron's Avatar to Shyamalan's The Last Airbender. So I don't expect any detriments caused by the 3D.

All in all, I am excited. This trailer did was it was supposed to do, and make me really want to see this movie. Of course, I must note that I've been fooled by a trailer before. Specifically, the one from Spider-Man 3. I'm sure if they made the same movie that trailer portrayed, it actually would've been good. So though I'm a bit cautious, most of what I feel for this movie right now is excited enthusiasm.