With less than a week left before the July 3^rd premiere of Marc Webb’s The Amazing Spider-Man, the hype and hysteria caused by the Marvel web-slinger is being continually fueled by new sneak peeks and teaser information about the film itself. Most recently, they released two 7-minute videos of behind-the-scene footage, in which the directors and cast discuss the characters, the effects, the story, and much more!

So, where to start?

What’s really striking me in these videos is how Webb has managed to set this movie apart from Sam Raimi’s trilogy, the last of which was released only five years ago. It’s clearly set solidly in high school, with Andrew Garfield portraying a younger-spirited, rougher Peter Parker than Tobey Maguire was able to pull off. It has some familiar elements, but as Marc Webb stated in his Huffington post interview, “Going back to the beginning, we’ve seen the origin of Spider-Man, but we haven’t seen the origin of Peter Parker.” And this video certainly acknowledges that attention, with there being more of a focus on Peter’s lost parents and his quest to find answers about them.

Which leads us to the villain of the story: Dr. Curt Conner, who turns into The Lizard after a botched experiment. Again, it’s refreshing that Webb’s chosen to feature a villain that hasn’t been seen in the other versions. Plus, with The Lizard, there’s always the possibility of a gray area of good vs. evil, what with him being a human mutation and all. I mean, who doesn’t like a little moral ambiguity?

And of course, you can’t help but be excited at the prospect of Emma Stone playing Gwen Stacy. Though for anyone who knows her fate in the comics, I’m wondering whether they will allude to that in this film, or hold out for a sequel storyline. Webb is deliberately vague about that in his interview, though he admits to being a “huge fan of the Gwen Stacy saga in the comics,” calling it “one of the more interesting and controversial storylines…in Spider-Man and really in all comics.”

So, after watching these new featurettes, what do you think of Webb’s take on the story? Any ideas of what might be in store for Peter and Gwen in the new film? And how about the CGI work on that lizard!?

With the excitement mounting all the time for Spider-Man…let the countdown continue!